Shop
The arrival of Kevin Magnussen at Haas for the 2022 Formula 1 season offers a yardstick for Mick Schumacher.
Magnussen was signed in place of Nikita Mazepin in the days prior to last week’s final pre-season test in Bahrain.
The Dane spent 2021 racing sportscars in the United States, but prior to that has six full seasons of F1 under his belt with the likes of McLaren and Renault.
He was a Haas driver for four years from 2017 until his most recent departure from the grid at the end of 2020.
“It’s definitely beneficial for me and the for team,” Schumacher opined of his new team-mate.
“He’s been part of it for four years, then obviously had a one-year break, but everybody likes him in the team.
“I think the emotion and the feeling in the team is really good, and he’s a good reference, so it’s only positive for now.”
Schumacher entered F1 last season off the back of a championship-winning campaign in Formula 2.
However, his potential was masked by a poor car throughout the campaign as Haas instead focused its energies on the new ruleset introduced for 2022.
Partnered alongside Mazepin throughout his rookie year, it make drawing comparisons difficult.
With Magnussen, he has something more of a known quantity against which to measure up.
“I think that obviously I can benefit from his experience, and also, I think he’s a good benchmark,” Schumacher said.
“So I now have the opportunity to kind of measure myself and have the pressure and kind of try and deliver under pressure too.”
Magnussen got behind the wheel of the Haas VF-22 for the first time on Friday afternoon of Bahrain testing, the penultimate day of running.
In total, he managed 530km of running, just over half that of Schumacher who recorded 1021km across all six days of running.
The 2022 Formula 1 season gets underway with the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend, with opening practice starting at 23:00 AEDT on Friday.
