Mick Schumacher has well and truly found his form in Formula 1, after back-to-back points finishes at the British and Austrian Grand Prix.
Schumacher not only finished sixth at the Red Bull Ring, but was also awarded ‘Driver of the Day’ by the fans.
Schumacher has found the going tough in 2022, following two huge crashes in Saudi Arabia and Monaco.
However, the Haas F1 Team driver now appears to have found the sweet-spot with the VF22, having “unlocked the beast”.
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“I think sometimes a little anger helps to unlock the beast,” Schumacher told Sky Sports F1 after the race.
“I think we have been very consistent with what we have as a package and I don’t think we necessarily have made a huge step forward but I think this track maybe suits our car, suits our set up and maybe also suits our driving style in some ways so it will be interesting to see how Paul Ricard goes but I’m pretty sure, hopefully we will stay strong.”
With Kevin Magnussen finishing eighth in Austria, it was the team’s best result since the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix, following a difficult few years for the American team.
Team principal Guenther Steiner told Sky Sports ‘Any Driven Monday’ show that the young German has taken a more relaxed approach in recent rounds, something which appears to be clearly working.
“I cannot find something to say, this is what it was, but he already performed a lot better in Canada,” Steiner began.
“Obviously, the qualifying was good there but the race was not so good because he retired, but in Canada he just seemed to be a lot more relaxed about everything and that comes from putting less pressure on himself, which helped having these results.
“I’m 100 per-cent sure about this. I saw a change in Canada where he seemed to be more relaxed about everything but hopefully now with having scored twice in a row and finishing sixth gives us more points because we desperately need them to get to sixth.”
The Austrian GP wasn’t completely smooth for Haas, with Schumacher speaking publicly about his frustration with the team’s tactics following the Sprint race on Saturday.
Schumacher wasn’t allowed to overtake his team-mate during the race, despite being considerably quicker.
To make matters worse, Magnussen failed to keep the German driver within his DRS range late-on, resulting in Schumacher being swamped by drivers in the final few laps on Saturday and dropping outside the points.
With this in mind, Steiner was asked about the team dynamic following Saturday’s issue, where the Haas boss revealed that the drivers are always told that the “team decides” what’s going to happen.
“You know race car drivers, they’re all the same,” said Steiner.
“They always want to be in front of their team-mate. I always say you’re equals and the team decides what we’re going to do because the points are for the team.
“We need more points for the team to get into sixth hopefully, or fight at least for sixth. If we waste opportunities because you guys are fighting, it’s not good for the team and the only entitlement they have is to work for the team,” he concluded.