McLaren announces German prodigy as the reserve driver for the 2023 F1 season

McLaren have announced Mick Schumacher as the team's reserve driver for the 2023 F1 season. The Woking-based squad will be sharing these duties with Mercedes as the young German is also part of the latter in the same capacity.

Mick Schumacher spent two years in F1 with Haas from 2021-2022. While the young driver was able to show impressive improvement, it wasn't enough to convince the team to give him the seat for this season.

From that point onwards, Toto Wolff lent an olive branch to the young German. He signed him up to be the reserve driver for the team, a role that was previously held by Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries.

As it turns out, Mick Schumacher will not only be taking over the reserve driver duties for Mercedes but will also do it for McLaren.

Sharing the news on social media, the team made the announcement about Schumacher's arrival and wrote:

"McLaren will be able to call on @SchumacherMick as a reserve driver during the 2023 F1 season as part of our arrangement with Mercedes. Welcome to the family, Mick."

As shared on McLaren's account, team principal Andrea Stella used to work with Mick's father Michael Schumacher when he was at Ferrari as his performance engineer. He said:

"Full circle. McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella worked closely with Mick’s father, the legendary Michael Schumacher, as his Performance Engineer"

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What about McLaren's IndyCar squad?

The aforementioned announcement is probably going to incite a few drivers, especially the ones that are part of the team's academy. Drivers like Pato O'Ward, Alex Palou, and Colton Herta have had the F1 carrot dangled in front of them in the past as well. Even last season, there were rumors of a possible shootout between these drivers for Daniel Ricciardo's seat.

Out of the blue, Oscar Piastri emerged as the lead contender and snatched the seat from these drivers. There is logic to signing Mick Schumacher as well for the Woking-based squad. This is because the German brings more eyeballs and relevant F1 experience to the table.

Most importantly, however, what Mick brings is his availability. All three of Colton Herta, Pato O'Ward, and Alex Palou will be racing in the United States based on their IndyCar calendar. They will not be traveling to every race in the F1 calendar and certainly won't be in the paddock at every race.

However, Mick Schumacher will be and that's what makes him a viable candidate for the team.