Mick Schumacher's first F1 season hasn't been easy, with him and his teammate Nikita Mazepin almost always stuck at the back of the grid and little to no development on the car throughout the season, as Haas focused more on projecting the 2022 car. 

However, the 2020 F2 champion, in spite of not scoring points, still managed to impress the fans and his fellow drivers  ending up in their top ten best drivers of the season. Schumacher easily outperformed Mazepin, ahead of him in 16 races out of 22, appeared twice in Q2 in Turkey and France, and had the best result of his F1 career so far at Hungaroring, P12.

Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel, extremely close to Mick and his father Michael, complimented his driving efforts, saying in the last press conference of the season that, while the unstableness of his VF-21 makes it hard to judge his results, he believes the German has done an "incredible job" for the American team, in what even Team Principal Steiner called "a challenging year".

"Well, I think it's difficult to judge because the car has been so far off, but, you know, for those who are looking closely - obviously I've been following - yeah, he did an incredible job with such a poor car to reach Q2 a couple of times, to have strong showings in the race, fight some of the cars that are much faster, or stick with the cars are supposed to be much faster."

Vettel added that his performances might have helped to boost the morale of the team, considering the lack of development on the 2020 challenger and, therefore, the rather negative season.

"That's a great effort, and even more so I think it's been a huge lift for the entire team. I think the offset from the start of the season for that team was poor because they had no development, and they were far behind."

Another factor to ease what turned out to be the worst season in the history of the team, which Schumacher brought to Haas, is his positive attitude and politeness, and his dedication to the job:

"I think if you look throughout the year Mick has been very happy, enthusiastic and happy to put work in and he's been one of the first ones - if not the first one - every single day to come to the paddock, one of the latest ones to leave and showing huge interest in trying to push the team along," said the four times World Champion.

Vettel concluded hoping that the young German will be able to prove to everyone his talent under the new regulations, with a more performant car and experience from his rookie year:

"So apart from the job on track that he did, apart from maybe some very small mistakes that happen in your first year, he did a great job. So, I really wish that he gets a much better car next year so he can show what he's able to do."