Schumacher: Watching first F1 race felt like 'day would never end'

Mick Schumacher admits that watching F1's opening race of the season in the Mercedes garage was a frustrating experience and one that felt like the day "was never going to end".

Schumacher was picked up by Mercedes after he was left without a race seat for 2023 after two years with Haas.

The 23-year-old is attending all F1 races this season embedded with his new team and ready to step in to substitute for Lewis Hamilton or George Russell. Furthermore, the young gun will also conduct development work in Mercedes' simulator at Brackley.

Schumacher is aiming to return to a full-time seat in F1 next year, and he reckons that he's in the best possible place to spend a year on the sidelines.

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But sitting on Mercedes' bench in Bahrain watching the action unfold was tough for the German.

"Very. I've been sat on this stool with my hands on my arms," he told the F1 Nation podcast.

"Felt like the day was never going to end, because I just wanted to jump into the car. But it's also another factor which proves to me and to myself that I really, really want this.

"It shows that I'm not okay with not being in the car."

Schumacher isn't spending his season in an entirely unfamiliar environment. During his father's three-year tenure with Mercedes, the young German was a frequent visitor to the team's garage.

He therefore feels that there's a natural "connection" with Mercedes, and with some of the team's members that were already there over a decade ago.

"I'm a racing driver, I always will be a racing driver. So what is my aim? I want to drive," Schumacher explained.

"But nonetheless, it has been already great to be able to learn from such great people, but also people that have been working with my dad in the past, so obviously there is this kind of connection.

"I was with the team when I was 12 or 13 years old, in the debriefs, listening to them work, and to be back in the debrief with them now, it's definitely interesting, because I understand a lot more.

"Hopefully I'll be able to take a lot of that with me to wherever my future brings me, hopefully in F1."

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