After six of 22 races in the 2022 Formula 1 season, Mick Schumacher is the only regular driver alongside Nicholas Latifi who has not yet scored any points in the World Championship.
In Miami (collision with Sebastian Vettel) and Barcelona (relapse at the end of the race) he was close. But after 27 races he is still waiting for the first point of his career.
The Haas team has not publicly criticized Schumacher. But Günther Steiner makes no secret of it, “that we have to score points everywhere and we have to score points with both drivers. There is hard work behind it, but at some point we have to succeed,” says the team boss.
Kevin Magnussen has scored points on three of the six weekends so far and is tenth in the Drivers’ Championship with 15 points. Steiner believes it is possible that the first point result could also untie a knot for Schumacher: “That would give him self-confidence. It is difficult to say whether it will also affect his pure driving performance.”
Steiner: “At some point it will work”
“Last week could have been a good week,” says Steiner. “And before that, Miami was a good weekend too. But it’s never worked out. Every time things go well, something happens. We’re almost there. Eventually it will work out because the car is good enough. I’m sure he’ll do it can do.”
Steiner does not fear that Schumacher could become overconfident once he has scored points for the first time: “I’m more worried that he will become desperate and try too much, run over the car. That could happen more easily. But I think he will is very close. The most important thing now is to be patient.”
Wrong strategy costs better result
Schumacher was 14th in Barcelona. In the end, he was half a minute short of tenth place (Yuki Tsunoda in the AlphaTauri). Schumacher was still ahead of the Japanese on lap 57 of 66. But with his two-stop strategy and the oldest tires in the field (35 laps old Medium at the end), he was passed behind in the last ten laps.
“It became apparent in the first stint that three stops are better. But we didn’t change our strategy,” says Schumacher. “But we can learn from that, we have to understand that. The team had several meetings on this and I think we understand where the problem is. I’m sure we have a better handle on it now.”
“We knew that the hard tire didn’t work. The medium was okay, but not as good as two soft sets. The medium had a better reputation than it ultimately had. That’s unfortunate, but if you stop one, two If you react laps too late, it turns around pretty quickly.”
Mick Schumacher does not lose his calm
“Sometimes it’s a matter of seconds. If you’re past the pit entrance, it costs you a lap first. Then you discuss half a lap again and the next lap is gone. Two laps, and that’s four for us in our case positions cost,” he calculates.
Schumacher does not share Steiner’s fear that he could risk too much under pressure and lose the necessary calm: “There are still many races to come. It’s just a matter of using them properly,” he says coolly, but at the same time makes it clear: ” “I want to score points. That’s what I’m here for. I want to be as high as possible in the World Cup.”
“The last two races have been very good. I felt like we would have been able to score points. We didn’t manage to do that due to different circumstances. It’s not like it puts me under a lot of pressure. Me I’m just looking forward to driving the car,” said Schumacher in front of Monaco.