Mick Schumacher grabbed his first World Endurance Championship podium after finishing in third place at the 2024 6 Hours of Fuji. He made his WEC debut with Alpine this season.
Although he only scored three points throughout the season prior to this race, Schumacher was able to bring the #36 Hypercar in third place. The race went on for 213 laps, and he was 42.32 seconds behind the leading Porsche at the end. Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere partnered him in the car.
This is the first time in four years that Mick Schumacher stepped on the podium. The last time he was on the podium was when he won the 2020 Formula 2 round at Sochi, followed by a difficult F1 season with Haas, where he could not score any points. His final season in the series was also with the same team. While Mick did manage to bag in some points, his contract was not extended.
Mercedes then signed him as their reserve driver and he has been serving the role in F1 since. Although Alpine signed him to pilot the A424 Hypercar, they cleared up that the seat would have no impact on the team’s Formula 1 counterpart’s preference on picking Schumacher in the future.
This was also Alpine’s first podium in the World Endurance Championship.
Mick Schumacher reveals struggles he faced in the race despite impressive result
Talking to the media after the end of the race, the German driver revealed that the race was difficult, and claimed the car to be the “worst” they’ve had all year. He also mentioned that the #35 Alpine was much better on pace, however, they still managed to take P3. As quoted by Autosport, Schumacher said:
“It was tough this time. I think we started off actually from, in my opinion, the worst car we’ve ever had this year. We were really fighting [the car] a lot and were not confident at all from our side. [The] #35 seem to be a bit better on that,” he said.
While Mick Schumacher mentioned that a lot of work and learning remained with the car, he was satisfied with the result.