Mick Schumacher and Jack Doohan have identified one another for years. The two drivers have been lifelong mates, a relationship cast by the friendship between their fathers, and Michael Schumacher even gifted the youthful Doohan his very first racing kart.
Now the 2 mates are each into account for a spot at Alpine subsequent season.
The French crew introduced just lately that they have been parting methods with Esteban Ocon on the finish of the 2024 Formula 1 season, opening up a spot on the grid with the crew for subsequent 12 months. That opens up at the least one seat at Alpine for the 2024 F1 marketing campaign, and with Pierre Gasly additionally driving on an expiring contract, there’s a state of affairs the place each seats can be found.
As a part of their evaluation concerning choices for 2025, the crew confirmed on Monday that each Schumacher and Doohan can be testing the A522, the crew’s challenger for the 2022 F1 season, subsequent week. The testing will happen at Circuit Paul Richard, a observe that has beforehand hosted the French Grand Prix.
The testing is a part of F1’s Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) program, which permits groups to check vehicles which might be two years older or extra. Various groups have used this program already this season for a number of totally different causes. For instance, Mercedes used this program to supply each Schumacher — who along with his World Endurance Championship duties with Alpine is a reserve for Mercedes — and younger phenom Andrea Kimi Antonelli an opportunity to get behind the wheel of an F1 automobile.
“Ultimately all of the checks are carried out to make sure our older vehicles are match for working at advertising and marketing occasions. They present a possibility to seize loads of content material too. It additionally offers an additional advantage for the drivers,” Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin explained recently. “For instance, while Mick helps shake down an outdated automobile or guarantee it’s in good working order, it additionally allows him to maintain his abilities sharp as a driver. For Kimi, he can profit from constructing expertise in F1 equipment.”
Teams also can use the TPC periods to assemble knowledge on their present challengers, through a comparability between this 12 months’s automobile and a earlier mannequin. For instance, Red Bull just lately put Max Verstappen again within the RB18, their 2022 challenger, to attempt to provide a comparability level between that automobile, and the RB20, their present mannequin.
“We actually tried to provide Max a reference from a earlier automobile,” explained Red Bull Chief Engineer Paul Monaghan. “When you’re making an attempt to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a present automobile, his reference is the present automobile, and it’s ‘in earlier years, we’ve had this, we’ve had that’.
“[But] have we actually? Because we haven’t run them on the similar time. So in taking that automobile out, we tried to provide Max a reference to evaluate it from and he’s been in a position to give us suggestions from that.”
The announcement of a testing session for each Doohan and Schumacher comes as hypothesis solely grows about Alpine’s choices for 2025. The crew introduced late final week, forward of the Spanish Grand Prix, that former F1 government Flavio Briatore was becoming a member of the group in an advisory position. That announcement was then adopted by studies that Briatore was making a last-ditch effort to woo Carlos Sainz Jr. to Alpine.
Sainz has lengthy been linked with each Williams and Sauber, however now Alpine appears to be a 3rd possibility for the highly-coveted veteran driver.
However, Alpine has to contemplate all potential choices, and getting direct knowledge from each Doohan and Schumacher will give them crucial info when deciding on 2025.
Could one — or each — be on the grid subsequent 12 months with Alpine? The upcoming testing session will go a great distance towards answering that crucial query.
