Mick Schumacher wants to feel the pressure of battle at the front of the grid rather than being at the back and struggling.
Haas decided to focus on 2022 technical regulations early in the 2021 season. They did not put much effort to develop their 2021 car. Due to this Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher spent most of the championship racing at the back of the grid.
Schumacher does not feel that being out of the spotlight helped him in the rookie season. Mostly, new drivers take it as a learning opportunity. They welcome the chance and try to understand their craft in racing rather than feeling the pressure at the front. Schumacher is not one of them.
I think one of the sweetest aspects of the 2021 season was the relationship between Sebastian Vettel and Mick Schumacher. https://t.co/2Q39rKhcsZ
— Sahil Mohan Gupta (@DigitallyBones) January 23, 2022
He prefers being in the battle range and racing for points while feeling the pressure that comes with it. When asked if being out of the spotlight helped him in his rookie season, he told Crash.net, “I would say, no.”
“I would say I would rather be in the points and be there fighting for it. Maybe it’s more pressure, maybe it’s more difficult. But I for sure would prefer being thrown into the cold water at times and trying to prove myself in that way.”
“It’s more out there because you’ll be more in the pictures. You’ll be more on TV and people will talk more about you. In the position that we’re in right now, unfortunately, we have to get onto the TV in other ways.”
“That’s by usually completely outperforming our car, or unfortunately sometimes when bad things happen.”
Mick Schumacher wants to fight for points in 2022
The only spotlight Schumacher got in the previous season was when he battled Max Verstappen at the Hungarian Grand Prix. The scuffle at the first corner affected the running order and helped get to the front. The German driver has also pointed it out as one of his highlights of the year.
For the 2022 season, Schumacher hopes that Haas will progress and he will run for points. When asked about how frustrating it was to not be able to show his potential, the 22-year-old said, “we accepted that quite early on and we knew what was expected of the car.”
“We basically all worked in the direction to try and prepare ourselves as good as we can for [2022]. Hopefully, Haas will be in that position where we can fight for points every weekend.”
“I think from what I see and from being involved in this, I do have the feeling that we are in a good position,” the German added.
“How good? We will only know in Bahrain at the first race, but we have this attitude next year. We know we’ll have updates coming our way, we will be developing the car and all of those things that we haven’t had this year. So we know that if there is a problem, we can fix it next year.”
Also Read: Haas boss says Pietro Fittipaldi will race if Ferrari needs Mick Schumacher as a reserve