Mick Schumacher turned a much-needed corner during the first half of the season, after looking at one point like he was set for an awkward summer break.
Schumacher experienced huge crashes at both the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and the Monaco Grand Prix, resulting in a falling out with Haas F1 Team boss Guenther Steiner.
Thankfully, Schumacher managed to overcome the costly crashes, and secured his first ever points in Formula 1 at the British Grand Prix
At the following round, the Austrian Grand Prix, he achieved a P6 finish, his best result yet in the championship.
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Going into the summer break, Schumacher is only 10 points behind team-mate Kevin Magnussen in the Drivers’ Championship, with everything to play for.
Schumacher has incredibly battled with both Max Verstappen and Sir Lewis Hamilton this season, with the German having defended from the latter across a number of laps at the Red Bull Ring.
Being able to battle with others wasn’t possible for Haas in 2021, making this season’s fights even more enjoyable for Schumacher.
“It’s always been something that I enjoyed doing, and I’ve had enough of that in my junior days,” he explained to RacingNews365.com.
“And, obviously, coming back into that this year is great.”
“It’s helpful in the way that I get to learn how they race,” Schumacher said on battling Verstappen and Hamilton.
“I don’t know how long they will be racing for. For sure, Max will be racing for a few more years.
“It’s good to know how he approaches a fight, like a one-to-one battle. So it’s great experience, and hopefully I’ll have a lot more of those in the future.”
The son of Michael Schumacher revealed that he doesn’t think of any driver differently whilst fighting them, no matter whether they are World Champion or not.
To Schumacher the likes of Verstappen and Hamilton are just “another driver”.
“No, at that point it’s honestly just another driver,” the German continued.
“[There’s no] difference between them. [But] if they are a lot faster – like if it was a Ferrari or if it was a Red Bull, and they have no problem – it’s very hard for us to fight, so it makes no real sense because we all just use our tyres.”
The 2020 F2 World Champion has made steady progress in F1; however, he is currently without a seat for 2023.
It seems likely that Schumacher will remain at Haas next season; however, to do so he needs to score more points.
The Haas driver discussed the differences between racing in a junior category and F1, with the prime difference being the “tools” available.
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“Racing is very different compared to how it was in Formula 2, for example,” he said.
“You have a lot more tools to play with, you have a lot more things you can change while racing, and if you don’t change them, you might lose out on the battle.
“So it’s really a matter of getting everything right for the situation, and basically that you understand what you have to do if you want to overtake somebody.”