Former Formula 1 driver Christian Danner has been left with questions regarding Mick Schumacher’s capacity to be a mainstay in Formula 1.
The German has entered 27 races in the pinnacle of motorsport without scoring a point having spent 2021 running around in a woefully poor Haas.
He out-qualified team-mate Nikita Mazepin 20 times in 22 races last year, but was given a much more representative test in the form of Kevin Magnussen this season after the Dane was re-signed to replace the sacked Russian amid his country’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Though the 23-year-old has out-qualified his more experienced Haas partner twice this year, he has never quite been able to reach points finishes in the race. He looked on for at least one in Miami, before contact with Sebastian Vettel sent them both out of the top 10.
That followed a major crash in qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix that ruled his car out of the race, and watching Magnussen score points in four of the opening five rounds will leave question marks as to why Schumacher has not been able to do the same.
He won the Formula 2 championship in 2020, and is there or thereabouts with Magnussen’s pace, but his inability to translate that into results, in Danner’s eyes, might soon become a concern.
“What good is it to be 13, 14, 15 or 25 times faster than Mazepin? Nothing,” he said in an interview with Motorsport-Magazin.com.
“But if you beat Magnussen, it means something.
“I think he has the pace. Now he has to do it over the longer distance too.
“I’ve seen the stats about all the accidents he’s had, so that Steiner can draw up the very hefty bill. He broke a lot of parts, you have to admit.
“Should we be concerned about Mick’s career? Is he good enough for Formula 1?”
The two-time points finisher with Arrows and Rial drew comparisons to Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris, who hit the ground running in their debut seasons in 2015, 2018 and 2019 respectively.
“The problem is that once you’re in Formula 1, the apprenticeship is actually over very quickly. Lando Norris screwed up too but he was also unbelievably good straight away,” he added.
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“Leclerc has made a lot of mistakes but he still made a mark when he drove for Sauber, similar with Verstappen. The bar that this generation of new drivers is setting is very high and Mick has to measure up to that.”
Schumacher heads into the European Grand Prix this weekend in search of better fortunes as he continues to await his first-ever points in F1.