Alone: He accepts the interest and masters the questions about his special status confidently like a slalom driver who tries to find the right track past the poles even in the worst snowstorm – without threading. This was also the case with the PK for the Saudi Arabia GP, the penultimate race of the Formula 1 season.
Mick Schumacher (22) is a sought-after young man.
On the street circuit in Jeddah, he wants to seize the opportunity that he doesn’t have due to his comparatively slow car. Because in the cities the wheat is separated from the chaff. In Saudi Arabia, the walls are mostly right next to the racing line, and the pilots cannot afford to make mistakes. That is why Schumacher loves the balancing act of working on the high wire without a net: “Indeed,” he confirms. “A street course is completely different from normal courses. Since the walls are used to limit the route, you need an extremely high level of concentration. I loved the course in Macau from the start and the course in Saudi Arabia reminds me of that. “
Although he has already traveled the course designed by the German track designer Hermann Tilke in the simulator, he does not want to give a final judgment yet. The question is: how representative is a simulator? Because it is based only on satellite images, says the German. He can only make a final judgment after inspecting the track and doing the first few laps in training.
Alone: For the young German driver, it is now a matter of completing the last two races of the season as well as possible. “Points would be a nice Christmas present,” says the German with high goals, even if they still seem too high for this year.
In the Parc Fermé, the Haas pilot also follows in the footsteps of Inspector Vettel and inspects the opponents’ technology. “You notice a lot of details, and I talk to my engineers about them, too,” he admits. “Unfortunately for us this year there is nothing we can do about it, because we froze the development of our car very early on. Hopefully it will look different next year. “
Schumacher is currently one place ahead of his teammate Nikita Mazepin in 19th place in the world championship.
