Mick Schumacher's own employer, Haas team principal Guenther Steiner, has been one of the fiercest critics for the young driver.
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Mick Schumacher’s junior career showed a pattern of strong improvement in his second season in a category, but this has not been the case in Formula 1, leading to rising criticism. The 2021 season was one without expectations, with Haas lagging behind in an undeveloped VF-21, but the aim for the VF-22 was to get Haas back into the points debate, which it has done. The issue is that Kevin Magnussen has scored all 15 of Haas’ points so far in 2022, but Schumacher has yet to score in Formula 1, both this season and overall.
Sebastian Vettel, Schumacher’s close friend and mentor, understands why the German is being chastised this season, but believes there must be some balance in the situation. When Schumacher accomplishes anything nice, Vettel believes it should be recognised as well. “Criticism is also justified in this respect, but you can’t always just bash him. You also have to say when something has gone well.
Schumacher’s own employer, Haas team principal Guenther Steiner, has been one of his fiercest critics. Schumacher has already been involved in two serious collisions in 2022, the first in Saudi Arabia and the second in Monaco. Steiner also mentioned a chronic scarcity of replacement components at Haas on qualifying day in Azerbaijan. “At the moment, the problem is actually getting the parts made because we are so far behind with production now because we didn’t envisage making this many parts,” Haas team principal Steiner told Channel 4. The production is just the bottleneck at the moment. So we are trying to catch up, just staying alive.”
Read more: ‘Not possible for Schumacher to continue like this’ opined Gunther Steiner
Obviously, this isn’t all down to Schumacher; Magnussen’s vehicle was damaged when he collided with Lewis Hamilton in Spain, for example, but the timing of those statements further adds to Schumacher’s pressure. And, based on his previous experience, Vettel believes the team should remain unified in such situations. “We are all driving at the limit,” said Vettel. “The fact something can break is part of it. I think in this situation you should do everything you can to back yourself up. Even from my own experience, it’s not easy when you are just banging on within the team.”
