Ralf Schumacher criticises Marko: He has a problem with the family name

Ralf Schumacher believes that Helmut Marko "has a problem" with the family name after Mick Schumacher was denied an AlphaTauri Formula 1 seat.

Mick Schumacher was left without a seat for the 2023 season and took a role as reserve driver with the Mercedes team, and would likely be available for substitute driver roles at the Mercedes-powered F1 teams.

With AlphaTauri needing to fill a seat for 2023 after the departure of Pierre Gasly, Schumacher was linked with a seat at AlphaTauri, but the Red Bull-backed team opted instead for Nyck de Vries.

Mick Schumacher's uncle, ex-F1 driver Ralf, believes that Marko had "personal reasons" for not choosing the 24-year-old.

“Franz Tost, as the team manager and team principal, initially wanted a different driver because he knows that it takes two to three years [for drivers to acclimatise to F1],” Schumacher told German publication Formel1.

“The driver available on the market was Mick, and Mick would have made sense.

“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.”

Schumacher surprised by Marko 'problem'

At AlphaTauri, Yuki Tsunoda has finally started to impress with his pace in 2023, but de Vries is facing early pressure after a slow start, further impacted by incident.

When asked for his verdict on Mick's chances of a seat at AlphaTauri, Ralf said that Marko had the "problem" with Mick joining the team.

"It seems that Helmut Marko has a problem with the Schumacher name," Schumacher added.

“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.”