Is Mick Schumacher on Cadillac's F1 List for 2026?
Jul.6 - Mick Schumacher really could be in the running for a return to the Formula 1 grid next year.
Ever since the son of F1 legend Michael Schumacher lost his race seat at Haas at the end of 2022, he has never ruled out making a comeback.
However, even Schumacher's two-year stint as Mercedes' reserve driver ended late last year, and the 26-year-old has been focusing full-time on the WEC with Alpine.
The German, though, was back in the F1 paddock both in Austria last weekend and again at Silverstone for the British GP.
At Silverstone, he is accompanied by his new and well-known advisor Dirk Muller - and also in the paddock are Cadillac bosses Dan Towriss and team principal Graeme Lowdon.
Multiple other drivers, including Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez, are also strongly linked with the new-in-2026 eleventh Formula 1 team.
Lowdon admitted to Sky Deutschland that among his duties this weekend are driver talks.
"We're very busy," he said. "It's not often that a new Formula 1 team joins the grid.
"Everything is new. The biggest challenge is building a team. We're now two-thirds of the way there in terms of all the people we need for Melbourne, and the car is on schedule."
Lowdon tried to fend off the driver question.
"Hopefully, the fans will forgive us for focusing on the car for now - because if there's no car, there are no drivers," he said.
"But the situation is pretty good for us at the moment. There are a lot of good drivers available. I think we'll see some movement in the driver market soon."
While, elsewhere in the paddock, CEO Towriss admitted that Bottas is an option for 2026, Lowdon was asked specifically about Schumacher.
"Mick is great," he said. "He's a very nice guy - I like him a lot. And I've gotten to know him better now.
"He's still young, but he already has Formula 1 experience. Sure, that was a while ago, but he's kept himself up to date. He's also done some tests and is showing great interest in our project.
"We really like that. We like that a lot," Lowdon admitted.
When asked for his own take on the situation, Schumacher admitted he is having "a few conversations" this weekend.
"There's no news yet regarding Formula 1, but that's still the big goal," said the German. "We're working toward that."
Schumacher attended Cadillac's team launch event in Miami two months ago.
"He's no stranger to the team," Lowdon admitted. "He knows where we stand.
"There are only positive things to say about Mick. He's clearly one of the drivers on the list. I should also note that the list is quite long," he smiled.
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More or less all big sites stopped speculating about him a little while ago, so I don't get what makes some still think he'd have a concrete chance when the reality is different.
Simply too many comparatively better options for him to jump every single one of them, especially after a lengthy period away, which is excessive for any driver without vast F1 racing experience & any sporting success in the series.
Getting overlooked by several teams for a full-time drive isn't a mere coincidence either, hence, Cadillac is unlikely to be any different in this regard, with the added impact coming from Jak Crawford who has a perfect chance to reach super license eligibility this year, meaning people shouldn't count him out for a 2026 drive alongside either Perez or Bottas.
All in all, to be fully blunt, he doesn't bring anything to the table, sporting or external factor-wise, the likes of Perez, Bottas, Zhou, & Tsunoda couldn't bring, so zero argument exists in favor of hiring him.
All the above factors speak volumes about how non-existent or low his chances truly are, & ultimately, he doesn't have any more chance than, for example, Gio, Vandoorne, or Kvyat, yet no one tries to speculatively push for them.
This seemingly never-ending push for him by third parties simply got redundant & boring some time ago, with Cadillac's first lineup in all realism being anything from the following, be that Perez-Bottas, Perez/Bottas-Zhou/Tsunoda, Perez/Bottas-Crawford/some of Cadillac's super license-holding drivers in WEC, or even Zhou-Tsunoda.
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