Mick Schumacher has adapted well to the World Endurance Championship this season as he adjusted to a different style of racing with Alpine.
The German has performed admirably over the year, and he was critical to Alpine taking third place at the 6 Hours of Fuji last time out.
Schumacher was very quick during his stint in Japan and didn’t fade away when he had to battle wheel-to-wheel.
Alpine have also improved over the WEC season, enhancing their unreliability after a damaging double retirement at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
They still need more pace to match more established teams, such as Porsche and Toyota who have the top two spots in the Manufacturers’ Championship.
Yet former Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug explained to motorsport-magazin that Schumacher may be approaching his career incorrectly.
Norbert Haug thinks Mick Schumacher is ‘doing something wrong’ if he doesn’t want to return to F1
Schumacher has driven well this season and adjusted to the very different world of the World Endurance Championship and sharing a car.
Before moving to WEC, he successfully climbed the junior ladder to F1 by winning the European Formula 3 title and followed it with the Formula 2 championship in 2020.
He then spent two years in Formula 1 with Haas, where Schumacher was marred at the back of the field in a particularly difficult 2021 season as the team made minimal developments to their car.
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Schumacher was unspectacular in F1 and was beaten by his teammate Kevin Magnussen in 2022. He also crashed heavily in Saudi Arabia and Monaco, costing the Haas team a lot of money.
But Haug believes all of the drivers currently racing in WEC who have the potential to race in Formula 1 would want to, so Schumacher should be the same.
He said: “Anyone who can get a chance at Formula 1 and is content with WEC is doing something wrong. Ask all the WEC drivers who have the potential whether they would rather drive in F1 or WEC.
“If Mick, who grew up in Formula classes and won them, doesn’t want to go to Formula 1, where else would he want to go? Formula 1 is known to be the supreme discipline in motorsport.”
Mick Schumacher will be looking to help Alpine stay ahead of BMW in the Manufacturer’s Championship
Alpine are heading into the 8 Hours of Bahrain with a slim three-point lead over BMW, their nearest rivals in the Manufacturer’s Championship, with just one round to go.
There will be 1.5x points available as the event is eight hours long, rather than the usual 6 hours, leaving more opportunities for BMW to close the gap.
BMW have recovered from brake issues, which affected Rafaelle Marciello at the start of the campaign, as well.
Finishing fourth would give Alpine a small boost, although they have a lot of work to do to improve further and get on terms with Porsche for 2025.