Circuit Paul Ricard “can be confusing at times due to all the different lines” – Mick Schumacher

Mick Schumacher heads into this weekend’s French Grand Prix on the back of his best result yet in Formula 1, after finishing in sixth-place at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Schumacher has turned a significant corner as of late, with his first-ever points finish at the British Grand Prix rejuvenating his confidence. The young German backed-up his points finish at Silverstone with a sixth-place finish at the Red Bull Ring, a points finish at the Circuit Paul Ricard is certainly on the cards for the in-form German.

Ahead of this weekend’s twelfth round of the championship, Schumacher has revealed that drivers also get confused at the circuit, which has become world-renowned for having coloured lines all over the run-off areas.

“For sure it’s a track where usually you have the opportunity to push quite hard just because you know that you can go over a certain limit sometimes. It’s one of those tracks where you can push harder than other tracks just because you know you have the run-off and the chances of you getting near a wall is quite slim.

“Obviously, if you do a mistake, it’s quite bad for the tyres so you obviously don’t want to do it in an important session, but definitely it’s a track that is quite interesting. It can be confusing at times due to all the different lines, so it’s not just viewers that get confused, it can also be the drivers too.

“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 still trying to maximise it further and learn more from it and see how we can make it quicker. I don’t think Paul Ricard is a special track to do that, it’s a track like any other track.

“We have fewer quick corners there – there’s just one quick corner – which is usually flat anyways in any downforce, so it’s a matter of exploiting the speeds on a straight which we haven’t been great at this year. I imagine it’s going to be tough but in a Formula 1 race there is always a lot of action. Sometimes it can be quiet, and we are where we are, and sometimes there’s a lot of action and you can get through. We’ll just have to wait and see how the weekend develops and how we get on.”

“In FP1 I’m going to find my rhythm again” – Kevin Magnussen

Kevin Magnussen also went well at the recent round in Austria, after finishing in eighth-place. The Danish driver has been a consistent points finisher this season, and will be hoping to score further points this weekend at a venue he went well at in 2018.

Magnussen is aware that he’ll need to use Free Practice One to refind the rhythm of the fast and flowing circuit, which he hasn’t raced on since 2020. It also looks set to be the final race of both Magnussen and Schumacher having zero upgrades, with the team’s only upgrades all but confirmed to being introduced at next weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

“France is a pretty unique circuit because it’s very flat, it’s quite wide in places and you have a lot of run off. It feels different driving there compared to other tracks. We had a good result back in 2018 and it’s always nice going back to places where you’ve had good experiences in the past, so I’m hoping for more good results.

“It’s been a while now since I’ve raced a Formula 1 car around there so in FP1 I’m going to find my rhythm again and on this track with all the run off there’s no real risk from going straight out and pushing, so I’ll be doing that.

“It will likely be one of, or the last race we do with this package before getting the upgrades so we’re sort of at the end of the life of this package but there is still stuff that we’re finding out, but it’s obviously getting less and less every race. The gains we are finding are becoming less but we’ll still be looking to find whatever gains we can and extract the most out of what we’ve got.”