Schumacher assesses 'claustrophobic' WEC car ahead of season debut

Mick Schumaher has admitted that he finds his Hypercar entry“claustrophobic” as he prepares to make his debut in the class thisyear. Schumacher has signed to race for Alpine in the WorldEndurance Racing, returning to a full-time race driver after beingdropped by Haas at the end of the 2022 Formula 1 campaign. TheGerman will continue to perform reserve F1 driver duties forMercedes alongside his WEC drive. At a test in October last year,Schumacher got to experience Alpine's LMDh car for the first timeat the Jerez circuit in Spain. While his signature with the teamcame after the test was completed, Schumacher denied that theouting was the deciding factor in his decision to switch to WEC."It is a very different car to drive,” Schumacher told mediaincluding RacingNews365 . “I'm not going to lie, it feels veryheavy, it feels very different and such. “Maybe sometimes a bitclaustrophobic as well, because it's the first time for me that Idon't see my tyres, it's the first time that I don't get the windin my face. “It was obviously very different, but I wouldn'tnecessarily say it was the deciding factor. I was already at thatpoint that I wanted to commit to this if I didn’t get any chance inFormula 1. “Just because as I said, you have so many manufacturersjumping into that right now.” Le Mans The upcoming WEC season willcommence with the Qatar 1812 km at the beginning of March. Thefourth round of the campaign will see the series venture to the 24Hours of Le Mans, one of the most prestoriguius events in motorracing. While Schumacher has set his sights on taking the overallvictory at the race, the German is finding interest in simplytackling the challenge of getting through a 24 hour event. “Le Mans24 Hours has always been a target of many drivers, even Formula 1drivers these days, and they wanted to compete in that,” he said.“So it is for me where I feel like there's an intriguing point init where it kind of gets interesting because you do have to sharethat car for 24 hours and you have to be able to bring it through.“You can only win Le Mans if you do see the chequered flag. I mean,obviously, I guess as every driver, you want to be winningsomething and I guess Le Mans is the biggest out there. “I would Ithink I would lie ever say that it's not an aim of us. “Butobviously I think for me the intriguing part is that you’ll begoing through 24 hours, you want to see that chequered flag.That’s’ what the challenge is.”