In the first Formula 1 year, Mick Schumacher just follows. That will change in the new season, Haas team boss Günther Steiner is confident. However, there will be no preferential treatment for the convincing German. At least not without meeting certain requirements.
Mick Schumacher is not a man of controversial and big words, instead of pithy interviews, the 22-year-old relies much more on letting his performance on the Formula 1 tracks of this world speak. In his debut season he managed to do this in a convincing manner despite the hopelessly inferior car and so he shouldn’t feel any unrest despite the clear instructions from his superior. In an interview with RTL/ntv, Haas boss Günther Steiner rules out making Schumacher the number 1 driver for the US racing team with a Russian name and main sponsor. But the Italian also says why that is: “You make yourself number 1, I don’t have to do that.”
A clear instruction for Schumacher to continue the development from the debut season. Because the duel with teammate and main sponsor’s son Nikita Mazepin was dominated by the German at times, sometimes taking several seconds per lap from the driver who had been promoted from Formula 2 together with him in the identical car. Eternities in a sport that relies on thousandths to determine the fastest riders. However, it was also the only duel that Schumacher was able to win, the Haas car was too bad, the points were usually miles away, literally.
In order to change that and to reach the goal again in the top ten after 29 pointless Grands Prix, Haas concentrated all resources early on to optimize the newly developed car for 2022. “I would be overjoyed if we were in midfield,” says Steiner. Otherwise he is reluctant to make predictions. No one knows the balance of power until the ten teams arrive in Barcelona at the end of February for the first test drives. The new era, as Formula 1 itself calls it, should make better racing and more duels on the track possible – but it also brings with it the imponderability that nobody knows for sure whether their own concept will not only work in theory and in the wind tunnel , but also on the track.
At Haas, the hope is very clear that in the course of the control technology upheaval, Steiner says, “to come forward again”. The best season so far was in 2018 with 93 points and fifth place in the constructors’ championship, followed by the dramatic descent, which found its low point in 2021 with zero points and the last place. Anyone looking for the end of the field almost always found a Haas. Nevertheless, Mick Schumacher recently said that the first year in Formula 1 was “easier [gewesen]than I expected”. Mainly because he has a multi-year contract, but also because the expectations were so low.
Vettel provides important help
It will be significantly larger from the first race of the season in Bahrain on March 20, as team boss Steiner emphasizes on RTL/ntv. He is “convinced that both drivers have learned a lot and are now ready to fight”. Competing for placements, which are rewarded with points when crossing the finish line. The “apprenticeship year”, as Steiner calls the pre-season, is over. Schumacher knows that too, and feels ready to “have the pressure to score points every weekend […] And to fight.” The 22-year-old is working towards this meticulously and conscientiously, and Steiner knows that too: “He grew up in the best environment for a racing driver”, because “there is nothing better than growing up with Michael Schumacher.”
There is hope that Schumacher will also succeed in Formula 1, which distinguished him on his successful rise through the junior classes: the significant increase in the second year. His work attitude is considered exemplary, as emphasized by Sebastian Vettel, who also attested to a “great job”: “Every single day he is one of the first, if not the first, to arrive in the paddock and one of the last to leave. ” There is a close connection between the two pilots, the four-time world champion supports Schumacher as a kind of mentor. Michael Schumacher played a similar role with him, and he wanted to return that in this way.
Steiner already said last summer that he thinks it’s “great” and “that Mick will benefit from it”. The advice of the Aston Martin driver has certainly contributed to the fact that Schumacher has received almost consistently positive feedback for his first year in Formula 1. The son of the record world champion received the most criticism for overstretching the spare parts budget with several departures. “The more you wear out, the less you can develop,” Steiner warns for the new season. The first with a new set of rules, experience has shown that one in which the speed of development can decide between success and failure.
“You have to find the limit on the car,” says Steiner, without going beyond it. At the end of the 2021 season, Haas even threatened to run out of parts due to the increased number of accidents involving Schumacher and Mazepin. A clear instruction to the two 22-year-olds to treat the material more carefully in the future. Linked to the explanation of how the number 1 status can be achieved most easily: “In my opinion, whoever is ahead in qualifying always has an advantage in the race in terms of strategy.” A requirement that clearly speaks for Schumacher: In the 22 qualifying sessions so far, he was on average 0.915 seconds faster than Mazepin, with no other driver pairing in the past year was the gap anywhere near as large.