Schumacher assesses 'claustrophobic' WEC car ahead of season debut

Mick Schumaher has admitted that he finds his Hypercar entry “claustrophobic” as he prepares to make his debut in the class this year.

Schumacher has signed to race for Alpine in the World Endurance Racing, returning to a full-time race driver after being dropped by Haas at the end of the 2022 Formula 1 campaign.

The German will continue to perform reserve F1 driver duties for Mercedes alongside his WEC drive.

At a test in October last year, Schumacher got to experience Alpine's LMDh car for the first time at the Jerez circuit in Spain.

While his signature with the team came after the test was completed, Schumacher denied that the outing was the deciding factor in his decision to switch to WEC.

"It is a very different car to drive,” Schumacher told media including RacingNews365. “I'm not going to lie, it feels very heavy, it feels very different and such.

“Maybe sometimes a bit claustrophobic as well, because it's the first time for me that I don't see my tyres, it's the first time that I don't get the wind in my face.

“It was obviously very different, but I wouldn't necessarily say it was the deciding factor. I was already at that point that I wanted to commit to this if I didn’t get any chance in Formula 1.

“Just because as I said, you have so many manufacturers jumping into that right now.”

Le Mans

The upcoming WEC season will commence with the Qatar 1812 km at the beginning of March.

The fourth round of the campaign will see the series venture to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, one of the most prestoriguius events in motor racing.

While Schumacher has set his sights on taking the overall victory at the race, the German is finding interest in simply tackling the challenge of getting through a 24 hour event.

“Le Mans 24 Hours has always been a target of many drivers, even Formula 1 drivers these days, and they wanted to compete in that,” he said.

“So it is for me where I feel like there's an intriguing point in it where it kind of gets interesting because you do have to share that car for 24 hours and you have to be able to bring it through.

“You can only win Le Mans if you do see the chequered flag. I mean, obviously, I guess as every driver, you want to be winning something and I guess Le Mans is the biggest out there.

“I would I think I would lie ever say that it's not an aim of us.

“But obviously I think for me the intriguing part is that you’ll be going through 24 hours, you want to see that chequered flag. That’s’ what the challenge is.”