Mick Schumacher will long remember the British Grand Prix. The Haas driver, in the second consecutive year with the American team, has finally managed to conquer his first world championship points in Formula 1 and thus put an end to a complicated period in which even his stay in the top flight has been repeatedly put in place. discussion.
The accidents in Jeddah and Monaco, where he literally demolished the cars, and the contact with Vettel in the final race in Miami, when he was in the top 10, had infuriated Gunther Steiner who had asked the German for more concreteness.
Mick ended up in the crosshairs of critics, also due to the 15 points obtained in the first races by his teammate Kevin Magnussen, but he always kept his cool.
Although Haas had an unhappy last period, Schumacher and Magnussen managed to make the most of all the opportunities offered by a crazy race like that of Silverstone. Mick finished in eighth position, after making all the men of his team sweat cold during the intense duel with Max Verstappen for seventh place, while Kevin finished in tenth place.
“I’m really happy” said a Schumacher who was immediately hugged by Sebastian Vettel once he arrived at the Parc Ferme.
For Haas, the British weekend started in the worst way. In qualifying the team messed up and the two drivers finished with the nineteenth and seventeenth times, but in the race both managed to avoid the chaos of the first start, without reporting any damage on their respective cars, and then staged a nice recovery. .
“I managed to recover from nineteenth position and I had already said on Saturday that we had the speed to move up the rankings. Today we proved it ”.
“I have to say it’s a great feeling and I can’t wait to celebrate with the team. It’s nice to be able to score points with both cars, it was a goal we had been aiming for for some time. Now we have to try to score more points than our direct rivals to try to overtake them ”.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB18, Mick Schumacher, Haas VF-22
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
As mentioned, in the final race Schumacher was the protagonist of a very heated duel with the world champion Max Verstappen. The Red Bull driver, struggling with an RB18 in crisis due to a problem at the bottom, defended seventh place with his teeth from the assaults of the German and the public on the track and at home appreciated a duel that no one would ever have on the eve. imagined possible.
Schumacher wanted to give due credit to the team for having guessed the strategy when the safety car entered the track and explained how the team took a gamble by choosing to mount the hard Pirellis at the first stop.
“We were using two different compounds and we weren’t sure if the C1 would work or not. We took a risk having never tried it before ”.
“She had a decline initially, but then she came back to life and I think I wouldn’t have had any problem continuing to the end if it hadn’t been for the safety car.”
“I probably would have finished ahead of Max, but overall we did the right things at the right time. The pit under the safety car was another opportunity ”.
Great satisfaction for the double points finish was also expressed at the end of the race by Gunther Steiner who, thanks to the result at Silverstone, can finally breathe again after a complicated period.
“I am really happy for the whole team. We deserved this double point finish and it wasn’t a result that came by luck. After having sprinted from the nineteenth and seventeenth squares we couldn’t have wished for more ”.
“Both cars were fast, the guys did a good job and the pit stops were perfect. Now we have to concentrate to improve in qualifying and play some good races in order to get back into the game ”.
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