Mick Schumacher: “Drivers are baffled by Paul Ricard circuit design”

Mick Schumacher conceded that it’s not just viewers who are confused by the design of the Paul Ricard circuit.

Formula 1 heads to the south of France this weekend for round 12 of the 2022 season, with host circuit Paul Ricard considered one of the most distinctive circuits on the calendar.

Along the track, painted blue lines can sometimes be confusing for those watching at home.

But now, Schumacher revealed that it’s not just those watching at home who sometimes feel a bit lost, but in fact drivers are also confused by the many lines they can see through their visors.

“For sure it’s a track where you usually have the ability to push pretty hard just because you know you can go over a certain limit sometimes,” Schumacher said. “It’s one of those tracks where you can push harder than the others just because you know you have the escape and the chances of you getting close to a wall are pretty slim.

“Obviously if you make a mistake it’s pretty bad for the tires so obviously you don’t want to do it in a big session but it’s definitely quite an interesting track. It can be confusing at times because of all the the lines differ, so it’s not just the viewers who are confused, it can also be the pilots.

Schumacher is in a rich vein of form having finished in the points in the last two races, including a career-high P6 last time out in Austria. His form came largely thanks to the speed shown by the Haas car which is surprising given the lack of updates. Schumacher said he thought there was still more about the car they could learn.

“We’re always trying to improve our car or we’re always trying to adapt our car to different places. I think we understand our package pretty well, but we’re always trying to maximize it more and learn more and see how we can make it faster.

“I don’t think Paul Ricard is a special track to do that, it’s a track like any other track. We have less fast corners there – there’s only one fast corner – which is mostly flat anyway in any downforce, so it’s a matter of exploiting the speeds on a straight where we haven’t been excellent this year.

“I imagine it will be difficult but in a Formula 1 race there is always a lot of action. Sometimes it can be calm, and we are where we are, and sometimes there is a lot of action and you can move on. We’ll just have to wait and see how the weekend goes and how we get along.