'It's the start of something' – Mick Schumacher follows in Dad's sports car footsteps

“But it’s been it’s been positive, I got to do my laps – I think we learned a lot.”

Having only driven featherlight karts and single seaters up to this point, Schumacher admits that Alpine A424 has come as a bit of a shock to the system.

Its Mecachrome V6 and rear-axle MGU might pump out a combined 670bhp, but compared to his Haas F1 car the French car still feels like a bit of an electric blue tank.

“It’s a very heavy car, low downforce, low power compared to what I’m used to,” he says. “But there’s still this racing aspect, there’s still this aspect of trying to improve every single bit.

“And at the end, [while] not everybody has the same [cars] we’re all pretty much in the same boat.”

Schumacher said that he was still adjusting to driving within a team of three, sharing the same car, rather than as an individual. “It’s a very different approach to F1– sometimes I still catch myself trying to be the fastest.

“It’s just about learning to take the information, process it and be able to use it right away, counterchecking with the experiences of my team-mates so I don’t go in blind – we’re trying to position ourselves with a car where we know we can last around 10 hours.”

With the Qatar race stretching out so long, Schumacher says that he has to be ready for anything that might be thrown his way, clearly relishing the challenge of this new discipline.

That said, the young German makes no bones about where he’s trying to get back to. WEC is quite simply a springboard.

“The closeness to Europe and the ability to merge it with my reserve driver role in F1 are for me the main aspects,” he says when asked as to the reason behind the WEC move.

“It’s important to just go racing again, to stay race fit, sharp in my head so that whenever the opportunity arises in F1 I’m ready to to switch over to that.

“But I think that there’s there’s a big future in Hypercar at the moment with so many manufacturers coming in, and more races coming into the calendar I hope at some points. I think there’s loads of great things to come in both championships.”

When asked ‘Why Alpine?’, a similar response is forthcoming.

“The closeness to F1 is definitely a big aspect,” he admits. “But also just the fact to see how committed Alpine was as a brand to push this project – it’s also a big factor. The combination was just difficult to resist.”

Part of the excitement around WEC this season is that in a 19-strong Hypercar line-up, no-one is quite sure what the competitive order will be.

Heavyweights Ferrari and Toyota will likely be near sharp end, but this season Porsche and Cadillac look like serious threats to their supremacy.

Meanwhile new kids on the Hypercar block Alpine and Lamborghini are the dark horses. Even Schumacher himself isn’t sure.

“Honestly, I don’t think anybody knows really where we are,” he says. “I think we’re just very excited to see how it’s going to go for the 10 hours here.

“It’s a great track, it’s a great place, great venue to come to, and it’ll be exciting to get the first experience in race trim, and try to contextualise every little detail and see where we end up.”