British journalist Mark Hughes talks about Mick Schumacher’s chances of staying in the Haas F1 team next year and concludes that they are not that great.
Officially there are only two vacancies left in the Formula 1 teams, one at Williams, where they have already confirmed they will be parting ways with Nicholas Latifi – possibly to make way for American Logan Sargent, who will be in Formula this year. 2 drives.
The second is at Haas, where the prospects for Mick Schumacher seem hazy, while Nico Hulkenberg will replace him and return to Formula 1.
The team will have to make a difficult choice. On the one hand, the 23-year-old rider is gradually improving and in that regard seems preferable to the 35-year-old veteran who has already reached his level. On the other hand, Mick’s pace doesn’t seem convincing yet, while Hulkenberg has repeatedly managed to deliver results that surpass the capabilities of his cars, remember the sensational pole position he won at the wheel of Williams.
Schumacher’s second season with Haas is not an easy one, both for him and for the team. Last year he confidently outperformed his then team-mate Nikita Mazepin, but when he had to compete with a professional of Kevin Magnussen’s level, it ended up in accidents on more than one occasion. There have been a few instances of Mick overdoing it and crashing cars at a very high cost to the team, which is no small consideration for Haas F1 with its limited financial resources.
Mick is a talented driver and a very nice guy, he has made a lot of progress but maybe this is not enough to guarantee his future in Formula 1. His performances are not so great that the team extended his contract without hesitation, although it is clear that his potential has not yet been fully exploited.
His place in F1 is deserved, but if he’s not in the championship it seems unlikely it will be a disaster. In those cases where it was possible to make a correct comparison, in qualifying he usually lost to Magnussen and the score of their duels was 4:11. At the same time, the trend is for three of these four cases to occur in the last five races.
Mick performed very well at Silverstone, where he earned his first points, as well as Austria, where he fought wheel-to-wheel with Lewis Hamilton and finished sixth. There were other races where he looked good, but he was hampered by technical issues. A few times he took Haas to the finals of the qualifiers. And yet we haven’t seen any really striking results or examples of impressive pace, which would indicate the potential of a future star.
We know all about Hulkenberg, he is a driver who can be very fast at times, especially on a wet track or in changeable weather; he is a very reliable professional whose extensive experience can be useful to the team and contribute to its progress.
In 2020, replacing the ailing Sergio Perez in the Racing Point team at Silverstone, Niko showed the third result in qualifying. At the start of this season, he replaced Sebastian Vettel in the first two races, but at the time the Aston Martin car was completely uncompetitive. In Bahrain, Hulkenberg was faster than Lance Stroll, but lost to him in Saudi Arabia.
In the case of Niko, perhaps it is the level of his motivation that matters: whether he still strives to succeed in Formula 1, because he has already gone through a thorough hardening and had to overcome certain difficulties every year.
He made his league debut 12 years ago and despite a sensational pole position in Brazil at the end of that season, he has never had the chance to show himself behind the wheel of a fast car for one of the top teams. His results were never convincing enough to attract the attention of Ferrari, Red Bull or Mercedes.
He is also hampered by the fact that he has never made it to the podium in his entire F1 career – an unenviable statistic, especially considering that during the period he played in Force India with Sergio Perez, he made three appearances in the top three finished.
Hulkenberg tested with IndyCar, but turned down an offer to enter the American series and accepted the role of Aston Martin’s reserve driver. But when Günther Steiner spoke to him on the phone recently, Niko’s determined demeanor impressed him.
It is quite possible that in the coming days we will get the answer as to who will get a spot in Haas, although in fact they say the team has already made a decision. My prediction is that in 2023 we will see Hulkenberg with Haas, and Mick Schumacher will probably continue his career in sports car racing.
Source: F1 News
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
