Mick Schumacher, once a rising star tipped to be headed straight to the Ferrari, has now been let go by Haas and – for the time being – dumped out of F1.

It must be a bitter pill to swallow for an F2 and F3 champion who has seemingly had all the goodwill of the motor sport world behind him, wanting him to emulate his seven-time world champion father Michael by conquering F1 also.

Haas has come to the conclusion though that the results just haven’t been there for Schumacher, and have therefore opted to replace a 23-year-old still with his whole career ahead of him to a 35-year-old veteran in the shape of Nico Hülkenberg.

Taking in this year’s results though, it’s quite apparent that Haas were wrong to drop Schumacher. While all the focus has been on the German not bringing in the points, it’s actually very easy to argue that it’s his team-mate Kevin Magnussen has been the one underperforming.

Schumacher’s first season in 2021 is difficult to take into account considering just how poor his Haas car was and the competition from his lacklustre team-mate Nikita Mazepin.

Head-to-head the German beat comprehensively trounced the rich kid Russian, out-qualifying him 20-2 and finishing ahead in 15 of the 22 GPs.

Coming up against the quick and experienced Kevin Magnussen for 2022 though, with a car capable of fighting for points, this season was the real test to see whether Schumacher was made of the right stuff for F1.

On first glance, it would appear that the German has fallen well short of Magnussen in his bid to establish himself as a decent challenger for Haas, never mind an F1 force to be feared by the rest of the grid.

Whilst Magnussen has got the maximum pace-wise out of the VF-22 on a regular basis, frequently getting the car into Q3, Schumacher has bobbed in between Q2 and Q1, seeming to struggle for consistent speed in what has been an ultra-competitive year in F1 – every team has scored points.

Looking at what both Schumacher and Magnussen have actually delivered for Haas though, it’s possible to ponder whether the German has actually been that bad, as well as wonder if the American team should have given him more time.

Magnussen has 25 points to Schumacher’s 12. One point more than double, yes, but with both totals being relatively small, it doesn’t mean all that much and isn’t actually a great deal more.

Where Schumacher won and lost points in 2022

Schumacher grabbed his entire points haul this season haul in two races:

• British Grand Prix: 4pts
  Schumacher won the first points of his F1 career at Silverstone where he ended the race duelling with Max Verstappen and his underperforming Red Bull
• Austrian Grand Prix: 8pts
  Schumacher appeared to be the fastest Haas during the Spielberg sprint race, but had to hold station behind Magnussen while defending against Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes eventually got past, pushing Schumacher out of the points. He came back in the Grand Prix though, finishing ahead of his team-mate and being named driver of the day.

There were other opportunities where Schumacher could have scored points but missed out for reasons beyond his control:

• Spanish Grand Prix
  Schumacher had qualified for the first time in Q3 in Spain with tenth, but failed to make his tyres last.
• Dutch Grand Prix
  A slow stop stymied his challenge in the Netherlands after starting eighth.
• Canadian Grand Prix
  He took his best qualifying of the year with sixth in Montreal, and was running a strong seventh in the race before his Haas broke down.

When the pace has been there for Schumacher, he has done reasonably well. If you minus the bad luck in Canada and the Netherlands, he could have easily have a similar points total as Magnussen.

Exploring this point further, it is possible to make the argument that the Dane has in fact been the one underperforming at Haas this year.

Whereas Schumacher has qualified in Q3 four times this season, Magnussen has made it into the final session nine times.

However, the team leader has squandered points from strong positions several times.

He needlessly connected with Lewis Hamilton at both Spain and Canada, damage seeing him fall down the order after fighting for a position he was very likely to lose to the Mercedes in a number of laps anyway, with a similar outcome after contact with Max Verstappen in Singapore also.

Though Magnussen took a brilliant and thoroughly deserved pole in Brazil, this season has very much a case of what could have been for Haas.

Its best car in years, capable of securing it well within the midfield pack, is likely to finish ninth in the championship, and its possible to argue Magnussen, the driver with far greater experience, is just as guilty of causing this just as much as Schumacher.

Furthermore, if you’re to consider the German has performed traditionally better in his second seasons in cars (producing reasonable results in his first season of F3 and F2 before winning the title the following year) and look on this – fairly kindly it has to be admitted – as almost his first year of F1, then given another season it’s likely the German could come good in 2023.

While it might appear Mick doesn’t quite have the lightning pace of his father, he certainly does share his ferocious work ethic.

If Haas allowed this to manifest itself by continuing with Schumacher, it’s likely they’d have a serious prospect on their hands for 2023.

Instead, they’re going with a 35-year-old with a much shorter lifespan left on his career.