Mick Schumacher will get a first feel of the 2022 F1 car only when drivers start their pre-season testing in Barcelona next month.
Haas had a terrible 2021 season, finishing last in the Championship with neither of their drivers scoring a single point. They approached last year with minimal expectations and even before the first race, shifted their focus to developing the 2022 car.
In spite of an early start, Haas drivers Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin won’t be able to get a feel of the new car ahead of next season’s major regulation changes. This is due to the fact that the American team don’t have simulators at their factories.
This may put a dent in Haas’ hopes to have a strong start to the season. All drivers will need time to adjust to the new mechanics and without prior knowledge, it’ll be even more difficult for Schumacher and Mazepin.
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The young German on the other hand is not very worried. He knows it’ll be a challenge, but is looking forward to his first outing regardless.
“It will be new and I’m looking forward to it,” said Schumacher to AMuS.
“We don’t have our own simulator at the moment. But that should change for next year. I think I will only drive the car for the first time at the Barcelona test.”
Mick Schumacher expects the ‘big teams’ to prevail at the end of next season
The changes in regulation were brought about to bring the F1 field closer and promote better racing action on the track. Aerodynamic tweaks on the 2022 cars are expected to produce a lot less ‘dirty air’ which should allow drivers to follow cars in front of them.
Schumacher however, seems to think that the field will only be close in the first few races. He expects the big teams like Mercedes and Red Bull to steer clear of others by the end of 2022.
“The big question is how much that will bring us. But the other teams don’t have dummies working for them either,” the 22-year old continued.
“They know where things are going. We have to wait and see. Hopefully, we have something on the car that will give us a small advantage, at least in the beginning.”
“The hope is that everyone will be closer together and you can race against each other. Maybe that will be the case at the beginning. In the end, the usual teams will pull away again. The question is by how much.”
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