“Blessed is he who expects nothing,” wrote the poet Alexander Pope, “for he will never be disappointed.”
Two of the three drivers who made their debut in Formula 1 last season arrived loaded with great expectations: Yuki Tsunoda , considered Red Bull’s next great promise by Helmut Marko , the team’s energy drink adviser; and Mick Schumacher , son of seven-time world champion Michael, supported by Ferrari and surrounded by much of his father’s entourage. It’s fair to say that none of them have made an immediate impact that can be described as Ayrton Senna , Lewis Hamilton , or Schumacher himself.
Considering the significant technological leap between F2 and F1 in the hybrid era, beyond the difference in downforce levels, was it fair to expect the result to be different?
Yuki Tsunoda
Verdict: You can do better
Championship position: 14th
Best finish: 4th (Abu Dhabi Grand Prix)
Points: 32
There were those who thought Marko was crossing the line when he claimed that Tsunoda had been faster than Mick Schumacher in F2. Still, the Honda protégé came into F1 as arguably the best newcomer to come through Red Bull ‘s young driver program since Max Verstappen .
In Bahrain, Tsunoda became the first driver to score points on his grand prix debut since Stoffel Vandoorne in 2016 with McLaren. The way he did it – making several passes, and attacking Lance Stroll for ninth on the final lap – seemed to justify Marko’s faith. In fact, it was a display that led F1 sporting director Ross Brawn to describe Tsunoda as “the best Formula 1 rookie in years”, a label that stuck with the Japanese driver for the rest of the season.
After his debut, Tsunoda was outclassed by his experienced teammate Pierre Gasly , especially in qualifying , as he found it more difficult than anticipated to adjust to F1’s different levels of downforce, the demands of Pirelli tires and a car that could be fast on one lap but tended to wear out the tires too much.
In these last two aspects, the Japanese shared weak points with his litter of rookies: arriving in an intermediate year, in which the aerodynamics of the cars had to be modified to protect an obsolete range of tyres. After being eliminated in Q1 in Barcelona, he went so far as to affirm that he received a different treatment and parts from those of Gasly.
“I lost my mind,” he reflected later.
There were signs of improvement as the season progressed, especially in Hungary, where Tsunoda pulled through the chaos to claim sixth place; or as in the Grand Prix of the United States where he got one of his few visits to Q3 and finished ninth; and the end of Abu Dhabi. But in Austin he fell almost a second behind Gasly in the last cut, and had to resort to the soft tire, worse strategically, to get there, which made him suffer in the first stint .
Alex Albon , who has been training Tsunoda, has a steering wheel again in F1 , so his management in his second season will depend on the Japanese driver himself. It’s clear where he needs to improve: perform with the car in qualifying, avoid problems in the race and do a little less cursing on the team radio.
Mick Schumacher
Verdict: Should improve
Championship position: 19th
Best result: 12th (Hungarian Grand Prix)
Points: 0
A lot of ink has been spilled on the subject of Schumacher’s track record in the development categories and we don’t want to add to that. Suffice it to say that he arrived as the F2 champion and was the subject of great anticipation for his surname. He also landed with a group made up of his father’s former entourage, and with the gift of being able to conduct a lengthy interview session without saying much in substance.
“It has been much better than I imagined,” he said of his first season in F1 at one of those press conferences. “Racing-wise, we knew it was going to be a tough year, but I think we’ve managed well as a team.”
Schumacher has a remarkable talent for being undervalued. Haas, a team that has barely been able to be competitive for the last 18 months, entered the 2021 season with a car that changed very little from the previous year. Apart from some modifications to certain components, it did not receive any significant improvements.
Attempting to drive the VF-21 at speed sometimes seemed to put its drivers on the brink of an accident, so both Schumacher and teammate Nikita Mazepin deserve credit for crashing less often than they might have. But while the car’s poor specification has eased some of the weight of expectations on Schumacher, and made it impossible to rigorously assess him against the rest of the field, it’s fair to say he has beaten Mazepin handily.
The German was faster than the Russian in qualifying. Mazepin was rumored to be running a modified chassis that weighed 4 kilos more than Schumacher’s, which was a new one built in the wake of Romain Grosjean’s accident in Bahrain in 2020. explain differences of up to a second or more.
Schumacher showed up sporadically when the car allowed him to. At Paul Ricard he went to Q2 for the first time. In Hungary he had another big crash, this time in the third practice session and, after missing out on qualifying, benefited from the chaos of Turn 1 to enter the points zone momentarily. Just as impressive was the way he kept Antonio Giovinazzi behind at the end of the race, while having to obey the blue flags, to maintain 13th position (which later became 12th), even though it wouldn’t do him any good. to earn points.
When Schumacher had a scare in Saudi Arabia, he was trying to get into DRS range to attack George Russell ‘s Williams. His fighting spirit is to be admired, and if he follows the trend he set in the developmental categories where he made big improvements in his second year, he can still live up to all those high expectations.
Nikita Mazepin
Verdict: Must do better
Championship position: 21st
Best result: 14th (Azerbaijan Grand Prix)
Points: 0
“You have to eat an elephant bite by bite,” Mazepin told reporters before the season finale. “For me, F1 and an elephant are quite similar.”
More than his eating habits, what has caught Mazepin’s attention in his rookie season is his demeanor on the track, as well as a true mix of spins and maneuvers. This should come as no surprise given his history of self-control issues, such as punching Callum Ilott in the face during an F3 round in 2016, and most recently nearly running Tsunoda down in the parc ferme after the F2 main race at Spa in 2020.
That said, he has kept his temper in check during his first season in F1, although relations with his team-mate have not been very cordial. In a remarkable – and ugly – return to habits exhibited in F2 , Mazepin nearly drove Schumacher into the wall at Zandvoort.
He has also been criticized for passing other drivers for a fast lap during qualifying and not respecting the gentleman’s agreement, a tactic that is accepted in F2 but considered disrespectful in F1. Still, the conduct of the series’ stars (including Sebastian Vettel and Verstappen) who did the same to Mazepin in Jeddah suggests that the gentlemen’s agreement is worthless as it is not written on paper.
Mazepin was arguably better prepared for his debut than Tsunoda or Schumacher, as his father (whose money has kept the Haas team afloat) paid for an extensive private testing program in a 2017 Mercedes F1 car during 2020. “Possibly.” is the key word, since the Haas is an inferior car.
“Driving the Mercedes last year I think he learned something, but he has to know that our car is not as good as a Mercedes,” Haas team boss Gunther Steiner said after Mazepin spun in early practice. in Imola. “He has to find that limit, but that has to be done by him, not by us. We have the whole year to learn. Hopefully we don’t have the season to spin.”
Mazepin has shown his improvement, albeit from a very low bar, especially after his father paid him for a new chassis to replace the old one, which seemed to be overweight and complained of it from the first lap. At Interlagos he shed a tear after missing his fastest lap of Q1, one that could have been quicker than Schumacher’s.
Although he has only finished ahead of the German three times, he has retired less often than you might think, and not all of those mistakes have been his fault. In Hungary, for example, Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo crossed his path in the pitlane . However, the overall impression is of a driver driving at the limit of his abilities and keeping a terrible car on the track.
