"Mick Schumacher was a bit overrated" - Former Haas driver getting exposed by Nico Hulkenberg's early season form
F1 pundit Ben Anderson reckons former Haas driver Mick Schumacher is 'overrated' and has rightly been replaced by Nico Hulkenberg.
The German was dropped by Haas at the end of the 2022 season after his lack of consistency and points-scoring despite showing an upturn in form. He was replaced by Hulkenberg, who has scored six points after three races this season.
On The Race podcast, Anderson said:
"I think the good driver has always been in there, and I'm not surprised that he is stronger and a bit more consistent than Mick Schumacher. I always felt that Mick Schumacher was overrated and kind of got into F1 through Ferrari more and because of his name and not because he was an outstanding talent.
"I'm not saying that he is a bad driver, but I'm not surprised that he hasn't continued, and I think Hulkenberg, being a kind of Covid specialist superstar, kept himself sharp and still had some hunger for it."
"I mean it was wild and a little bit messy at times" - Nico Hulkenberg
Niko Hulkenberg, while analysing his race, was not disappointed with his P7 finish in Melbourne, despite the possibility of scoring more points. Speaking to F1.com, the German said:
“Yeah, you know, ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda’. I mean it was wild and a little bit messy at times. I think we have to look through how everything happened and what the actions were. It was a lot of things happening; it was very dynamic.
"I had a super start, I think, the third time around on softs, and came through to P4. It’s a shame that there were a few incidents, and they red-flagged it, otherwise it could have been a really strong result today."
He continued:
“But even before that, I think we would have come home in P9, which is obviously not as good as P7 or P4 or something, but still a lot of positive learnings again, and (we can) take a lot of positives out of this race and (going) forward – I feel there’s a lot of good things happening. Yeah, I enjoy it, to say the last. I’m refreshed; I’ve got a good mindset, a very positive mindset. I’m feeling hungry,"
It will be fascinating to see if Nico Hulkenberg can guide the American team to a high position in the standings this season.