Mick Schumacher ‘more comfortable’ with Kevin Magnussen as Haas teammate

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Haas driver Mick Schumacher says he feels “more comfortable” with Kevin Magnussen as his teammate in Formula 1.

Schumacher is in his second season of F1 and last year he was driving with Nikita Mazepin by his side at Haas. Mazepin was let go ahead of the 2022 season and replaced by Magnussen due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and his supposed family connections to Vladimir Putin.

The team are doing better than they have done for the past few seasons with Magnussen scoring their first points in two years in the opening races. Schumacher says he can learn a lot from his teammate.

“It’s very interesting to see how Kevin approaches a GP weekend,” he told SpeedWeek. “We can benefit from each other in the way he feels from the car and what I feel.

“We share all the information, it’s very open about how the car behaves in different corners. Then we bring our joint impressions together and try to make the car even better as a result. Sometimes I’m faster, sometimes he is.

“I feel more comfortable with the working relationship with the other driver this year, it’s going really well. And we are realigning expectations. Last year we had to be happy if we found ourselves in 16th place. This season we can finish fifth if everything goes optimally.”

Schumacher is yet to score a point in the sport but he will be bidding to do so in the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Team principal Guenther Steiner is happy with the balance the two drivers have, saying: “Internally, the team works very well together on both sides of the garage – with engineers and mechanics – it’s a very good atmosphere at the moment.”