Mick Schumacher made his first appearance in a McLaren Formula 1 car as he conducted development work for Pirelli at Silverstone today.
The former Haas driver, now the reserve for McLaren’s engine supplier Mercedes, sampled the MCL38 two days after the British Grand Prix. As wet conditions persisted throughout the day he completed 53 laps and set a best time of 1’37.428.McLaren was one of three teams running at the track. Alexander Albon logged the most laps, covering 86 in his Williams and setting a best time of 1’41.116. Haas reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi lapped in 1’42.124 and did 62 laps.
Pirelli intended to use the test to finalise the construction of its 2025 tyres, the last which will be produced to the current widths. F1’s official tyre supplier is producing slightly softer versions of its hardest compounds for next year.
However the weather conditions meant slick tyre developments was impossible. They took the opportunity to assess new intermediate tyre constructions and look into how well they ran when used without heating blankets.
The test is Pirelli’s sixth this season. It will continue tomorrow when Lando Norris will replace Schumacher in the McLaren, Albon will hand the Williams over to his team mate Logan Sargeant and Oliver Bearman will drive for Haas.
Pirelli’s testing schedule will continue at Monza where it plans to evaluate the new C6 tyre compound it will introduce next year which is designed to better suit street circuits.
“This year is very busy because we have to develop the 2025 tyres but also to start the 2026 development,” Pirelli motorsport director Mario Isola told media including RaceFans at Silverstone.
“I believe that we have a good product now that is very close to the targets that Formula 1 defined for us. That was thanks to the test days that, after some years, we have been able to get. This is telling you how important it is to test.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Formula 1
- Gasly damaged front wing and floor hitting rabbit in first practice
- Piastri keeps McLaren on top as Gasly impresses in second practice
- Piastri leads ultra-close practice with a tenth of a second covering top five
- McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari bring rear corner updates to Imola
- Drivers urge F1 to ‘preserve its history’ as end draws near for Imola’s grand prix
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
9th July 2024, 20:27
It would be fascinating to see how
. Mick is driving a car that is / can be faster than the Mercedes, but could be in an Alpine in a few months time.
Even if you just borrow a friends car for an hour you learn something, an F1’s car closest rival’s car, I’m sure Toto will ask how he finds the seating position.
Pirelli are ensuring that they learn everything and everyone else nothing, surely a thankless / improbable task. Even if the marshals were mandated to wear blindfolds, everyone has a reason to take a peak.
PeterG
9th July 2024, 20:29
What are ‘hearing blankets’?
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
9th July 2024, 21:57
Cloth ears.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
9th July 2024, 20:29
I thought I could work quote button without looking. Clearly not.
Horsk
10th July 2024, 8:45
I don’t know why they keep trying to give him a chance. Only Mazaspin made him look good if you could call that a complement.
Having a successful Dad does not replace raw talent. Max overshadows his Dad by a long shot and Carlos drives in a very different class of Motorsport.
I’m sure Mercedes would love a German driver but they missed their chances with Seb and Lewis would have spat his dummy out if partnered with him.
Jordan
10th July 2024, 14:20
What’s more likely is , the f1 teams that have used his services have a good view of him and have more info on him that what people in the comments online know.
Greg
10th July 2024, 22:09
Well, no one wins F3 and F2 titles being bad driver. He is not like his dad, but he is at least in line with some other drivers now in F1.
George.be
11th July 2024, 9:09
Are you sure you’re not to harsh on Mick? He ran a car that was a year outdated against Nikita and got a performance level with that car: Nothing to be learned from. His second year was in a bouncing Haas, and most of the crashes were in high speed situations, due to loss of control (which is to be expected if the car bottoms out heavily). An experienced driver would know to play it safe, either by increasing ride height, or not going flat out at certain places. An experienced team should help the young guy not to make these mistakes of youth. Instead of coaching, he got shouting and bullying from the Haas T.P.
Quite a few far more experienced guys got quite lucky in 2022 a few times (for instance check Carlos Sainz’s near accident on the Monaco “straight”).
Dale
16th July 2024, 1:54
Grow up.
Suggest you go read what Charles has to say about Bearman’s Haas seat & put that into context, with what paddock insiders knew was happening while Mick was there under the Steiner clown show.