2021 turned out to be quite a busy year for Sebastian Vettel, who not only had to race for Aston Martin but also had to mentor his idol Michael Schumacher’s F2 championship-winning son, Mick Schumacher.

While his debut stint with Aston Martin did not go as per plan amidst visible struggles throughout the season, the 4-time world champion sounded absolutely happy about the way his pupil, Schumacher, worked his way through the rookie season with Haas.

Vettel praised Schumacher’s incredible commitment to racing; he reckoned that the Haas driver was one of the first drivers to enter the paddock and one of the last drivers to leave every single day.

This is certainly an applaudable feat considering Schumacher gained no motivation whatsoever with a team that has looked off since 2019. Yes, Haas are desperately trying to pull themselves up from the back of the grid, but that has mostly been too much to ask.

Yet, Schumacher hardly ever minded the fact that the car left him incapable of scoring points in 2021 and continued to work with the engineers round the clock.

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What did Sebastian Vettel say?

As reported by Formula 1, Vettel said that Schumacher was occasionally able to challenge much superior cars like Williams and Alfa Romeo.

“I think he did an incredible job with such a poor car to reach qualifying segment two a couple of times, to have strong showings in the race, fight some of the other cars that are much faster, stick with the cars ahead that are supposed to be much faster. That’s a great effort,” he said.

“More so, he’s been a huge lift for the entire team; I think the offset from the start of the season for that team was poor. Because they had no development and they were far behind. But I think if you look throughout the year, Mick’s been very happy and enthusiastic and happy to put work in.

“He’s been one of the first ones, if not the first one. Every single day to come to the paddock and one of the latest ones to leave,” Vettel concluded.

Overall, it has been a commendable effort from Schumacher in his first-ever F1 season. So, will the German be able to reap some rewards for his commitment in the forthcoming 2022 season? Well, let’s hope he does.

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