Schumacher should have learned by now, Steiner warns

Mick Schumacher should have learned when to take risks that could lead to big accidents by now after missing qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, according to Guenther Steiner.

The German rookie crashed late in FP3 to bring out the red flags, and despite attempts to change the gearbox and get the car ready in time, he was unable to get on track in Q1. It’s the second time Schumacher has missed a qualifying session due to an FP3 crash after a similar incident in Monaco, and Steiner says enough races have passed that the rookies need to start learning from such mistakes.

“Yeah, I actually think so, by now we should know where we stand,” Steiner said. “In FP3 you compromise yourself not taking part in qualifying and the risk is always there because it’s only two hours away from when you finish FP3 to qualifying. Obviously they need to learn out of this. We had a few and that’s OK, but we need to get better at this.”

More Formula 1

Reliability improvements coming for Honda, but don't expect performance leap in Miami

F1’s battle with the law of unintended consequences

Don't write Red Bull off despite departures - Brown

While Steiner admits Haas was prepared for the inexperienced pairing of Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin to have a number of incidents, he says soon it will start proving too costly.

“You always plan for accidents, especially with rookie drivers, but I think we have reached a point now where we need to work on it to have less accidents for the rest of the season. Mick in the last five races had quite a few big ones. If you have a spin or something like that, that happens; but these accidents are quite heavy -- it’s a lot of money and for no good reason.

“So we have to work on it to get better. Obviously the budget is the budget and we need to stick to it. At the moment obviously we feel it but we can still deal with it, but soon we will be in a position where we need to find ways to overcome this because they are getting a bit too frequent and too heavy.”

Schumacher is permitted to line up for Sunday’s race on the back of the grid despite missing qualifying, with a mandatory five-place penalty for a gearbox change making no difference to his 20th spot.