Mick Schumacher believes that all F1 teams will have to deal with potential floor damage issues with 2022’s ground effect cars this season.
The Haas driver took part in the afternoon session of the opening day of pre-season testing for the 2022 season, driving the team’s VF-22 at racing speeds for the first time. However, Schumacher was only able to cover 23 laps in the four hour session after he suffered floor damage during an early run.Schumacher admits the team were unable to cover the level of distance they wanted to through over the first day of running.
“I think it’s nothing to be concerned about,” he said. “Probably the smile isn’t as big as it could be.
“I mean, we only did 23 laps, from what I saw, from my side. So obviously we would have wanted to have probably a three-digit number there. But those things happen and now it’s just about trying to get the laps that we lost today in tomorrow.”
Schumacher believes that all teams will have to work out how to limit similar floor damage problems with the new ground effect cars for this upcoming season.
“Obviously the floor is taking quite a beating,” Schumacher said. “I think every team has issues with that. So it’s just a matter of trying to [be] one of the quickest teams [to fix it] so that we are able to be at the front.
“It seems like it’s a concern overall for every team. So yeah, I think it will be one of the things we’ll focus on. And I think the first one to fix that will probably be up ahead.”
Schumacher will run in Thursday’s morning session in the VF-22, before handing over the car to team mate Nikita Mazepin in the afternoon.
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erikje
23rd February 2022, 19:42
A bad start for testing to damage your car so early and limit the testing to that effect.
Schumi is a bit to easy going about this mistake..
A team like Haas is hurt a bit harder then the topteams with these kind of serious mistakes.
Mark (@blueruck)
23rd February 2022, 20:28
It is interesting how only 1 team was impacted by this problem. Was Mick up on the curbs too much compared to others, or does the Haas have a design issue or ???
NS Biker (@rekibsn)
23rd February 2022, 22:31
From the tone of his comments, sounds like he expects this will be a common issue for all the teams.
Since downforce will be ride height dependant, lower is better, there will be as much or more incentive to run at minimum ride-height.
Not to worry about the curbs, the enforcement of Track Limits in this New Era, will eliminate drivers running off-track.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
23rd February 2022, 22:50
If I recall, back when ground effects and skirts were banned, there was a fear that damage could cause a really high speed crash due to a sudden loss of downforce.
It’ll be interesting to see what sort of impact even minor damage has on the handling of these cars. It might certainly help control how much kerb drivers use.
OOliver
24th February 2022, 0:17
Even the mildest of contact is potentially race ending.
A trip over a banana kerb will be very early preparation for the next event.
MacLeod (@macleod)
24th February 2022, 8:13
That is why they don’t use skirts but vortexes those are not gone instant.