The crucial career question
Mick Schumacher expects a “rough wind”
By Martin Armbruster
December 8th, 2023, 7:50 p.m
Mick Schumacher will fly in 2024. Fly a lot. The 24-year-old has a mammoth motorsport year ahead of him. Schumacher faces a major challenge, especially in the World Endurance Championship – and has to answer a crucial question.
Mick Schumacher is looking for a new challenge, but this may be significantly more demanding than one would expect for a waiting Formula 1 driver. “A rough wind is blowing against Mick Schumacher in the WEC,” predicts RTL racing expert Felix Görner in an interview with sport.de/ntv.de. With manufacturers like Ferrari, Toyota and Porsche, the championship is “almost a who’s who” of motorsport. The newcomers Alpine and Schumacher, on the other hand, come into the series “as underdogs,” Görner clarifies.
“This will be a learning year, hopefully not an empty year. There are a lot of top drivers in the WEC who have been in long-distance racing for years and have proven themselves. Nobody is shaking now because Mick Schumacher is joining. You can’t have too many expectations of him set high. It’s a trial and error at first. I think Mick himself is excited to see how good he is with this rocket with a roof. Maybe by the season’s highlight at Le Mans in June he will have so much experience that he can play a good role can reach the finish line best.”
Schumacher first has to compete with other WEC rookies and his Alpine colleagues Ferdinand Habsburg, Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere, Charles Milesi and Paul-Loup Chatin, says Görner. A “cross-comparison” with Robert Shwartzman would also be interesting if Ferrari gave the Russian a seat. At 24, Shwartzman is the same age as Schumacher; both once went through Ferrari’s youth academy.
“Hopefully he won’t be the WEC’s crash child”
“I hope that no accidents happen to him,” the long-time RTL reporter looks ahead to Schumacher’s debut year: “We know the reasons why he was ultimately thrown out of Formula 1 at Haas. Hopefully he won’t be the crash child of the WEC. “
From Schumacher’s point of view, the step into the World Endurance Championship was “smart” overall, says Görner. “It’s important that he has seized the last straw. He has to get back into driving. Otherwise he will go down in racing history as a simulator champion.”
The WEC is “completely new territory” for Michael Schumacher’s son and, compared to Formula 1, “the switch from a sprint to a marathon competition. This is a completely different driving experience. Not only driving with a roof, but also with covered wheels, that you don’t see. Then of course the weight is significantly higher than in Formula 1, which leads to different cornering behavior. He has to learn that,” explains Görner. Schumacher can no longer “throw a WEC hypercar into the curve like an F1 car. It’s more like driving on rails. The car is more of a block, has significantly less horsepower and is overall more sluggish.”
Compromises necessary when setting up the vehicle
The “team sport” WEC, in which he will share the Alpine hypercar with two colleagues, is also unfamiliar terrain for Schumacher. “He will have to make compromises when setting up the vehicle, especially when working for a 24-hour race. You take over the compromise set-up of the car in front who has just driven and you can’t adjust much at the pit stop,” says Görner, who has reported on 24-hour races dozens of times as a reporter for RTL and Nitro.
Overall, the WEC will show “how flexible Schumacher is as a racing driver,” said Görner. “Is he the kind of racing driver who gets into a car and is quick straight away – regardless of whether it’s a soapbox or a Formula 1 car? That’s what determines the quality, think of a Fernando Alonso or Nico Hülkenberg. He’s a real benchmark, he won Le Mans even though he hadn’t practiced driving with a roof much. Mick will be judged in the WEC on whether he’s a really complete driver or just a specialist. This question will be discussed Mick Schumacher’s racing year: Is he a complete racing driver or just a Formula 1 driver?”
Things will get serious for Schumacher next week from December 11th to 13th. In Portimao (Portugal) he climbs into the Alpine hypercar for the second time during test drives. The practice rounds are “extremely important” for the 24-year-old, emphasizes Görner. “He has to put this car on like a second skin. Every kilometer he drives helps, and he will cover many of them. It will be his last experience in this sports car before he heads towards the start of the season in 2024.”
Age speaks for Mick Schumacher
Schumacher has to “completely ignore the difference to Formula 1, otherwise it won’t work,” the RTL reporter alludes to the Mercedes man’s most recent Formula 1 test in Magny Cours. “For him, Portimao in the Alpine will be a jump out of the warm shower into cold water. He will ask himself: Isn’t it faster, why do I have to brake so early to get into a corner, because the braking force in a WEC car “It’s just not that strong.”
After the tests, Schumacher will go back on the plane, where he will spend more time next year than in the racing car. In the medium term, the double burden as an F1 substitute driver and a full-time WEC driver is “a mistake,” says Görner. “In the short term, I can understand him because he doesn’t want to give up his dream of Formula 1 yet. He wants to be close to it, to perhaps see a gap that he can perhaps only recognize on site, and of course with his management to network.”
However, if Schumacher doesn’t have a chance in Formula 1, he will have to devote himself completely to another project. Maybe the WEC, if Schumacher answers the question about his overall motorsport package. “If he is convincing, it would certainly open up new opportunities for him,” says Görner. “Because you shouldn’t forget: his age speaks for him.”