The Haas F1 Team have successfully recovered from their pointless 2021 campaign, with the return of Kevin Magnussen proving vital to the team’s success.
Magnussen, who returned to Haas at the start of the season to replace Nikita Mazepin, has been one of the star drivers of 2022 so far.
The Dane has scored all fifteen of Haas’ points to date, putting him tenth currently in the drivers’ championship.
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Whilst Magnussen has instantly delivered results, Mick Schumacher has struggled to match his more experienced team-mate.
Schumacher was praised in 2021 for getting the most out of the worst car on the grid, however, the German has failed to perform this year despite having a points scoring car at his disposal.
Mick, the son of Michael Schumacher is still yet to score his first point in Formula 1.
The young German was on-track to achieve this at the recent Miami Grand Prix, before attempting a late move on his “mentor” Sebastian Vettel.
This move at Turn 1 saw Schumacher require a new front-wing which ended his hopes a points finish.
In 2021, it was evident early on that Schumacher was the number one driver in the American team.
Magnussen’s impressive performances this season though, has seen Schumacher arguably drop to second fiddle at Haas.
Haas team principal Guenther Steiner, is hoping that Schumacher can rise to Magnussen’s “level”, after not making an improvement yet since the last season.
“I wouldn’t say a big step over the winter,” Steiner told the media.
“I think, [with] this year, he had a reference, and there was a reason why we took Kevin back. We know what he can do.
“Obviously, Kevin is a good driver, and for Mick now he has got a reference, and he just needs to come up to that level.
“But he knows that, and he has got a good opportunity to do that. He will take it at some stage, hopefully sooner [rather] than later, because we would like him to score points as well, like a lot of other people.”
Schumacher is yet to make the leap from overachieving backmarker to points finisher.
Steiner does believe that the 23-year-old is still “maturing”, but is hopeful that he’ll score “his first point soon”.
“He is maturing, and this year I told him, [the] higher up we get, the thinner the air is getting,” he explained.
“It’s getting more and more difficult, the higher up in the standings we are. Getting into the points is not easy, because there’s a lot of good people there and a lot of good teams there, so hopefully he can get his first point soon.” he concluded.
Schumacher’s next opportunity to score his first points comes at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, the Haas driver finished 18th at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya last season, which is immediately followed by the Monaco Grand Prix.