Mick Schumacher climbing the ranks to follow in his father’s footsteps and reach Formula 1 is unquestionable a feel-good story.
It’s not like the German didn’t earn his opportunity either, he stepped up to win the European Formula 3 title and then did the same again in Formula 2 two years later.
Upon his arrival in F1, there was a concerted effort to avoid people rushing to judgement about Schumacher, particularly when it comes to making comparisons to Michael.
At the same time though, the prospect of Mick emulating his father was not understated either.
“He’s not just here to complete the 20 drivers,” Haas boss Guenther Steiner told Sport1.de last year. “He is here to become World Champion.
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“You always have to be in the right place at the right time. However, the better you are, the greater the chance of making the right decisions and of being hired by the right teams with the best car.
“Mick has the facilities, even if it is not yet possible to say with certainty that he will be World Champion, but I do believe in him.
“He also has the urge to do it, he wants to become world champion and that is also important.”
Additionally, as a Ferrari Academy member, the dream of a Schumacher once again racing in a red car is also often alluded to.
“I had the privilege of working with Michael at Ferrari and of course, Mick in a Ferrari would be a great prospect for the future,” F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said.
“At the moment, Ferrari has two fantastic drivers in Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who are also still young. But when Mick is ready and an opportunity presents itself to him, he will take it.”
There’s no doubt that Schumacher has the respect and admiration of his peers on track too, but is he doing enough to really back it up?
Gauging Mick’s potential last year was very difficult due to Haas’ poor car, having Nikita Mazepin as his teammate and even the best drivers get a pass for some errors in their rookie season.
This year though is different. The American team has a car that is potentially the fourth-best on the grid right now and Schumacher has a very solid barometer to compare himself with alongside the experience of Kevin Magnussen.
“Definitely. A reference is very helpful,” Steiner told Motorsport-Total on the benefits Mick can get from the Dane’s arrival.
“If someone does a lap two, three tenths faster and you look at that data, you might find one or two tenths in there, the braking points, the line and so on. So that will help him a lot.”
As a result, Schumacher has the chance to show he belongs in the same category as Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and George Russell as one of the sport’s future stars, but so far… he hasn’t.
While Magnussen is certainly talented, it is surprising that he has walked back in at Haas and immediately assumed the No.1 driver role from Mick.
Though the 2022 cars are new for everyone, with more recent F1 experience and the benefit of more testing, Schumacher should really have had the initial upper hand.
Instead, he was half a second slower than Magnussen in Bahrain qualifying and has rarely threatened the top 10 in any session while K-Mag has been there regularly.
Then there’s the big one, the crashes. For all the jokes about Mazepin, Schumacher created the most damage financially of all the drivers on the grid in 2021.
And already, he has potentially cost Haas up to $1m in damage from one accident in Jeddah in 2022.
While you can argue that such accidents show Mick’s willingness to push the limits, the frequency of these big crashes is well, too frequent.
For any other driver, this might lead to questions about whether they are F1 worthy, let alone a future world champion.
And so while it is too soon to say Haas should consider replacing Schumacher, it is time to look beyond the feel-good aspect of his presence in F1 and for Mick to step up again.
