Alpine confirm Mick Schumacher F1 plans as Flavio Briatore names likely 2025 driver

Alpine will give Mick Schumacher the chance to audition for a 2025 race seat in a Formula 1 test in France next week.

Schumacher has recently been behind the wheel of a Mercedes F1 car and has also put in extensive time on the simulator as part of his reserve duties for the Silver Arrows. But he hasn’t raced in the sport since he lost his Haas seat at the end of 2022.

This year, to keep himself sharp, he signed up to race in the World Endurance Championship as part of the Alpine hypercar entry. And that affiliation may yet open the door for the return to the F1 grid the son of seven-time champion Michael craves.

Pierre Gasly is also out of contract at the end of the year and is of interest to other teams on the grid. But newly-returned adviser Flavio Briatore hinted at the weekend that the team wants to keep the Frenchman around as he responded to questions about Alpine’s driver plans, in which he is set to play a key role.

The 74-year-old said: “[The driver line-up] is not the priority now. The most important thing is to make the car competitive. Otherwise, no driver can make a difference. I do have a shortlist of names to evaluate, but we have Gasly in the short term anyway.

And on Monday Mirror Sport reported Alpine have made a late attempt to convince Carlos Sainz to join them. The Ferrari driver, who is being replaced at Maranello by Lewis Hamilton, was previously understood to be making a 50/50 decision between either Audi or Williams, but Alpine are trying to turn his head.