Mick Schumacher’s famous uncle has played down suggestions the former Haas driver might resurrect his Formula 1 race career with Audi.
With Nico Hulkenberg now confirmed in one Audi-owned Sauber cockpit for the 2025 season and beyond, the candidates to become his teammate are now adding up.
The favourite appears to be Ferrari refugee Carlos Sainz, with Red Bull team advisor Dr Helmut Marko declaring recently that he cannot compete with the big-money offer offered by Audi.
Andreas Seidl, who is overseeing Sauber’s transition to the full works Audi project, denied Sainz is being wooed with the offer of "huge sums of money".
"Our approach is clearly not to motivate drivers or other employees to come to us with huge sums of money," he told Auto Motor und Sport.
"We basically have the financial means of a top team, but we really think about how we can use every franc or euro sensibly and efficiently. We want to attract people who want to be part of this journey and accompany Audi’s entry into Formula 1."
25-year-old Schumacher, currently a Mercedes reserve driver and a key member of Alpine’s Le Mans program, would seem to fit the bill perfectly for Audi - completing an all-German lineup without costing the outfit too much.
"It makes sense to have at least one experienced driver because we have to tackle many challenges at once," Seidl said. "So it could be two experienced drivers or one with experience and a strong rookie.
"We are continuing to have discussions, monitoring the market, and of course monitoring the performance of Zhou (Guanyu) and Valtteri (Bottas)."
But even Ralf Schumacher, a famous former F1 driver and Mick’s uncle, doubts the former Haas driver is in the running for Audi-Sauber.
"Any Formula 1 opportunity that presents itself to Mick would of course be important and good," he told Sky Deutschland. "No question about it.
"But that is still a long way off. At the moment he is in very good hands at Alpine in the endurance series, he is doing a great job there, so we’ll wait and see."