Mick Schumacher has not raced in F1 since 2022.

Helmut Marko finds it “incomprehensible” that Audi F1 would choose Valtteri Bottas over Mick Schumacher, the Red Bull adviser urging the team to give the Michael Schumacher’s son another chance in F1 2025.

With the exception of the two Red Bull-affiliated teams, Audi F1, who will take over the existing Sauber team in F1 2026, have the last remaining vacancy on the grid for next season.

Audi urged to give Mick Schumacher a chance in F1 2025

The team has an extended shortlist ranging from the current incumbents in Bottas and Zhou Guanyu to rookies such as Sauber junior Theo Pourchaire and McLaren’s F2 driver Gabriel Bortoleto. And then there’s Schumacher.

The 25-year-old, the son of seven-time F1 World Champion Michael, spent two years on the grid with Haas in 2021 and ’22 but failed to make his mark.

Although he was the better of the team’s two rookies in his first season, up against Kevin Magnussen in his second year he fell short with just two top-10 results and was unceremoniously dropped by then-team boss Guenther Steiner on the eve of the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Taking up a reserve driver role with Mercedes, this season Schumacher dovetailed that with a World Endurance Championship program with Alpine where he helped secure the first podium for the A424.

The team has made it clear they want him to stay on for a second season but that all depends on Audi F1 as Schumacher says returning to Formula 1 is still his priority.

Marko has urged Audi to take a chance on the 25-year-old.

“I think the Audi car will certainly not be a winning car next year,” the Red Bull motorsport adviser said in an interview with RTL/ntv and sport.de.

“That means there would have been no pressure on either Audi or the driver [Schumacher].

“It would be a good comparison with Nico Hulkenberg, and if his performance isn’t right, you can always make a change for 2026.”

According to some reports though, Audi F1 have already decided and will retain Valtteri Bottas for a fourth season in a one-year extension for what will be the final year under the Sauber banner before the team is rebranded as Audi F1.

Marko is baffled by that decision.

“I don’t know exactly, but if the situation is really that Valtteri Bottas gets the chance, then the whole thing is even more incomprehensible to me,” he said.

If the reports prove to be true, he reckons that’s the end of the F1 road for Schumacher.

“I think if Schumacher doesn’t get this seat, then Formula 1 history is over for him,” he said.

“Then he should concentrate on the long-distance races, where he was very successful, and do that. If he stays in motorsport, then he has to find something that he enjoys, but where he also has a chance of winning.”

But until the Audi announcement is made, Schumacher says he’ll keep hoping that they choose him.

“We have to wait and see what happens,” the former Haas driver told Sky Deutschland. “I will deal with it when the time comes and Plan A does not work.

“Plan B must be in the back of my mind. I don’t know where that will go at the moment.

“Formula 1 is the big goal, it always was and it always will be. That’s why everything else has to stand still for now. The options that exist alongside it have to wait.”