Schumacher’s self-criticism doesn’t “depress” the Haas rookie

Haas chief race engineer Ayao Komatsu is impressed with how self-critically Mick Schumacher serves as “additional motivation” instead of “depressing” the rookie.

Schumacher brought Haas his season highlight so far at the recent Grand Prix of Turkey with a Q2 appearance, the leading team boss Günther Steiner declared that the German has “great potential” in F1.

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Despite his pace, the season was mixed for Schumacher as he was also involved in a number of training accidents that put his qualifications at risk, but Komatsu stated the 22-year-old was his own toughest critic.

“Mick works very hard whether he’s having a good weekend or a bad, and he’s very self-critical in a positive way,” said Komatsu.

“He’s always looking for areas where he can improve. When he says ‘I got it wrong, I need to improve’ it doesn’t really depress him, it just gives him extra motivation.

“He’s always looking at himself and other things that he can influence. So it’s very good, all of the hard work that has gone into it.

“He works very hard with his engineers, so Mick’s engineers are really motivated by Mick’s attitude, so it works both ways.”

With his 12th place in Hungary, Schumacher is ahead of his teammate Nikita Mazepin and this year she finished 14 of the 17 races ahead of the Russian.