In the 2021 season, there were three rookie drivers in the 20 driver Formula One field: Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin as well as Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda.
Although all three drivers were able to retain their seats throughout the season, Mazepin was rather infamously let go from Haas early in 2022 after the fallout of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. With Mazepin out of the picture, just two remain from that rookie class in Formula 1.
Which is sort of funny in effect, because the two really could not have more different backgrounds. Schumacher, as the son of Michael, was always going to have doors open for him. That doesn’t mean he was guaranteed to go through them, but having that name and the connections the Schumacher family has in the sport absolutely helped him get looks to showcase his talent. In 2019, Schumacher signed with the Ferrari Driving Academy because of course he did, and he backed up that signing with an F3 and F2 championship in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
Tsunoda, obviously, couldn’t be much further away. A standout in Japan and a champion in the F4 championship in that country for Honda, Tsunoda caught the eye of Honda partner Red Bull and parlayed a standout third place in F2 in 2020 to move up to F1 in 2021. Tsunoda’s progression as a junior driver was very impressive because, unlike many of the drivers he raced against, he had no experience going in at any of the European tracks that make up those calendars.
There’s not much to gleam from Schumacher’s rookie season, between the woefully horrible Haas he was given and an unreliable teammate that spent his time either seconds behind or spinning out. Schumacher trounced Mazepin 11-3 in the 14 races where both had classified finishes. At AlphaTauri, Tsunoda spent much of the year being well behind veteran teammate Pierre Gasly, being outscored in points 111 to 32 and outqualified in all but one grand prix.
Both showed a lot of progression near the end of their rookie seasons. Tsunoda came alive at Abu Dhabi in the final race of the year, outqualifying Gasly and making a crazy move in the closing lap shootout to finish fourth. Schumacher didn’t have the car to do much, but to his credit, he was beginning to compete with and even beat Nicholas Latifi in the Williams in the latter half of the year.
But now, it seems both drivers have regressed in their sophomore season, and both may be liable to losing their rides. The Achille’s heel…
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