The official Mercedes reserve was drafted in for the second day of testing for Pirelli at Barcelona on Wednesday, as work continues evaluating tyres that aren’t heated by blankets.
The run was the primary alternative that Schumacher has needed to drive the W14 since he joined the German producer, and he duly accomplished 152 laps over the course of the day.
Having already earned large reward from Lewis Hamilton and George Russell for his simulator enter over final weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix weekend, Schumacher thinks that he can step issues up much more now he understands how the Mercedes automotive is in actual life.
“This expertise will certainly profit me in my function,” defined Schumacher.
“I’ve a greater understanding of what to look out for and what to work on. I even have a greater understanding of all of the procedures and the way the crew works trackside. That will be a key think about case I ever have to leap in and race.”
Schumacher labored late into the night time final Friday after Mercedes endured a troublesome opening day of observe in Spain that left Hamilton nervous he may not even make Q3.
The teenager’s efforts paid off although as Hamilton’s automotive was remodeled for Saturday observe, and the squad ended up delivering a two-three end within the race.
Though Schumacher stated there remained variations between the simulator and actual automotive, the correlation between them was getting nearer as he particularly praised the job Mercedes had executed.
“There may be clearly a distinction between the simulator and driving in the actual world,” he stated. “There’ll at all times be a distinction because the expertise is just not at a degree the place you possibly can examine it 100%.
“Nonetheless, it’s the closest expertise I’ve had between a simulator and actual life. The simulator has ready me, and the crew has made an amazing effort of correlating it. That helped me to know what to anticipate when driving it. It is clear why this crew is an eight-time world champion.”
Blanket ban
Pirelli accomplished a complete of 617 laps over the 2 days of the Barcelona take a look at that concerned each Ferrari and Mercedes. George Russell, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc additionally ran over the 2 days, with all drivers testing completely on rubber that didn’t use tyre blankets to be pre-heated.
Mario Isola, Pirelli’s head of motorsport, stated that additional refinements can be made forward of the following deliberate take a look at after the British Grand Prix, which would be the closing run earlier than an FIA and crew vote on whether or not or to not pursue with a tyre blanket ban for 2024.
“By way of development there are nonetheless only a few particulars to fine-tune, whereas throughout this take a look at we started to determine a strong growth base for the compounds; particularly for the center of what would be the 2024 vary,” he stated.
“All of the working passed off with out utilizing tyre blankets. We verified just a few attention-grabbing issues on monitor; now we transfer onto a whole evaluation of all the information in order that we head into the following take a look at, at Silverstone after the British Grand Prix, as well-prepared as we will be.
“After that, we are going to draw some conclusions from all of the work executed over the previous couple of months and current the FIA, F1, and the groups with the whole image, in order that the very best selections will be taken utilizing all the data accessible.”