Mick Schumacher asked Sebastian Vettel to check his Haas Formula 1 car after the French Grand Prix so he could see his offset seating position.
Schumacher and four-time world champion Vettel have a close relationship with Vettel previously stating that he wants to help the F1 rookie as much as possible, after starting his own career idolising Schumacher’s seven-time F1 champion father Michael.
The onboard cameras on their cars have caught brief moments of congratulation and interaction on-track and back in parc ferme after the race, and after the French GP Schumacher’s camera recorded him seeking out Vettel and bringing him to his car.
Schumacher showed Vettel something in his cockpit and the two appeared to engage in a brief discussion – which they have now revealed was about Schumacher’s seating position.
The Haas driver says he has previously discussed his slightly crooked angle with Vettel and wanted him to see it for himself.
Vettel and Schumacher were paired for the first press conference ahead of this weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix and after initially Schumacher suggested the conversation would remain private, Vettel said “it’s fine, you can share”.
Schumacher said: “Basically, I’ve been sitting in a crooked position since the beginning of the season, like the seat is central but I am not straight.
“We’ve actually been talking about it before, and I took the opportunity to show it to him, and just spoke about the seat.
“I think he gave my mum the tip of maybe breaking it so I would get a new one sooner!
“But it didn’t happen in the end so I’ve still got the same seat for now.”
Vettel interjected to joke: “It would have been difficult within a week to get a new seat, so don’t always follow the advice I give!”
He added in a more serious tone: “It’s very simple, I spent so many years racing and we spoke about the seat during the week last week.
“There’s always small things you can improve a look at so I wanted to have a look – and we had a look.”
Schumacher said that there are now plans to “change the seat in the near future”.
“It’s me crooked in the seat, so it’s just about me trying to find the right position,” he explained.
“Not being symmetrical is something that I have to work on, but it’s hard to achieve within a short amount of time.”
He added: “It’s not as bad as maybe some might think. It’s a small offset, something that I’ve been used to also in junior categories. And to be fair, it doesn’t harm me in any way when driving.
“It is something that for us is a secondary concern. It is mostly about trying to get everything ready for the weekend and being prepared on that level and maybe setting our focus on something else instead of wasting it on something that is maybe not affecting me right now.
“But it’s something that is in plan, and we’ll for sure after the summer break come back with something that might be a bit more centred.
“We’ve been working on it in the beginning of the season quite a lot. We got to something which was comfortable enough for me to keep going. So, we left it with that.”
