Ralf Schumacher believes that Alpine was never truly serious about considering his nephew Mick for a seat in the 2025 season.
Already a member of the French brand's World Endurance Championship team, 25-year-old Mick Schumacher was invited to a direct comparison test in July against another 2025 hopeful, Jack Doohan, using a two-year-old Alpine car at Paul Ricard.
Ultimately, Doohan won the race seat to replace Esteban Ocon, who is heading to Haas next year. However, Mick's uncle, Ralf Schumacher, has criticized the test, describing it as "unfair."
"Mick drove the car in the afternoon and Jack Doohan drove it in the morning," the former F1 race winner explained to Sky Deutschland. "I was there myself."
"If you drove at 9am, you were two and a half seconds faster because it was 38 degrees and windy later in the day. And if you have that approach to testing, you have to question whether they took it seriously."
Ralf also criticized Alpine's management for the way Mick learned about Doohan's 2025 contract via Instagram last week during the Zandvoort event.
"You could say that the team has completely lost its way at the moment," he remarked. "Flavio (Briatore) is floating above everything now."
Even Doohan acknowledged that the head-to-head test against Schumacher had been "strange."
"It was strange. I just kept it business, regardless of who was next to me," the 21-year-old Australian confessed. "At the end of the day, whatever the outcome was of that, I positioned myself to make sure I was first in line to get this seat."
