Despite Haas’ notorious struggles, it wasn’t that much of a bad weekend in Portugal for the team. Rookie Mick Schumacher managed to overtake Nicholas Latifi’s Williams, just three laps before the end of the race after his relentless pressure finally paid off.

“It was a challenging race and unfortunately overtaking is quite difficult around here," explained Schumacher.

"It was tough for us lap after lap having to follow close-by, especially in the midfield where we were quite strong. Being that close – you just burn up your tyres and obviously then it gets difficult.”

"Eventually we pushed the Williams into a mistake, then we kind of had a free run and were able to show our pace."

It was after Latifi’s lock up at Turn 2 that the German managed to overtake him and position himself in 17th place, outperforming his teammate Mazepin once again.

Lap 62/66: Mick makes his move on Latifi as the Canadian runs wide at Turn 2 ⬆️ P17. #HaasF1 #PortugueseGP pic.twitter.com/GieCGT1l1G

— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) May 2, 2021

Even just being able to fight with a Williams sounds like a step forward for the American team, considering the development of the car has been completely arrested long ago despite the Portuguese GP being only the 3rd race of the season.

But Schumacher feels as if he could have got the most out of the weekend had he managed to overtake the Canadian earlier on. That, he argues, could have put him in the position to try and catch up with George Russell’s Williams.

"If we had cleared Nicholas (Latifi) earlier, I think we could maybe even have had the pace to catch up to and fight with George (Russell)," he said.

"It was tough for us lap after lap having to follow close-by, especially in the midfield where we were quite strong."@SchumacherMick reviews his race 👇#HaasF1 #PortugueseGP pic.twitter.com/HFIszK3bEq

— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) May 2, 2021

"Overall, we wanted a clean race and to see the checkered flag. We managed that and everything went well.”