The 2022 Formula 1 season will give every team the opportunity to bring to the track a completely new project and Haas, maybe even more than the rest, is confident it will be able to move back up the Formula 1 pecking order this season. Yet Ferrari Driver Academy member Mick Schumacher will play it by ear when it comes to his own process of improvement.
Haas was by far the slowest car in the previous season, ending the 2021 championship without any point in the Formula 1 Constructor Standings, although it was not a big surprise given the fact that the team focused all its resources on 2022.
As the sport now moves to a new generations of F1 cars, which should lead to closer racing, Haas target a midfield fight after finishing P5 in the Constructors’ Championship as recently as 2018.
Mick Schumacher enjoyed a relatively strong first season in 2021 and as Haas are probably well aware, the German driver has a trend shown during his career of excelling in his second championship in a particular series. That being said, the Ferrari junior will start the 2022 campaign without any pre-made plans of how he wants to approach the race weekends, despite the fact that he expects improvement from himself.
“As an approach for next year, there will definitely be more to expect and I also expect from myself” – Mich Schumacher said, as reported by MotorsportWeek.com – “Hopefully, I will be able to make the step as in the past but I am quite sure of that. Let’s get it started and we will find out along the way. I think that the preparation will be different in the sense that I know what’s expected of me. I have a clear view of what I need to do and obviously, I think therefore the preparation will adapt and change, in what ways, I can’t tell you because I will figure that out as I go. I don’t think there’s a clear and strict plan but it’s more of what I feel that I need to in that specific moment to be ready for the first year in that new concept of a car.” – the Ferrari Academy Driver member added.
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But after the experience of a full season now under his belt and bonds built within Haas, Mick Schumacher is confident that he and the team can take an even bigger step forward and be able to show his skills:
“I still believe that since then [the start of the 2021 season] we’ve grown even closer together and I just know everybody working here so well by now and I feel that we’re all having a very good time, and frankly that’s all what the sport is about In that sense, we are really figuring out our way and that will also help us for next year in many ways,” said the 22-year-old – “I think if I would go back to Bahrain now, maybe we would start off stronger and even closer, maybe, therefore, be closer for the whole part of the season and then towards the end of the season, maybe pick up more and be even more in front of the others or at least with them.” – he added.
Overall though, while points were an obvious absence, Mick Schumacher feels that Haas ticked most of the boxes which they needed to in 2021.
“I think we ticked most of the boxes. Obviously one of the boxes was to score points. Even though we didn’t, it’s been a very successful campaign and we managed to get everything out of what we had.”
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