Mick Schumacher is hoping that scoring his first Formula 1 points at the British Grand Prix will end questions about his performances from the media.
The Haas driver did not have the car to challenge for the top 10 in his rookie season, but this year is in much more competitive machinery and has started inside the top 10 on three occasions but failed to convert. With pressure building around his lack of points, Schumacher delivered a strong drive to eighth place at Silverstone – fighting aggressively with Max Verstappen to the line for seventh – and said he hopes the result will let him focus on his job.
“It’s great for the team. We have double-points so that’s obviously very helpful in the constructors’, but also for me I think it’s great to just get those questions from the media away and focus on what’s really important, and that’s the racing and the driving itself.”
Schumacher led home teammate Kevin Magnussen in 10th despite starting so far back after a difficult wet qualifying session in Great Britain, and said he had confidence that the car was much more competitive than that result suggested.
“I think we’ve had a good direction in terms of set-up, ” he said. “We knew what we had to change and it wasn’t a big change; what we had to do to pick up the pace. And we knew in FP3 the pace was there. So there was no reason why it wasn’t going to be there in the long run, and sure enough, it was there.
“It’s great to be able to score points in a double-points finish, which is something we’ve been aiming for for a while now. And now we’re just trying to, bit by bit, take some more points out of the others and try to overtake them, too.”
