Ferrari Driver Academy member Mick Schumacher has pinpointed a hangover following Haas’ very poor 2021 Formula 1 championship as the main reason for his somewhat difficult start to the current Formula 1 campaign.
Last year, as Ferrari junior Mick Schumacher made his Formula 1 debut with Haas, the American team decided not to focus on its 2021 F1 challenger and therefore not to introduce any major upgrades to its car during the entire season, preferring to shift all its resources and attention on the opportunity represented by the new rules and regulations for the 2022 Formula One championship, with the goal of being able to fight in the midfield zone.
This meant that Mick Schumacher had to settle for a place in the back of the grid last year, as the only competition was the internal duel with his Russian teammate Nikita Mazepin, a battle that the Ferrari junior won most of the times.
During his junior career, there was a pattern for the German driver’s performances, as Mick made a habit of enduring an average first championship in a series, before significantly rising his game in the second season. While Haas did in fact manage to produce a more competitive car than last year, the start of the 2022 F1 campaign was not ideal for Mick, as improved results were slow to surface due to a series of incidents such as the ones in Saudi Arabia and Monte Carlo, a situation that led to Haas boss Guenther Steiner casting a doubt on the future of the 23-year-old German driver.
In an interview during the Hungaroring weekend in Budapest, ahead of the summer shutdown, the Ferrari Driver Academy member explained:
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“I think that the beginning of the year was a bit tough in many ways, probably in one way because we were still thinking about how last year’s stuff worked so maybe we tried to adapt too much of it for this year. Once we figured out that was maybe not the right way, we started changing – the driving changed a bit, the approach changed a bit but I think what we can really take away from that is that I enjoy pressure and it seems like I always have. Because if I look back at Formula 3 or Formula 2, there is always when I had the most pressure that I performed the best. We’ve had a couple of good races and I’m aiming to have a few more. The work hasn’t stopped just like this.” – Mick Schumacher concluded.
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