After a difficult year on the sidelines at Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 racing team, Schumacher heads on to join Alpine and mark his debut in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) 2024.
Alpine confirms six drivers who will race for the French team in its two A2424 hypercars in the World Endurance Championship 2024. The 2024 drivers consist of four Frenchmen — Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere, Charles Milesi and Paul-Loup Chatin. The four French drivers will be joined by Austrian Ferdinand Habsburg and German Mick Schumacher. While all the aforementioned drivers have performed in the WEC in the past, Mick will mark his debut in the endurance championship.
“A new chapter is beginning for me with Alpine in the FIA WEC Hypercar category. The car is impressive, and I can’t wait to get started”, said Mick Schumacher upon his announcement of joining the Alpine racing team. Explaining the challenge of driving an endurance championship racecar, he further added, “I’ve grown up with single-seaters, so driving a car with a closed cockpit and covered wheels is a great opportunity to hone my driving skills.
Mich Schumacher, son of 7-time Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher, marked his debut in the 2021 season of Formula 1 with the Haas F1 racing team. After completing the 2022 season with Hass, Mick settled as a reserve racing driver in the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 racing team.
On being an entire year away from racing, Mick said, “I sorely missed racing this year; it’s what I’ve loved to do since I was a kid, and it was sometimes difficult to watch the other drivers take to the track. Endurance racing is a new challenge for me, and I’m sure we will share great moments together next year with Alpine.”
Back in October 2022, Mick drove the endurance racecar prototype for the first time. The German driver learned the nuances of an endurance racecar, which is quite different from driving a Formula 1 racecar. Post the test run, the team decided to sign the German race car driver for its 2024 season in the FIA World Endurance Championship. The race will begin in Qatar followed by 7 rounds before concluding the championship.