Mick Schumacher 'struggled to inspire confidence' during his time at Haas, former F1 champion's damning claim about German driver

Damon Hill believes that Mick Schumacher failed to form an impression or 'inspire confidence' about himself on team members and hence, lost his seat on the Formula 1 grid.

Hill was talking about the struggles Mick Schumacher has faced against other young drivers. He talked about the 'impression' that some legends of the sport made when they entered the grid for the first time. Talking about this, PlanetF1 quoted the former F1 champion as saying:

"When Michael Schumacher, Max Verstappen, and Ayrton Senna arrived, everyone thought, ‘Wow, where did that come from? Who is this guy?’ I wouldn’t say Oscar [Piastri] has had that opportunity yet, but he certainly looked very competent and solid. He’s not someone you think, ‘Oh my goodness, that looks shaky'.

"Mick Schumacher never really put in those kind of standout performances and struggled to inspire the confidence people need in a driver."

Though the young Schumacher looked better in Haas during the 2022 season, he wasn't competitive enough, compared to his experienced teammate Kevin Magnussen. He failed to score in a lot of races and even had major crashes, perhaps the biggest being the one in Jeddah during qualifying.

All of these issues led to Guenther Steiner replacing him in the team with Nico Hulkenberg, yet another experienced driver. Mick Schumacher was left without a seat after this. However, Mercedes signed him as their reserve driver soon after, giving him an opportunity to stay with the sport.

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Damon Hill draws contrast between Oscar Piastri and Mick Schumacher

Oscar Piastri

Oscar Piastri is one of the most recent entrants in Formula 1 to have made his way to the empty McLaren seat that Daniel Ricciardo's departure left behind. Though his start of the season has been quite like Schumacher's - pointless in a poorly competitive car - Hill feels that his future is much more secure.

Adding to what he said about Mick Schumacher not 'inspiring confidence', Hill feels that it wouldn't be an issue for Piastri. The former champion feels that no matter how the season has been for the youngster in the first two races, he looks stable and fairly competitive.

"Before you know it, it becomes a huge snowball effect where the snowball gets bigger and bigger and crushes you. Oscar doesn’t have to worry about that for now. He has a solid base from which to start."

Though McLaren is yet to score a point, Piastri did pull a smooth race in Saudi Arabia last week, finishing ahead of Lando Norris, his teammate, though only P15. If the team does get more competitive, it could be interesting to see how better the Australian gets across the length of this first Formula 1 season.