Schumacher's self-criticism doesn't "depress" Haas rookie

Haas chief race engineer Ayao Komatsu is impressed with how Mick Schumacher's self-critical nature serves as "extra motivation" rather than 'depressing' the rookie.

Schumacher provided Haas with its season highlight so far in the recent Turkish Grand Prix with a Q2 appearance, leading team principal Guenther Steiner to declare the German has "big potential" in F1.

Despite his pace, though, the season has been mixed for Schumacher who has also been involved in a number of practice crashes that have jeopardised his qualifying ability but Komatsu explained the 22-year-old is his own harshest critic.

"Mick works very hard, whether he has a good weekend or a bad weekend and he is very self-critical, in a good way," said Komatsu.

"He is always looking for areas to improve. When he is talking about 'I have done this wrong, I need to improve,' it doesn't actually depress him, it just gives him extra motivation.

"He is always looking at himself as well as other things he can influence. So it is very good, all the hard work that goes into it.

"He works very hard with his engineers so again, Mick's engineers are really motivated by Mick's attitude as well so it works both ways."

Schumacher is ahead of team-mate Nikita Mazepin by virtue of his 12th-place finish in Hungary and has finished ahead of the Russian in 14 of the 17 races this year.

Related

More F1 news

Latest F1 news

Max Verstappen admits his priorities have changed as F1 star makes heartbreaking admission

• 39 minutes ago

FIA announce update to F1 race start times for rest of 2026 season

• 1 hour ago

Monaco is an F1 tax haven and the 'ultimate symbol of wealth' but one British star still refuses to live there

• 2 hours ago

Lewis Hamilton strikes it rich with genius deal as $10bn valuation looms

• 3 hours ago

F1 News Today: Ferrari poach Mercedes star, Toto Wolff admits 'sometimes we get it wrong'

• Today 07:15

F1 star faces calendar nightmare after qualifying for race that clashes with Singapore GP

• Yesterday 23:15