Mick Schumacher, Max Verstappen speak on their F1 British GP duel in the final few laps, as Sebastian Vettel adds on his praise.
It’s been a long time coming. And like everything, there has been chances of points here and there but at long last after a very spirited performance, Haas’ Schumacher finally scored his first points in F1 after finishing eighth being narrowly pipped by Max Verstappen.
Not just that but teammate Kevin Magnussen took tenth for a double score for Haas. It was a heavy start to the F1 British GP with the crash and red flag. Schumacher didn’t have the cleanest of runs to begin with and didn’t look to be in the position for points, but he came back through in second half which put him well inside the Top 10.
“So we were driving two different compounds I think we weren’t quite sure if the C1 was going to work or not so we kind of gambled and obviously we hadn’t driven it before,” stated Schumacher on strategy difference to Magnussen. “So it was quite hard to judge what we needed and stuff”.
“Probably, it was a bit sub-optimal but on the other hand, it kind of made it like a snake in terms of behaviour of the tyre. Kind of dropped and then it came back, it dropped and came back so I think I wouldn’t have had a problem at all if the safety car hadn’t had come out at the end there”.
“I think we would have probably been clear of Max ahead but I think that overall we did the right things at the right time which is best,” summed up Schumacher. They say the first score of points is always most memorable and a massive monkey off the back of the young German. The whole team was elated as was the German’s family.
The points didn’t come easy too as his late battle against Verstappen was one to see where the German did not go easy on the Dutchman, even though the Red Bull driver had floor damage. “It’s great to be able to score points in a double points finish and which is something great and something we’ve been aiming for, for a while now and now we’re just trying to, bit by bit, try and get some more points out of the others and try to overtake them too,” said Schumacher.
“It feels great. The last two laps with Max was quite challenging and interesting and it was good to get a taste of how to battle with him, for future battles. And to take notes and hopefully come on better the next time,” he stated, while elaborating more on the fight being a bit edgy at certain corners with no space.
“We spoke about it at the beginning of the year, it is something to look at but I am not trying to hint towards anything and at the end we are just happy that we had a good race,” stated Schumacher. Post-race, Verstappen had a chat with the German in the media pen, with the Dutchman having praise for the Haas driver.
“I said to him I knew you were fighting for the points,” started Verstappen to media. “He said he really wanted seventh and I said I know you did.I think it was good, hard but fair battle I think. I knew Mick was going to give it his all to go for seventh. It was a bit of a struggle to hang in there but luckily it worked out.”
Aside the praise from Verstappen, Aston Martin’s Vettel had a birds eye view of Schumacher’s battle between the two as they had a good embrace after the race. The world champion has a huge soft corner for the youngster and always looks after him as his own child and a mentor.
“I was very happy for him, I saw what happened and I know he was closing the gap,” said Vettel. “I was actually screaming inside the car like Go Mick, Go Mick. So, I’m very happy for him, it’s been a long time and he deserves the result and it’s great to get it. When I saw him coming after the restart, I knew both Max and him on the soft tyres, couldn’t really resist so there wasn’t much point to fight back”.
“I thought maybe I would get him at the end but they were too quick. It was actually entertaining to see them going for it each time into turn 16, it looked like you were side by side, also into turn 6 sometimes and down the Wellington straight so well done,” summed up Vettel.
Here’s how F1 British GP panned out
Here’s Mick Schumacher after the race on radio: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2022-british-grand-prix-schumacher-praises-brilliant-haas-after-scoring-first-f1-points.1737351832742574632.html
Here’s Mick Schumacher family post race: https://twitter.com/HaasF1Team/status/1543893350205497347?s=20&t=zMfzzKrxGYgrJPZG0RqRdQ
Here’s Sebastian Vettel and Mick Schumacher in parc ferme: https://twitter.com/F1/status/1543639165165871105?s=20&t=zMfzzKrxGYgrJPZG0RqRdQ
