“Schumacher costing his team $3.5 million in damages at street circuits”- Why Haas will be worried about Mick Schumacher ahead of Azerbaijan Grand Prix
Mick Schumacher has had a tough start to the 2022 season and his record in street circuits will have Haas even more worried.
Schumacher joined Haas in 2021 after winning the 2020 F2 Championship. He came to the team with high expectations and for the first season, it seemed like he was doing so.
His teammate for his first season was fellow rookie Nikita Mazepin. Schumacher consistently outperformed Mazepin throughout the season, which really put the Russian’s inclusion in the sport under scrutiny.
Mazepin was dropped by the team at the beginning of this season. Former driver Kevin Magnussen was chosen his replacement, and the Dane has defied all expectations up until now. What F1 fans have found most surprising is the difference between Schumacher and Magnussen on track.
Haas don’t have the worst car on grid anymore, and Magnussen has earned a total of 15 points in his VF-22 after seven rounds. Schumacher on the other hand, is yet to open the account for the season (and his career).
Street circuits haven’t been a happy Mick Schumacher hunting ground
Schumacher has had a lot of crashes since his F1 debut last year. However, none of them have been as financially challenging for Haas as the ones in street tracks.
At the Monaco GP 2021, he suffered a crash during qualifying that led to the team changing his gearbox. This cost Haas around $500,000. Another accident at last year’s inaugural Saudi Arabian GP cost the team and additional $1 million.
— sominslc (@sominslc1) June 4, 2022
It was expected that Schumacher’s second year in the sport was going to be easier, but we’ve seen the 23-year old have multiple incidents affect his race this time about too. He suffered heavy crashes in Jeddah and Monaco yet again. The car repairs were significant, and reportedly both of them cost the team another $1 million individually.
2022 is a season where teams are struggling to cope with the budget cap. Drivers crashing adds a lot of pressure to the team bosses to cope up with the costs, and Haas will be hoping that Schumacher’s poor record in street circuits does not continue to next week’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
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