Mick Schumacher Q&A: São Paulo Grand Prix

Round 19 of the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship hosts the final sprint event of the season. With speculation of additional sprint events next year, what have you learned following sprint qualifying in Silverstone and Monza?

“I think that sprint events are interesting. They are different, but probably for Brazil it’s going to be all about figuring out, as quick as you can for FP1, what you need for qualifying. The good thing is in brazil the track is very short, so you’ll have the opportunity to do a lot of laps and maybe come into the pits and change things, in terms of set-up or approach to corners.”

 

It’s a track that has hosted many championship showdowns in its time, what racing memories do you have from the Brazilian Grand Prix?

“I haven’t personally been to Brazil before, so it’s going to be a first for me. I have driven the track on the simulator though and it was fun – I enjoyed it. Hopefully it will be the same experience when I go there this weekend.”

The Autódromo José Carlos Pace has numerous iconic features, including the banked entry into the start/finish straight and the Senna ‘S’ bend – can you describe a lap of the track and where are the most challenging areas?

“It’s a very short track, you do lots of laps and hopefully there’s the opportunity for us to fight with some people and maybe have a Q2 appearance, that would be great. It will be very interesting, the start-finish straight will be great. Some of the iconic battles that we saw with people losing the car and having shunts there. It’s a tricky corner, especially if it’s wet which it looks be right now, which would be good for us, and I’m very much looking forward to going there.”