Schumacher wants to prove that he deserves another chance

In 2023, Mick Schumacher did not race and only watched others do it – the son of a seven-time world champion found himself in such a situation for the first time since he started karting as a child.

He lost his place in the Haas team, with which he worked for two seasons, but managed to get a place as a reserve driver for Mercedes. However, Mick now wants the chance to prove that he deserves a second chance in Formula 1.

“My new role is very different from the one I had in the last two years,” Schumacher said in an interview with the championship’s official website. “Overall, I just tried to find my place in the Mercedes team and learn as much as I could, because I had the opportunity to broaden my horizons and prepare myself to take the wheel at any time.”

In 2022, when the experienced Kevin Magnussen became his partner, Mick looked quite pale compared to him: while the Dane earned 25 points during the season, Schumacher earned only 12. Moreover, he crashed cars quite seriously more than once, including in Monaco. and in Japan, and it was very expensive for the team. As a result, Haas already confirmed during the last Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that Formula 1 veteran Nico Hulkenberg would become Magnussen’s new partner in 2023.

“Of course this all happened quite late,” Mick recalls. “Just one day before the last weekend of the season I was told that I would not be racing for Haas in 2023.” In general, it was already too late to look for other options, so we preferred to accept Mercedes’ offer, which was made at an earlier stage of the season, in case there were no other options.”

Schumacher spends a lot of time working on the simulator at the team base in Brackley, working with Mercedes specialists to find the optimal settings for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. He also regularly participates in meetings with engineers, where his comments are often useful, and completed 150 laps of testing in the W14 in Barcelona in May.

“You can see why Lewis and George are such good drivers and it’s all to do with the way they do things,” said Mick of the benefits of his current job. “Lewis has been with this team for a long time and they have developed such a close relationship that they understand each other without words.”

The Mercedes drivers, as well as Toto Wolff, the team boss, spoke very highly of Schumacher’s work, but Mick of course dreams of returning to racing:

“It is nice to have the results of your work recognized by others. But unfortunately I’m still a reserve driver. In general, something has gone wrong in my career, and sometimes it is difficult to deal with it. I understand that I have to prove to everyone that I deserve a place in the main squad of one of the teams. But unfortunately many contracts are multi-year in nature, meaning there are no vacancies for the next season. Overall I’m in a difficult position, but in 2025 there will be a lot more different options, so we’ll see.”

Next season Mick will remain a reserve at Mercedes, but he will combine this work with performances in the World Endurance Championship: he has signed a contract with Alpine and he will drive the A424 hypercar on the WEC circuits.

“I think the most important thing is that I won’t be without a car for too long, so we have found an option for next year and everything is going well, but unfortunately it is not Formula 1,” said the German driver. “However, I will maintain close ties with Formula 1 and hope that through this I can prove to the people in the Formula 1 world that I deserve another chance…”