Schumacher: Fighting again with Lewis was fun

It was a torrid early part of the season, measured up against a vastly more experienced and resurgent Kevin Magnussen Mick's costly prangs and misdemeanours were well documented to the point that questions about his future in F1 were starting to be seeded.

Eighth at Silverstone all but halted his plummeting graph, his first F1 points. Now followed by sixth at Red Bull Ring a week later. His finest hour at the pinnacle of the sport and the trigger for the upward graph his career has now entered.

This was also well earned, going wheel-to-wheel with some of the icons of the sport, the best in the business, Schumacher was punchy and impressive, clearly having learnt from previous duels with a Haas car that can actually run in good company, as opposed to chasing everyone as he did last year.

Speaking after his best showing in F1 thus far: "It was a lot of fun out there. We had to battle our way through which was great for experience and to show what we're able to do out there.

"As athletes, you're always after that pressure and with Silverstone, coming in with the points was what I needed to set off fireworks like this.

"Kevin had a very great start to the season and has shown me different tools and different ideas. I feel like we're feeding off each other. I think we're going in the right direction.

"We scored points at Silverstone and here, I think we could have scored points [in the Sprint Race] which shows a steep upward trend which hopefully we keep at Paul Ricard," added the 23-year-old son of F1 legend Michael Schumacher.

One of the highlights of the race on Sunday was Schumacher's battle with Mercedes seven-time F1 World Champion Hamilton - the driver who replaced Michael at Mercedes when he retired.

Which Mick recalled in the Haas team report: "Fighting again with Lewis was fun. I felt a lot different compared to the Sprint, obviously knowing that we had to take care of the tires.

"Quite soon I felt it wasn’t going to be a one-stop race just because of the way the tires were behaving – the winds were very different and difficult to manage.

"It was tough out there but it’s another double-points finish again after Silverstone, so everyone in the team can be very happy about the result. Being voted driver of the day as well is great so thank you to everybody."

The word "finally" in the opening paragraph of this piece is a tad unfair because there is a pattern in young Schumacher's journey in the sport. He was never stellar in his first season in F3 or F2, but by the middle of season two in both series he found form that propelled him to both those titles - in 2018 and 2020, respectively.

He is now a year and half into his career as an F1 driver, he is beginning to blossom and it is hoped he will continue to grow from strength to strength as, history has shown, he tends to do.

Guenther Steiner who in the past has made it clear that Mick needed to raise his game and stop costing the team so much money but after Austria, the Haas team boss dished out praise: "The car and his teammate are competitive.

"Mick is now fighting with the Big Boys. He had to get used to it first. Internally, there was no great pressure.

"Externally, some people have tried to find drama but pressure is normal. Accidents are part of the journey when looking for the limit. And that includes criticism. This is F1. You have to learn to deal with all these background noises. And now Mick has done that," explained Steiner.