“Something’s different, something’s better,” Damon Hill believes Mick Schumacher’s fear of losing F1 seat brought the ‘best out of him’
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Mick Schumacher
Mick Schumacher in recent races has performed really well and 1996 Formula One Champion, Damon Hill believes that the fear of losing an F1 seat is what has brought the 23-year-old’s season back on track.
Mick Schumacher did not get off to the best of starts this season and was under a lot of pressure after he crashed his car a couple of times, moreover, most of the criticism that he faced came from none other than the Haas team principal Guenther Steiner.
However, the young German after going through a torrid time has managed to turn his season around as he scored the first points of his F1 career in Silverstone where he finished P8, and in the very next race was able to improve on it by finishing P6 in Austria.
Hill believes that when a Driver’s back is against the wall they quickly realize that their F1 career could be in jeopardy and this realization sparks a plug in them. He feels this is exactly what happened with Mick Schumacher.
“Something’s new, something’s different, something’s better.”
“And sometimes it can be just that staring into the abyss of the reality of our sport, which is that you could find yourself not in Formula 1 and that kind of can spur you [on].”
“You can lie in bed at night and go ‘blimey, it really could happen, I might lose my job.”
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Damon Hill believes that Mick Schumacher is a real smart kid
Mick Schumacher is in his second season with the Haas Formula One team but Hill feels that 2022 is really like his first given last year’s Haas car was not capable of challenging any of the other teams.
“Yeah, I think that in his F2 season, in his career, he looked like he was a slow burner or a slow learner, but he got there in the end.”
“And I think that the point is that, if you compare him to his dad, obviously, Michael [Schumacher] arrived, and bam, there he was, straightaway, fully formed. But I think Mick, give the guy a little bit of a break, I think he’s had a lot to deal with growing up.”
“And he’s showing that he’s applying his intelligence, he’s a very smart kid. And I’m sure that the criticism has had an effect, but it’s not been a negative effect.”
Damon Hill further feels that having an experienced teammate like Kevin Magnussen is going to do Mick a lot of good. Hill while stressing about the duo said, “And I think having a team-mate like Kevin was suddenly a bit of a shock to the system as well, sometimes it can set you back, and then you have to regroup.”
“And suddenly you realize ‘wow, Formula 1 really is the most challenging category of racing, the competition is so fierce, it’s so intense, but you do have to reset your targets.“
“You think you’re trying the best, you think you’re giving it everything, but then you realize you’re actually underperforming to your true capacities and you have to really dig deep in Formula 1, you will get found out.”
Former 10 Grand Prix winner Gerhard Berger has also jumped on the case of Mick Schumacher at Haas and believes that his last name has proved to be a huge burden for him.
While stressing about Mick, Berger said, “Well, I think it has at least as much advantage as a disadvantage, so it’s balanced at the end of the day.”
“But I think until you arrive in a place where Mick is now, it’s an advantage. Now he just needs to deliver.”
“And I think it looked like he needs all this pressure to be capable to deliver what he has to deliver. And I think when this pressure starts with Guenther Steiner and so on, and all these discussions start, suddenly it clicked with Mick and he did bloody good races.”
Mick has been mega in the last couple of races and with the French Grand Prix slated to take place this week, it is going to be interesting to see how the young Haas starlet is going to perform on a tricky Paul Ricard circuit.
Mick is currently P15 in the Drivers standings and with 11 races still to go in the 2022 season, he certainly would be looking to make a big impression and put his doubters to bed once and for all.
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Rishabh Negi
(3244 Articles Published)