“I watched that more than his performance”- Gunther Steiner on what impressed him most about Mick Schumacher

“I watched that more than his performance”- Gunther Steiner on what impressed him most about Mick Schumacher during his first session.

Mick Schumacher, touted to be the next big thing in Formula 1 after conquering both F2 and F3 has finally stepped into the grandest stage of all and will be making his debut with Haas.

Schumacher finally got his first Formula 1 outing during the free practice in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Earlier he was set to do it during the Eifel Grand Prix with Alfa Romeo, but the weather had different plans and that session was cancelled.

Gunther Steiner asked about analysing Schumacher’s talent on the basis of a free practice session, called it pointless and said one couldn’t analyze someone on a single FP session, but at the same time praised Schumacher over his work ethics.

“He did a fantastic job,” said Steiner as per the Motorsport, reflecting on Schumacher’s first run with the team. “I didn’t see it as a test session, as you cannot really see a lot of the potential of a driver there.

“But what you can see [is] how his personality is. How he’s prepared to work and what he takes in. Because there is, for these young guys, a lot to be taken in, being the first time on an F1 circuit, especially if your last name is Schumacher.

“There’s a lot of eyes watching you and, if you are 21, you need to have a lot of confidence to do that, and he did a good job all over the week.”

He gelled with the team

Steiner further revealed that the 21-year-old driver set a good communication with the engineers and also said despite keeping no pressure of expectations, Schumacher’s output was commendable.

“He worked very well with the engineers,” added Steiner. “I watched that more than his performance. It was very good, which he did with the engineers. He was very clear in his comments and everything.

“And, by the way, also his performance in the car, we didn’t put any pressure on him on what to do [but] it was good, you know because I said just the most important thing is: do not make any mistake, because that just takes you back.

“He didn’t do anything [like that]. He performed very well. He knew exactly where he lost his time compared to the other people.” he concluded.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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