Mick Schumacher admitted the Haas F1 Team did not have the pace to challenge for points in Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and he ended his stint with the team with a sixteenth-place finish.
The German, who will be replaced by Nico Hülkenberg for the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, survived a late collision with Nicholas Latifi at the hairpin to take sixteenth, although he earned a five-second time penalty for the clash as well as two penalty points.
After getting through to Q2 during Saturday’s Qualifying session, Schumacher knew fighting for the top ten was always likely to be difficult in Abu Dhabi, and so it proved to be. However, the team had done enough to secure eighth in the Constructors’ Championship, finishing two points clear of Scuderia AlphaTauri.
“We didn’t quite have the pace today, one lap pace was there yesterday, but we knew it would be tough to stay in position,” said Schumacher, who leaves Haas after two seasons having scored twelve points for them in 2022.
“We were hoping for a bit more but at the end we kept eighth in the Constructors’ Championship and that was the focus.
“I’m happy for the team as it means a totally different budget and I’m sure they’ll be able to use it.”
“We didn’t really have a great chance to do much” – Kevin Magnussen
Team-mate Kevin Magnussen had a mediocre end to the year, the Dane finishing his first year back in Formula 1 with a seventeenth-place finish.
Magnussen, who took his maiden Formula 1 pole position in the previous round in Brazil, felt he did not have any kind of pace that would have been needed to fight for points, but he was pleased that the team were able to finish eighth in the standings.
After a wretched couple of seasons at the back of the pack, Magnussen was pleased Haas were able to regroup and contend once more for top ten finishes throughout the season, even if they were unable to achieve another one at the Yas Marina Circuit.
“P8 was the most important thing of course, we didn’t really have a great chance to do much today but at least eighth stuck and that’s a good thing for developing over the winter and just a nice step to take forward from the last two years that Haas has had,” Magnussen said.
“It’s a nice place to build from and I’m looking forward to next year.”
