Formula 1: Two drivers who are gaining absolutely nothing

There are two drivers in the current Formula 1 field who are gaining absolutely nothing by competing where they are on the grid, and both are quite obvious.

The 2021 Formula 1 season is moving right along, with the fourth race on the schedule, the Spanish Grand Prix at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, now in the books, and the fifth, the Monaco Grand Prix at Circuit de Monaco, on the schedule for the upcoming weekend.

This year’s world championship battle is poised to be the tightest one we have seen in years, with Red Bull having made clear strides toward seven-time reigning world champions Mercedes and Max Verstappen hungry to challenge seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton for the crown.

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Through four events, Hamilton has gotten the better of Verstappen on three occasions, but with neither driver having finished lower than the second step of the podium, only 14 points separate the pair in the driver standings.

But while that battle has been fantastic for Formula 1 and its fans, there are other less than ideal situations throughout the grid to monitor.

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Two stand out. There are two drivers in the field who, other than getting to drive a race car around the circuits Formula 1 travels to — a record-breaking 23 this year, in fact — are gaining absolutely nothing by being in the situations they are in.

For one of those two, this could arguably have been said last year as well. For the other, four races into his career, it’s already getting old watching him be in the situation he is in. Those two drivers are George Russell and rookie Mick Schumacher.

Russell is in the third and final year of his deal with Williams, and the hope of many is that he will replace Valtteri Bottas alongside Hamilton at Mercedes next year.

The Mercedes junior driver has only had one opportunity to truly showcase his talent in Formula 1, and he took full advantage of it last year, replacing Hamilton in the Sakhir Grand Prix at Bahrain International Circuit after Hamilton tested positive for COVID-19.

In a car he barely fit in, leaving him with banged-up knees and bloody knuckles, he handily outperformed Bottas, only to see a sure win slip away due to two unfortunate circumstances out of his control late in the race.

Other than that, what is he gaining behind the wheel of the Williams? The man is 41-0 in qualifying battles against his Williams teammates, and anything higher than a 15th place finish ahead of his teammate, which he pulls off regularly, is considered a success.

Bravo. After about one race, that kind of gets old. Now try 41 races over three years with 19 left on the schedule and no guarantees of a chance for 2022. Yippee.

And then there’s poor old Mick. The son of the legendary seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher could not have landed in a bigger dumpster fire to start his Formula 1 career.

Haas gave up on the 2021 season before it even began, and it shows. They are by far the slowest team in the field, and we’re talking about a field in which 30% of the team’s haven’t even managed to score a single point through four events. There has only been one 11th place finish among the six drivers at these three teams so far this year.

Schumacher’s pass on Williams’ Nicholas Latifi for 17th place in the Portuguese Grand Prix was considered one of the highlights of the race. Even for the dullest of races, that is saying something…

The only driver running behind those two at the time? None other than Schumacher’s teammate, Nikita Mazepin.

And really, he was ahead of them on track — because he was that far behind.

Schumacher is getting absolutely no competition at the sport’s lone Russian…erm, American…team this year.

If there was ever a definition of “pay driver”, it would be the son of a chemicals billionaire who finished in 18th place in the 2019 Formula 2 standings while his teammate won the championship in the same car. Not exactly Niki Lauda, like Guenther Steiner would suggest.

Unfortunately, we won’t know good how Schumacher is for quite some time, possibly even years. He and Mazepin both signed multi-year deals with the team ahead of 2021, and the only thing we can really judge them on is who qualifies and finishes ahead of the other.

Schumacher, who thankfully looks destined to drive for Ferrari at some point, has mopped the floor with his teammate in qualifying sessions and in races so far this season.

But how impressive is that, really, given that his teammate has spun out 11 times through four race weekends and has not even come remotely close to actually finishing a race ahead of, or even near, any other driver?

Schumacher is 4-0 in qualifying battles against Mazepin, and while this may sound crazy, he could actually be in position to break one of his father’s all-time Formula 1 records. With him and Mazepin having signed multi-year deals, Schumacher could very well outqualify his teammate in at least 56 straight races.

Michael holds the record with 56 straight, having pulled it off from 1992 to 1995. The record to start a career is 36 in a row, that having been set by — big shocker here — Russell, from 2019 to 2020. Michael started his career with five straight, a mark which Mick appears poised to surge past.

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Really, all we can ask of Russell and Schumacher is that they keep doing what they’re doing. Don’t make any embarrassing mistakes, don’t fall in any weird slumps, and don’t suddenly start losing to your teammates — not that we really have anything to worry about.

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