Mick Schumacher Q&A: Russian Grand Prix

This week we head to Sochi for the Russian Grand Prix. You’ve stood on the podium twice last year here, winning the feature race and finishing third in the shortened sprint race in the FIA Formula 2 Championship. Tell us about your past experiences here…

“Last year was quite successful for me there. We won and were extending our championship lead which was obviously very helpful going into the final few races after that. I definitely think my past experiences there have been quite good and I collected a lot of points.”

Sochi will hold one more year of racing before it relocates to Igora Drive, near St Petersburg from 2023. What’s your assessment on the Sochi Autodrom and the move away from the street circuit?

“I’m excited to get to know new tracks and Igora looks like an interesting one. I think Sochi is quite a ‘simple’ track - we have a lot of 90-degree corners, but obviously if you’re not good at that it could be terrifying, if you’re good then it helps. It’s interesting to see the Winter Olympics stadium and everything being quite close, so it’s a lot of sports meeting in that spot and obviously there’s big tourism there so it’s interesting to see the theme parks - there’s a lot going on! I haven’t gone around and seen much more than the track, but it looks like an interesting place.”

Last week the roster for the 2021 F1 Esports Pro Series was revealed, with Cedric Thomé, Samuel Libeert and Matthijs van Erven chosen to represent the Uralkali Haas F1 Team Esports. What advice would you give to the newest members of the team? 

“Any tip that I would give would probably be wrong for the esports series! They definitely know what they’re doing better than me. They’ll do the best they can and we from trackside will be supporting them.”