Can Mick Schumacher follow up on his British GP performance?
Mick Schumacher's quest for points finally came to an end after finishing 8th in Silverstone last Sunday. Now that he's got a good result in the books, can he turn this into another top 10 finish?
While the spotlight was firmly on Carlos Sainz’s first win and Zhou Guanyu’s terrifying accident, Haas quietly slipped into the points in Sunday's British GP. 8th and 10th placed finishes from Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen, respectively, gifted the team their best points haul since the season opener in Bahrain.
The pearly gates opened for both drivers on lap 1, as Zhou’s crash initiated a chain of events that ended George Russell and Alex Albon’s races. With both drivers up to 15th and 17th place, they had to take advantage of all the chaos. After all, they had a Ferrari engine in the back of their cars at Silverstone, where you spend 70% of the lap at full throttle.
Helped by strategy and other incidents, Schumacher worked his way up to P9 while Magnussen followed closely in P10. A safety car came out on lap 39 after Ocon’s power unit gave up at the exit of Woodcote, giving Mick the chance to switch to softs for the remainder of the race. Vettel and Magnussen in front hadn’t pitted, leaving them vulnerable to Verstappen and Schumacher’s new rubber. The soft-runners were left to battle it out for P7, and battle they did.
The Red Bull driver narrowly prevailed in the race to the checkered flag, but Mick had a personal victory to celebrate: finally scoring his first Formula 1 points.
Haas will look to replicate this performance at the upcoming Austrian Grand Prix, a race that hasn’t been too kind to them in recent years. This year, however, feels different. The team is coming in with a car that can qualify as high as 5th one weekend and 19th the next. Ferrari’s monster of a power unit will help them, considering this is another power-hungry circuit they’re visiting. So long as they manage to get the setups right, Haas have a chance to score big.
Schumacher is coming into the weekend with good form. Having run in the top 10 in Canada for most of the race before his engine gave up, it should be two points finishes under his belt. His ever-growing confidence will inevitably help him in his quest for more points, so if he’s provided the machinery needed, there’s no doubt in my mind he can replicate his British GP performance.