F1 | Bahrain GP | Schumacher on his expectations and first ever race in Formula 1
After his 19th place in qualifying Mick Schumacher said he's not disappointed at all and that he's happy of how he felt in the car, even if there's always something to improve. He stated that the first race "is about gaining experience" and that he's very excited to start this 2021 season.
Ahead of today's race Mick Schumacher seems to have already found some confidence with the team even if this will be his first race as an official driver of a Formula 1 team.
After yesterday's 19th place in qualifying, a not very different result from what was expected, given Haas' intention to focus more on the 2022 season, the 22-year-old German has released some statements to the press, including Motorlat.
He also clarified some doubts by saying that his teammate's mistake did not affect his qualifying lap:
"In the first lap out he was in front of me and of course I had to back off, in the second lap he span when I had already finished my lap so there was no involvement".
Mick improved his time to move to P19.
— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) March 27, 2021
Nikita spins again at turn 1 so cant improve and qualifies P20. #HaasF1 #BahrainGP #Quali pic.twitter.com/W6QsDClQ4c
Then he gave his opinion on what he need to grasp from his first ever race in F1:
"I guess there's no challenge, but it's obviously an opportunity to gain some exprerience, you know, learn how to drive properly in Grand Prix, with all the strategies, pit stops, race start and also start fighting. A lot of new things for me, and I'm very excited of course"
Mick said that no matter where he qualified he's happy with the car, but he's of course still trying to understand it, and the weather conditions weren't helping him a lot during the process of getting even more familiar with it:
"In general I am very happy with how I felt. In terms of handling, there are always things that can you can improve and do better"
"The car was very wind affected, so it's kinda hard to anticipate what it would do, it made it feel different in some corners, but I think we were able to make the most of the conditions. Obviously we just had one day of testing and the free practice session before Quali, so I think it was actually fine"
He doesn't consider himself disappointed and wants to focus on the improvement that can be made throughout the season:
"I think in general we shouldn't say disappointing in ant way. I think we managed it pretty well, we achieved what we had imagined in terms of pace. I think in general I can say that I am 95 percent satisfied with my lap. Obviously there's a lof of things I can improve and I'll definitely be still working to try to understand and prepare myself for tomorrow"
"Obviously this is the first race and it is also about gaining experience and then hopefully trying to improve throughout the year "
"For now it's about preparing everything for tomorrow, so this means meetings with the team to talk about strategies, different plans and hopefully have a good night and head back to the track as soon as I can"
He also said that he's optimistic of the fact that his team may be able to fight with the others on track:
"I'm positive about that yes. Obviously we'll be working on ourselves, I'll be working on myself, I see the motivation [to do good] in the team and I see no reason why we shouldn't be optimistic that at some point during the season we'll be able to do that." he concluded.
