Schumacher would start F1 season "tomorrow"

Mick Schumacher has declared he would race "tomorrow" if it were up to him as the German rookie gears up for his F1 debut following a positive pre-season test.

Schumacher will begin his F1 career with Haas in earnest in under two weeks' time when the season gets under way in Bahrain.

In testing, although the VF-21 suffered a hydraulic problem that necessitated a gearbox change on the first test day and cost Schumacher vital track time, he then banked a considerable amount of running over the final two days to leave him raring to go for the race weekend.

“I would be ready to go racing tomorrow," said Schumacher. "We did so much analysis through Friday.

"[Team-mate] Nikita [Mazepin] was able to drive and get the race runs in so I was able to go through all the data and on Saturday, I was able to correlate that.

“Track conditions were different but nevertheless I was able to extract the feeling that I have on track and really feel every little change that I do that changes the way the tyre behaves on track and the car behaves on track.

“I do feel ready. I would go racing tomorrow if it was up to me.”

Haas team principal Guenther Steiner reacted positively to his driver's attitude.

Asked if he, too, was ready to start the season tomorrow, Steiner answered: “Born ready. I am always ready. If he is ready, I am ready. We are ready.

"It’s more about him than us. We have raced before. He has never done a Formula 1 race so if he is saying that, if he wants to go racing tomorrow, we go racing tomorrow if you could make it happen.”

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