Ralf Schumacher claims his nephew Mick was denied the chance to race for AlphaTauri this season because Helmut Marko has "some problem with the Schumacher name".
Having raced for Haas for two seasons, Schumacher was let go by the team at the end of last season. Though he had shown flashes of his true talent at times, the young German was in too many expensive crashes and did not score enough points to make up for it.
He is a reserve with Mercedes for this season while he waits to see what race seat opportunities might arise for 2024. But his uncle Ralf is not convinced the 24-year-old should have to be waiting for so long.
AlphaTauri was one of several other teams to change drivers, opting for Nyck de Vries to fill the void left by the departing Pierre Gasly. Head of the Red Bull driver development programme, Marko, played a major role in making that decision.
Speaking to Formel1.de, Schumacher explained his theory that AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost did not want De Vries but was overruled by his Red Bull colleague. "Tost, as the team manager and team principal, initially wanted a different driver because he knows that it takes two to three years [to adapt to F1]," he said.
"The driver available on the market was Mick. Mick would have made sense as well. But then Dr Helmut Marko came along and, for personal reasons or whatever it may be, didn't want that and chose Nyck de Vries instead."
The Dutchman has found life as an F1 driver difficult so far and is yet to score a point after five races. According to reports, Marko is already growing impatient with De Vries and is said to have given him just three more races to prove his worth.
Ralf admitted his surprise at that revelation and claimed there would be no chance of Mick being called in to replace him while Marko is still in charge of Red Bull's young drivers. He added: "It seems that Helmut Marko has a problem with the Schumacher name.
"Even though I have a good exchange with him personally, it seems he has some problem with Mick because, otherwise, it's not understandable to me why it didn't work out from the beginning.
"To be honest, I don't see anyone else in the squad who would fit in there at the moment – that's why I'm surprised by what Dr Helmut Marko is doing."
