Ecclestone questions Schumacher’s F1 career moves: ‘At Red Bull…’

Schumacher made his F1 debut with Haas in 2021 alongside Nikita Mazepin.

The German fared solidly in his debut year but his true level of performance was unclear given Mazepin's struggles.

In 2022, Schumacher was put against Kevin Magnussen, with the pair evenly-matched, on race day at least.

However, a number of high-profile crashes led to Haas to replace him with Nico Hulkenberg for 2023.

This left Schumacher without an F1 drive, joining Mercedes as a third driver.

Giving his opinion on Schumacher’s career trajectory, Ecclestone told RTL: “He has to fight, he has to stick with it and show that he is still in a position to deliver good performances.

“The people will then find him, and he doesn’t have to find the people who offer him the opportunity to race.

“In the best-case scenario, people will see him and say: We need him. And not the other way around: he is looking for someone who will take him in because of his name. He should forget his name and develop as a person.

“At Red Bull, for example, he would have been better understood, they would have helped him and led him up.”

Schumacher will spearhead Alpine’s hypercar programme in the World Endurance Championship in 2024.

That’s probably the only and best thing he can do at the moment,” Ecclestone added.

“It’s good that he can show himself, ideally with good performances. Then it could happen that those responsible in Formula 1 rethink and say: ‘Maybe we made a mistake. “We’ll try again.

“The difficult question is: How and when?”