Mick Schumacher will miss out on planned upgrades to his Haas Formula 1 car this weekend, team boss Guenther Steiner has revealed.
Haas team boss Guenther Steiner at the Austrian Grand Prix. (Photo Credit: Haas F1 Twitter).
While Haas were supposed to introduce their first upgrades of the season at the French Grand Prix, they have now not only been delayed until Hungary, but they’ll be added exclusively to Kevin Magnussen’s car at the event.
As first reported by GrandPrix.comSteiner has suggested that the young German won’t be getting the updates due to the amount of crashes he’s been involved in so far this year.
“We will hardly have spare parts even for one car,” explained Steiner. “We’ve had a lot of accidents this year and therefore used up all our materials.”
Schumacher’s error-strewn season
Schumacher was paired with fellow rookie Nikita Mazepin at Haas last season, but this year has seen him go up against Magnussen, an F1 driver with far more experience.
Following brief stints at McLaren and Renault, the Dane spent four seasons at Haas, before being dropped by the team in 2021 and ultimately returning a year later.
Since his comeback in Bahrain, Magnussen has outscored his less-seasoned teammate by 22 points to 12, and Schumacher has been involved in multiple costly accidents.
The 23-year-old crashed out heavily in both Monaco and Saudi Arabia, and with teams facing a budget cap of $140 million this season, Haas has now been left to count the cost of his mistakes.
That said, the German has generally equipped himself well against a more challenging teammate this campaign, and his performances have improved notably in recent races.
At Silverstone, Schumacher was arguably unlucky to finish behind reigning world champion Max Verstappen, who closed the door on him on the final lap, and even so, he managed to score his first ever Formula 1 points that weekend.
Then, a week later in Austria, Schumacher fought valiantly against seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton during the sprint race, before coming home ahead of his teammate in the race, in a career-best sixth place.
So see
Mick Schumacher at the French Grand Prix. (Image Credit: Haas F1 Team Twitter).
Does Haas’ VF-22 need upgrades?
When asked about the delayed upgrades in France, Schumacher said “that’s ok for me, Budapest is a track that should actually suit us. So even without a new package, it can be good there.”
The young driver’s optimism underlines a sense of belief at Haas, that despite being the only team yet to introduce an upgrade so far this season, their car still has performance.
After both its drivers finished in the points at Silverstone and Paul Ricard, the team currently sits seventh in the constructors’ championship on 34 points.
Ultimately, this point-scoring run came to an end at the French Grand Prix, but Steiner told GPFans that Haas’ rumored sidepod and floor upgrades are only being introduced for pace, not merely for the “publicity” of introducing new parts.
“Hopefully we will get what we expect from them,” said Steiner. “I’m always careful with upgrades whatever we do, so I won’t say how much we will go faster.”
“But if we go faster that will help, and hopefully we can fight even harder,” he added.
Featured Image Credit: Haas F1 Team Twitter.
