Mick Schumacher was the strongest Alpine Endurance driver pace-wise in the 6 Hours of Imola, teammate Nico Lapierre told MotorsportWeek.com.
“In Imola, I have to say, [Schumacher] did a super strong race,” said the veteran French sportscar driver.
| Driver | Average lap time | |
| Vaxiviere | 1:35.8s | |
| Schumacher | 1:34.5s | |
| Lapierre | 1:35.5s | |
| Milesi | 1:35.1s | |
| Chatin | 1:35.3s | |
| Gounon | 1:36.0s |
“He had a very strong pace, probably the strongest pace from the six Alpine drivers.”
Some data analysis of the lap times completed across the two Alpine cars at the 6 Hours of Imola would appear to back this statement up. With laps completed under full course yellow, safety car, virtual safety car, and local yellows removed, plus any in or out-laps and laps completed when it started raining, Schumacher had an average lap time six tenths quicker than the next quickest Alpine driver.
While this is by no means conclusive data analysis, it does appear to show that Schumacher has adapted incredibly well to sportscar racing, in only his second race.
Lapierre continued, “And also he didn’t make any mistakes in the very tricky conditions, on the track where the traffic was really hard to manage.
“And he had the tricky conditions as well, with the slick tyres under the small rain. And I can tell you that these tyres, they are not easy on the rain. It’s the same that when they are cold, they are very, very difficult to drive. So I have to say he did super good for his only second race in sportscars.
Schumacher drives the #36 Alpine A424 alongside Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere, while the sister #35 car features Charles Milesi, Paul Loup Chatin, and Jules Gounon, who made his debut in a prototype race car at the 6 Hours of Imola, setting respectable lap times in the car.
Regarding Alpine’s performance at Imola in general, Lapierre told MotorsportWeek.com that the car did not suit the Italian track.
“But unfortunately we arrived on the track where the car was not behaving as we expected on the short weekend as well with only three free practice.
“We decided not to test in Imola before because we tested on more commercial tracks where most of the competitors they went for testing there so they were clearly ahead of us in terms of performance.
“Overall, we suffered a bit from Imola, but we knew it was also a very specific track.
Clearly we didn’t have the pace we wanted to have, especially on the bumps and the kerb riding we were not strong enough.”
The #35 Alpine, with Chatin, Milesi and Gounon behind the wheel, finished 15th, six laps down on the winning #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid. The #36 car, which featured Lapierre, Schumacher and Vaxiviere, was 17th, 15 laps down after suffering damage due to a multi-car incident at Tamburello on the first lap of the race, which required the car to go into the garage for repairs.
Looking forward to the rest of the season, Lapierre is confident they can bounce back.
“So we are really looking forward to Spa, which would be more like a normal track without extreme bumps or kerbs, and quite close to Le Mans in terms of configuration and settings,” the Frenchman concluded.
It’s great to see Mick driving for a team that’s serious about racing; and which provides proper team support for their cars and drivers. Anyone who continues to label him by his crashes at Hass is simply ignorant about what goes on in professional racing. Steiner is a small man, whose ego precedes him wherever he goes. Suffice to say, Mick is taking this chance to show the world that he’s much better than Steiner and Haas allowed him to be. If you don’t have the car, or the proper team support, it doesn’t matter how good you are, you aren’t going to impress people very much. Especially when the team scapegoats you as the problem.
WEC Alpine is clearly a much more professional team; and the skills that Mick is honing this year could easily benefit any top F1 team next year and beyond. (Are you listening, Audi!) Hulkenberg & Schumacher would be the perfect teammates. They’re both nice guys, both competent drivers; and as Nico enters the last phase of his F1 career, he’ll help both the team and his teammate; and with Mick still very young, he has the opportunity to step up as Nico exits. It’s a win/win for Audi and the drivers. If they strive for a top driver to go alongside Nico, they’ll merely end up with two drivers who can’t work as well together; and it can make the team’s development take much longer. Besides, despite being young, Mick has demonstrated at Mercedes that his input is valuable toward the development of the car. He’s no Adrian Newey, but as far as young drivers go, he gives better feedback than many experienced F1 drivers.