Mick Schumacher reckons he would have scored his first career points in F1 a lot sooner had Haas not lost its way in terms of set-up of its VF-22 car.
The US outfit enjoyed a strong start to its 2022 season, with Kevin Magnussen scoring three top-ten finishes in the first four races, including in the opening round in Bahrain where the Dane clocked in an impressive P5.
But Haas' performance slumped thereafter while Schumacher endured a difficult period during which he suffered two massive crashes that led to team boss Guenther Steiner urging the young German to get his act together.
But a double-points finish at Silverstone provided a turnaround of sorts to Haas and a timely boost to Schumacher's confidence, with last weekend's even better double haul of points in Austria confirming the team's upswing.
©Haas
"We’re now at 10 points, which is quite nice and would have been 12 if in Silverstone we would have been P7," said Schumacher after last weekend's round of racing at the Red Bull Ring.
"It’s great for the team, double points finish again, twice in a row. Which was not really anticipated in some ways so it’s a refreshing change.
"I think that we now showed the potential that the car has, but also we showed the potential the drivers have."
Notwithstanding his own mistakes in the first part of the season, Schumacher admitted that Haas had lost its way in terms of understanding its new-generation car.
The US outfit could also not rely on updates to improve its performance, having put a hold on development until Hungary.
"We had a strong car at the beginning of the year," the German explained. "I see some people brought updates, we maybe lost our way in terms of set-up a bit, but then came back to a very good set-up and other people maybe are struggling with their package so that completes the result that you see."
After Haas' recent string of good results, Steiner joked about how his team may have performed had it followed the trend and introduced updates to its car in the first half of the season.
"Can you imagine if we had upgrades where we are?" he laughed, speaking on the F1 Nation podcast.
"I always say upgrades are overrated, in my opinion, and we will bring some in Hungary – hopefully they will work as they should work.
"I don’t always follow what the others are doing, you need to go your own way, and we decided in Barcelona not to bring anything just to bring them because it wasn’t good enough.
"We developed more and hopefully, when we bring them in Hungary, they will work."
©Haas
Steiner even suggested that an efficient upgrade package could allow Haas to score points in every race in the back-half of the season.
"The performance in Spielberg was particularly good for us, which was of course a bit unexpected," said the Italian. "But to be honest, I think we can score points in every race."
As for Schumacher's own uptick in performance, which has obviously benefitted Haas, Steiner believes that he saw a change in the German in Montreal.
"I saw a little change in Canada, I don’t know why. I just saw he was a little bit more relaxed about things," he said.
"I think maybe more confident. From there onwards, he was just more at peace with himself, maybe not pushing too hard, just trying to get the best out of the car what he could."
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