Mick Schumacher will speak warmly of the World Endurance Championship and his position as a works Alpine hypercar driver, although there is something of an inevitability it will be followed by a “but.”
After losing his Haas seat at the end of 2022 in Formula 1, Schumacher joined Mercedes as reserve in ’23, a role he holds today.
He is dove-tailing those commitments with a full-time drive in Alpine’s attack on the WEC, but for the ’20 F2 champion, his target remains a return to F1.
“It’s a good championship, definitely a good Plan B,” Schumacher exclusively tells RacingNews365 of the WEC programme.
“It’s a good alternative for when you have no options in Formula 1, it has never been a secret that my goal is to get back into Formula 1. That is what I am working on and working towards.
“But it’s good to keep a finger on the pulse and stay race fit and that’s what I’m doing here.
“In terms of results, unfortunately, there is still little to write home about. We have always shown good speed, but we have never been able to convert it into a good result.
“Sometimes we had to deal with bad luck, like in Qatar with the red flag or at Spa and Imola due to contact. At Le Mans, we unfortunately had a double DNF [due to engine problems]. It was a tricky start to the season.”
© Alpine Racing
Schumacher’s Alpine journey
Whilst Schumacher is a relative rookie when it comes to endurance racing around the clock, his A424 team-mates Nicolas Lapierre and Mathieu Vaxiviere are veterans, with both enjoying successful WEC careers.
Racing against cars in different classes on the same track is something new for Schumacher, whose career had otherwise been spent in single-class formulas, with the former Ferrari Driver Academy member explaining how he is learning to race in WEC, and how Lapierre and Vaxiviere are helping.
“In a way, it comes very naturally, because you’ve always been overtaking,” he says.
“What is more difficult is to line the [overtakes] up properly, sometimes you have to sacrifice a certain corner to overtake those behind at a more appropriate time.
“In that respect, I’m getting better at anticipating what the drivers in front of me are up to, so that I lose as little time as possible.
“I can learn a lot from how they approach certain things that are very specific to endurance racing. I’m really reaping the benefits of that, because everything I can learn from them will make me a more complete and maybe faster driver and maybe give me an advantage over a driver who doesn’t have that experience.”
Helping Alpine
On the other hand, because of his past experience, Schumacher believes he can also help Alpine further its understanding in the WEC.
“Many of the tools used here are similar to those used in Formula 1,” he continues.
“I think it also speaks in my favour that in the past, I have driven cars with a lot of downforce and power. That makes it easier to adapt to a car that might be just a little bit slower, heavier and therefore a bit lazier.
“That means if the car is maybe too lazy, I can push the team by saying, for example: ‘It’s less important now to be fast over the bumps, but more important to be faster in the corners.’
“We all have our own approach and I think that experience from different backgrounds makes for a very good package.”
In the last WEC outing in Sao Paulo, Schumacher’s #36 machine finished 10th for a first point of the season, with the next race planned for September 1st in the Lone Star Le Mans at the Circuit of the Americas.
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