Mick Schumacher might be about to embark on a new challenge racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship, but he insists that his heart remains in a future return to Formula 1.
The son of seven-time world champion Michael spent two seasons racing with the Haas F team, but he was let go at the end of 2022 after a series of expensive mistakes.
He took on a reserve role at Mercedes last year, and in 2024 will return to competition in WEC with the Alpine team, but Schumacher admitted that the demotion hadn't been as smooth as it might have looked from the outside.
"It does include a lot of hair pulling and tearing, and I feel like you don’t really see that," he said. "F1 has always been a dream, and it will always remain the dream."
But Schumacher said it was important that he got back to racing rather getting 'rusty' on the sidelines.
"There is no reason to stay here, not race, fall behind everybody," he said. "I would rather go out there, find something to race and develop my skills.
"In the end, if that leads to no way back into F1 but leads to another career, then I am happy to do that.”
“I guess the biggest point for me to elaborate on, I know as a driver now much more what I want from my team around me, from what I feel like I’m worth and what I can bring to a team.
"Going into my first year in F1 it was kind of hard to know exactly what my position should be, and how far can I go with my comments and everything.
As well as his WEC campaign, Schumacher will also continue in his role at Mercedes supporting regular drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in 2024.
“Having worked with Lewis and George for one year now, I kind of know how high the bar is set and how far I can go," he said. "I have no problem sharing my information in the future.”
©Mercedes
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has praised Schumacher in the past and is clearly a big fan of the 24-year-old German driver.
Wolff praised Schumacher's “tremendous contribution” in the simulator, and made it clear that in his view Schumacher “deserves to be on the grid” again going forward.
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