"The air is thinner" near the very top in Formula 1.

Those are the words of Haas boss Gunther Steiner, as he explained Mick Schumacher's challenge in now fighting back against his new teammate Kevin Magnussen.

Magnussen could barely keep the smile off his face all weekend in Bahrain - not just because the Nikita Mazepin ousting resurrected his F1 career, but because Haas has arguably the fourth fastest car on the 2022 grid.

But despite the Dane's lack of testing prior to Bahrain, German Schumacher struggled to keep up at the 2022 season opener.

"Kevin was able to set insane times while I couldn't, so I have to understand if it was me or the car," said the 22-year-old.

Boss Steiner, however, insisted that Schumacher was actually "close" to Magnussen in Bahrain.

"He's in a good position now because he can analyse and look at what he can do better and then he'll definitely be scoring points," he added.

Steiner also acknowledged that Schumacher is simply realising that "the air is thinner" nearer the front of the grid compared to the back.

Schumacher said: "It shouldn't be too difficult to get the problems under control. There is still a lot of untapped potential in the car."

Mick's uncle Ralf Schumacher said the youngster was always going to hit tougher times in his early Formula 1 career.

"Mick has to stretch himself a bit now, but that's just part of it," said Ralf, the brother of Mick's father Michael.

"This is exactly what a young driver needs and so Mick needs to use it. In the end it was a bad weekend for him, but he will learn a lot from it." body check tags ::