Mick Schumacher says that his year serving as Mercedes' official reserve driver has taught him the importance of sharing information and collaboration within the team, resulting in a big step forward in his own career development.
Schumacher started 43 Grand Prix races with Haas in 2021 and 2022 before the backmarker team replaced him with the more experienced Nico Hulkenberg for the most recent campaign.
Taking up a non-racing role at Brackley for 2023 has allowed him to get insight into how one of the top teams on the grid works, and he's been learning lessons from the way Toto Wolff, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell go about things.
“As a driver, I now know much more what I want from my team around me,” Schumacher told the media last month at Abu Dhabi. "What I feel I'm worth, and what I can bring to a team.
“Obviously going into my first year in F1 [with Haas] it was kind of hard to know exactly what should be my position and how far can I go with my comments and everything," Formula1.com quoted him as saying.
"Having worked with Lewis and George for a year now, I kind of know how high the bar is set and how far I can go, and I have no problem sharing my information in the future.
“Lots of drivers in F1 are usually selfish,” Schumacher said. “I think in F1 there would be a lot of people that would benefit from it, if both drivers were working together.
He added that it had made a big difference to him this year "taking all that information that I've been given from Mercedes, with also just observing and everything.
“Obviously on the driving side, as I haven't been driving, it's kind of difficult to work on it,” he admitted. "But I definitely feel like I've made a step forwards.
"On the other hand, I worked with Kevin [Magnussen] last year, and Kevin had had that feeling of sharing a car [racing in sportscars] and seeing the benefit of working with another driver, so that philosophy was quite impactful to me."
Next year, Schumacher will combing his continuing reserve duties with Mercedes and McLaren with a return to racing. He'll be competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Alpine.
"I'm just excited to be back in a car, and do a race and have a new challenge," he said. "It's very important. Obviously having sat out the whole year, it has been tough.
©Alpine
"I'm a racing driver. I haven't been out of racing in 14 years previous to this. It was definitely a clear choice and a clear direction that I wanted to be racing again next year."
Schumacher said that while he saw WEC as a challenge in and of itself, there were longer term objectives involved in his decision to sign up with the Alpine marque.
"I see it as a challenge, but I also see it as something where I, as a driver, can develop further," he said. "Hopefully, if let's say my way leads back to F1 one day, I'll be able to take that development that I've done in that series over to F1.”
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