Mick Schumacher will join Haas as a regular driver. A successor in the German family. Yet it does not mean that the young Schumacher has everything under control.
The German told Auto, Motor und Sport that there are certainly differences with Formula 2. “It will be the first time I drive a car that has power steering. That is already a very big difference. It creates a completely different feeling in the car. You feel it very differently as a driver. You wait for different inputs from the car, which you then have to analyse quickly. It just takes a bit of time to get used to it.”
In order to have the best possible control of the car, Schumacher prepares in an old-fashioned way. “I like to write things down and take notes”, he said.
The 21-year-old also sees making flying hours as essential. “In general, it’s about the process in a race and on a race weekend. I’ve done a lot of races in my career, but nothing comes close to the situation that a Formula 1 weekend brings. It becomes very special. I had a lot of zoom calls with my team to prepare. But a race is going to be an event that you have to be there to understand. I also like to write things down and take notes. All in all, it’s learning by doing.”
Schumacher will have to deal with fewer test days in his preparation. As for all other teams, there are only three test days this year. “We only have three test days as a team instead of six or eight as in previous years. That means I only get one and a half test days before my first race – and then one hour less training. No, I don’t like to hear that. But those are the rules. I’m sure we’ll get around the rounds with that too. But of course my biggest goal is to drive as much as possible.”
