Mick Schumacher wants to continue to grow and improve as a racing driver despite not having a full-time drive in 2023, after he was axed by Haas.
Schumacher was speaking as Mercedes launched the W14, their 2023 car, after his father Michael Schumacher competed for the German giants for three seasons, from 2010-2012.
Mick was replaced by Nico Hulkenberg at Haas after two years at the team and signed with Mercedes as their reserve driver for 2023, but said he was glad to be with the team and hopes the partnership will be a two-way deal.
“Maybe not in terms of racing it’s not the step that I wanted,” Schumacher told select media including Total-Motorsport.com. “But I think that definitely in many ways it is another way of improving my driving and improving myself as a racing driver.
“It’s definitely a privilege being part of Mercedes, but more than that it’s also a place where I always felt at home. “
“So you know, I’ll hopefully be as much of a help to the team, and with everything that the team has done in the past, all the experience they have, I hope it’ll be of some use for myself to grow as a driver.”
Schumacher: 2022 experience is huge advantage
Schumacher is one of the most highly-qualified reserve drivers on the grid having raced for Haas in 2021 and 2022, and performed better than his 12 points of that period suggest.
Given F1 underwent a huge regulations change in 2022, Schumacher is one of just two reserves with raceday experience of the new generation of cars – the other being Red Bull‘s Daniel Ricciardo.
And Mercedes will hope that can give him an edge in his simulator work, particularly if – as hinted – they’re not the quickest team straight away.
“Because I do have the experience of driving last year’s car, the approaches that I will have in the simulator will be very similar to the ones that the racing drivers will have on track,” Schumacher added.
“So I have that direct comparison, I will be able to talk about tyre models, talk about how the car behaves and should behave and therefore accordingly will be able to change and adapt, assimilate it pretty quickly.
“And hopefully with that in mind we’ll be able to give the team reliable feedback, but also a set of options.”
