Franz Tost said he wanted Mick Schumacher to drive for AlphaTauri this season – but he was overruled by Red Bull bosses who blocked the move.
Nyck de Vries joined the team this year to race alongside Yuki Tsunoda. But that outcome wasn't even Tost's backup plan for his driver line-up.
The Austrian wanted to keep Pierre Gasly at the team. When it became obvious that the Frenchman was set on a move to Alpine, his alternative strategy was to snap up Schumacher whose Haas future was uncertain.
But, Tost has revealed, he was prevented from making that happen by the top bosses at Red Bull who decided De Vries, who had enjoyed an eye-catching Formula 1 debut with Williams at Monza, was the man for the seat.
"It was like that, that Mick Schumacher didn't get a seat for this year," he told Formel1.de. "It was then open to us after this Pierre Gasly story came to light, because it was actually clear to me originally that that our driver pairing will be Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda.
"Then suddenly Pierre was headed to Alpine and that gave us a place [to fill]. Until Monza it was completely unclear who would be our driver. And then, logically, I thought of Mick Schumacher."
Tost communicated that desire to the Red Bull hierarchy, who make driver decisions for sister team AlphaTauri. He argued his belief that Schumacher "is much better than he is currently perceived [to be] by the outside world".
However, as he went on to say, his opinion that the German should be top choice was "rejected". Tost added: "We're driving with Nyck de Vries... and there's actually nothing more to discuss."
His words come after Ralf Schumacher, Mick's uncle, claimed his nephew was "blocked" from the seat by Helmut Marko. He also accused the head of Red Bull's youth development programme of having "a problem with the Schumacher name".
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."
