A week ago the first points in Formula 1. Now sixth place as a new personal best: Mick Schumacher has again occupied a top 10 position and states that he is “completely satisfied” with the result at the Austrian Grand Prix 2022 on the Red Bull Ring near Spielberg.

Schumacher finished the eleventh race of the season a lap behind the leaders, but ahead of Lando Norris in the McLaren and ahead of his Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen. And in the Formula 1 drivers’ standings he is now in 15th place.

During the slow-down lap, he said on the radio that he and his team were on a real run. Schumacher later said on ‘Sky’: “With the performance we’re having at the moment, hopefully there will be other races in the future where we can score as many points.”

Because Haas managed to get into the top 10 with both vehicles at both Silverstone and Spielberg. So things are “going in the right direction,” says Schumacher.

He recognizes a “steep upward trend” and says: “Hopefully we can maintain this trend in Le Castellet and Budapest before the summer break and then start the second half of the season well with the update.”

But where does this increase in performance come from at Haas? The VF-22 from Magnussen and Schumacher has only been changed slightly since the beginning of the year, while other teams have already used several updates.

Schumacher: I don’t know. It’s always difficult to say what a car needs to be fast. We already had a strong car at the start of the season.”

But then you “maybe got a little lost with the set-up,” said the German. “But now we’re back to a very good set-up where other people might have problems with their package. All of this contributes to this result.”

In the Grand Prix in Spielberg, however, Schumacher also had to fight for sixth place. Coming from P9, he showed a few overtaking maneuvers, including against teammate Magnussen, but also against seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton.

But Schumacher puts it into perspective: “When I overtook [Hamilton], he had previously made a mistake. That helped.”

He also had an easy time against the McLaren drivers because they were driving on “used tyres”, whereas he was already using fresh tires himself. “And Fernando [Alonso] kindly let me pass. I expected much more resistance. It was nice to have everyone’s respect,” says Schumacher.

He also learned a lot. In the duel with Hamilton, for example: “Everyone is human. Everybody makes mistakes. Everyone is under pressure. And sometimes you make mistakes. This is important for me to know. That I don’t have to be afraid to fight anyone.”

That’s why he felt “very comfortable” in the duel situation. Also because the Haas VF-22 gives him a lot of self-confidence. Schumacher: “I think we have a car that we can fight with, which sometimes means we don’t have to take too many risks to be able to pass. Because we have this speed.”

The fact that he had to work his way up the field was “good for the experience,” emphasizes Schumacher, “to show what we can do. Because “the points could have come much earlier. But whatever. We are now showing the potential of the car and the potential of the drivers.”

And that after many difficult weeks at the beginning of the season, in which the pressure on Schumacher continued to grow due to a lack of top 10 results. There were also driving errors and a few blunders on the part of the team. Günther Steiner, as team boss, also publicly criticized Schumacher.

But the young German put up with it and says himself: “As an athlete, you need the pressure. That spurs you on, that makes you fast. It did that in a certain way.” Until Silverstone, the only thing missing was confirmation on the race track. Or as Schumacher put it himself: “I needed to finish in the points.”

And so Schumacher is now also annoyed about missed opportunities, says he could have “taken points with him” in the sprint on Saturday in Spielberg if Haas had allowed him to pass Magnussen.

That “upset” him, Schumacher admits, but more because Haas dropped points as a team. “Because every point is valuable in Formula 1. It [so] annoyed me not to get this point.”

He expressly gets along well with Magnussen. “As racing drivers, we are [although] the bottom line is that we are competitors. Everyone wants to do well for themselves. But yeah, Kevin showed me different things, different ways, different ideas. How to approach a race weekend and a race in particular,” explains Schumacher

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“I have the impression that we continue to help each other, we continue to grow together. And now we have both cars in the points again, for the second time in a row. We didn’t actually expect that.” That was a “refreshing change”.

Above all, it seems as if Schumacher has “arrived” in Formula 1. His uncle Ralf Schumacher sees it that way too. Speaking to ‘Sky’, he said: “I would say he finally feels it. There’s also a bit of a knot bursting. [And] now they can both bring the team forward.”

Mick Schumacher will gain self-confidence thanks to the current good results. “But the team will now have more trust in Mick,” says Ralf Schumacher. He is therefore promising an early contract extension for 2023. Original sound: “I think it will only be a matter of time before the team is also committed to the future.”

After Spielberg, team boss Steiner first spoke of a “fantastic result” for Haas in Formula 1. “We scored points with both cars and took P7 in the constructors’ championship again.” Steiner continues: “There was only a small one Problem with Kevin’s drivetrain, but other than that everything went absolutely perfect.”

The original of this article “Schumacher finally makes the breakthrough: “I needed that”” comes from Motorsport-Total.com.