Damon Hill believes Mick Schumacher was unable to cope with the pressure of Formula 1, saying it "got to" him in the end. Schumacher lost his Haas seat at the end of the 2022 campaign, with the team electing to sign Nico Hulkenberg as his replacement to partner Kevin Magnussen. With no further places available on the 2023 grid, the German has been forced to look for a potential third driver role, and is tipped to take on the vacancy at Mercedes following Nyck de Vries and Stoffel Vandoorne leaving for AlphaTauri and Aston Martin, respectively. 1996 World Champion Hill feels that Schumacher was not able to deliver his best after failing to adjust to Grand Prix racing.
Hill on Schumacher
Schumacher had a difficult sophomore year at Haas, with multiple big crashes (including in Saudi Arabia, Monaco and Japan), but did score his maiden F1 points at Silverstone before claiming a 'best of the rest' sixth in Austria next time out. Despite the breakthrough, Hill felt the 2020 Formula 2 champion was found wanting. "I think Mick was under a lot of scrutiny, a lot of pressure, and I think that it got to him in the end," he explained on the F1 Nation podcast. "I don't know where he gets his advice from, but I think he probably found Formula 1 was harder than he thought. "There's other aspects to it which you only get from years of being in the sport, which Nico Hulkenberg has had. "Therefore he can concentrate on delivering for the team, and the team ultimately need people who can just do the job without putting them under stress."
What Hill expects from Hulkenberg
Hulkenberg, a veteran of 181 race starts, is set for a first full-time drive in F1 since Renault (now Alpine) in 2019, having been a COVID stand-in for Racing Point and Aston Martin throughout the pandemic. He subbed for Sergio Perez in the Silverstone double-header in 2020, before driving for Lance Stroll at the Eifel Grand Prix later that year, finishing seventh and eighth in his two showings having recorded a DNS in the British GP itself. His latest showings to date came at the start of the 2022 campaign, replacing Sebastian Vettel in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. He then continued to test for the Aston Martin team. This was something Hill noticed when explaining how he felt Hulkenberg would get on. "He's made a few comebacks, which have been pretty impressive considering the amount of time he's been out of a car," Hill pointed out. "He has got quite a few races in his bank, hasn't he? "I think it's hard to [come back] once you've had a break, I think it's very hard to get fully up to speed, but he's not under pressure in the same way that Mick was."
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