You all seem to have forgotten the very first rule of Drive to Survive: IT IS NOT REAL, IT’S A DRAMATISATION OF EVENTS TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT.
Max Verstappen made a point to NOT be a part of this because he didn’t like the way the producers mess everything up and this includes the whole Haas and the way they appear to have picked their drivers.
The FDA waited until Russia to make their minds up over which of their three F1 ready juniors to pick (Mick, Callum and Robert), the decision came right after Mick won the Feature Race as it became clear that he was very much a favourite for the F2 title which would have worked wonders for Ferrari to justify picking the driver who always been their first choice, a no brainer really, getting a Schumacher back in F1 was a benefit not only for Ferrari but for the whole F1, as Domenicali has himself stated in a recent interview. They lucked out big time since by winning the F2 championship, Mick’s promotion to F1 was absolutely fully deserved, regardless of his last name.
After this choice, they had to figure out which of the two teams to place him. The choices were Alfa and Haas, Ferrari wanted Alfa, which is why Mick was placed there for the failed FP1 at the Eifel GP, but the FCA (the parent company which owns the Alfa Romeo Brand), wanted to keep an Italian driver on that Ferrari owned seat, so they kept Giovinazzi there, which also made Kimi happy since they’re good friends.
They entered negotiations with Steiner (please understand that Mick was NEVER involved personally in any of the negotiations, it was all between Haas and Ferrari, in fact, the contract Mick’s people negotiated and singed was not with Haas, it was with the FDA who are the ones loaning him to Haas, a bit like it happens in football teams, since the idea is that Mick should graduate in due time to Ferrari’s main team.
Steiner thought that they could keep Magnussen and pair him to rookie Mick, but Gene Haas insisted they found a pay driver to replace Magnussen too and that’s when contacts between the Mazepin and Haas started (initial meetings happened in Sochi) but the final decision was NOT taken until much later as it wasn’t certain whether Mazepin would get enough points for his super licence.
I would say that Uralkali entered a partnership with Haas right about the same time as Mick’s contract with the FDA and negotiations between the FDA and Haas were finalised; Mazepin was announced one day sooner out of courtesy, as his dad is the title sponsor, but make no mistake, Mick would have got a seat no matter what, even if Ferrari had to help out.
The 1&1 clip we saw, and the mock up of the suits showing the Uralkali sponsorship were entirely taken out of context because that definitely happened much later and the whole “needing a German driver” and “Schumacher is sellable and will get us 5mil more” were probably a scripted thing since Ferrari had already told Steiner they were getting Mick and Gene and Steiner all they could do was to accept that choice since it came with a lot of extra tech support from Maranello, which is worth a lot more than any sponsorship money.
So calm down people, DtS is as realistic as any of the issues Merc pretended to have during testing this year.
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