Mick Schumacher will drive in the World Endurance Championship in 2024. The 24-year-old made immediate progress in the second training session at the start of the season in Qatar.
An appealing start for Mick Schumacher in the 2024 World Endurance Championship. The son of Formula 1 record world champion Michael Schumacher finished 14th in the Alpine in the second training session for the race in Qatar. In the first training session he and his French teammates Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere in 15th place.
Vaxviere set the best time of the trio in the Alpine A424 with 1:42.256 minutes, over a second and a half faster than in the first training session.
Schumacher drives for the French racing team and wants to recommend himself for the premier class again with strong performances in the WEC. Between 2021 and 2022 he drove for Haas in Formula 1 – but was unable to make a lasting impression there. He now wants to improve at Alpine. At the moment he is “only” a reserve driver at Mercedes in Formula 1 behind regular drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell; the opportunity for a cockpit did not arise.
“A dream start”
The other Germans in the World Long Distance Championships with the BMW WRT team are already eyeing their first podiums: René Rast took 15th place together with Robin Fruijns (Netherlands) and Kelvin van der Linde (South Africa), Marco Wittmann with Dries Vanthoor ( Belgium) and Raffaele Marciello (Switzerland) 18th place.
“Of course that would be nice,” said Rast, who won the DTM title in 2017, 2019 and 2020, about a possible place on the podium. The championship in the WEC is not an issue yet, he wants to learn a lot in the first year and gain some experience.
For Wittmann, who made his debut in the racing team’s sister car in the World Endurance Championship and was crowned champion of the DTM touring car series in 2014 and 2016, a place on the podium would be “a dream start.” Under no circumstances should one underestimate the competition.