Lewis Hamilton left Mick Schumacher surprised after joining Mercedes

Mick Schumacher has revealed that he was left ‘shocked’ by how things worked between Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and their engineers during the Bahrain Grand Prix, which marked his first race weekend as a reserve driver with Mercedes. Schumacher joined the Silver Arrows after he was ditched by Haas at the end of last season. He reportedly cost his old team over £1.7million in damage repairs after crashing heavily on more than a few occasions.

Schumacher has since been taken out of the limelight by Mercedes, where he is tasked with simulator duties and attends Grand Prix weekends as a back-up to the two main drivers. The 24-year-old already believes that he has come on leaps and bounds over the last few months after learning from Hamilton and Russell and was left surprised by the huge number of radio conversations between the drivers and other team members in Bahrain last month.

“It’s an interesting period for me as I get to look over and work with two fantastic drivers, which you don’t always get to do,” Schumacher told the Mercedes website. “I’ve learned a lot about what’s important in terms of approaching race weekends. I feel like I’ve already gained so much knowledge to add to my skillset.

“I didn’t think I would have learned and gained so much so early into my role. As a driver, you usually do not get to hear what is going on between all the engineers while you are out on the track, so listening in during the sessions has been extremely interesting. I was quite shocked at the season opener in Bahrain, I did not expect the sheer amount of exchange that happens.”

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Schumacher also reflected on the strong emotional connection he feels with Mercedes, who previously employed his father Michael as a driver in the latter stages of the seven-time champion’s glittering F1 career.

“You don’t know what you’re missing until you are actually part of it,” he explained. “What I really appreciate in working with those engineers is that they are genuinely listening to you and your opinion matters. And what is special from an emotional side is that many people who are working for the team now were working here when my dad was driving.”

The recent Australian Grand Prix marked a long-awaited positive step for Mercedes, with Hamilton coming home in second place to register his first podium finish of the campaign after a difficult start to the year in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. It remains to be seen whether the Silver Arrows will be able to maintain their newly-found momentum at the next time of asking in Baku, with all hands likely to be on deck at their Brackley headquarters over the course of the April break.

“I’m excited to get back to Brackley and continue our work,” added Schumacher. “We’re working through quite a lot of simulator sessions before the next race in Baku so we will do some virtual mileage and be pushing hard to bring performance to the car.”

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