Mick Schumacher will race an Alpine Hypercar at the 2024 Le Mans 24hrs

Mick Schumacher is joining Alpine ahead of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship. He will make his debut as part of a reshuffled driver line-up during the season’s first race at the Losail International Circuit (Qatar 1,812km) on 2 March.

Schumacher - who raced for the Haas Formula 1 team for two years before moving to Mercedes as a reserve driver - has already got to grips with the A424 prototype, having tested it back in October.

That means he’ll also be racing at Le Mans next year (15-16 June), nearly a quarter of a century after his father, seven-time Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher, took in the same race in a Sauber Mercedes C11.

On his decision to join Alpine, Schumacher said: "The car is impressive, and I can't wait to get started. I've grown up with single-seaters, so driving a car with a closed cockpit and covered wheels is a great opportunity to hone my driving skills.

“I sorely missed racing this year; it's what I've loved to do since I was a kid, and it was sometimes difficult to watch the other drivers take to the track. Endurance racing is a new challenge for me, and I'm sure we will share great moments together."

And of Mick’s appointment, the vice president of Alpine Motorsports, Bruno Famin, said: “It might be his first foray into endurance, but his enthusiasm for the project and his will to join us are palpable. I’m sure he will be a real asset.”

Joining Mick at Les Bleus are Austrian driver Ferdinand Habsburg and Frenchman Paul-Loup Chatin, while current Alpine drivers Charles Milesi, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Nicholas Lapierre will be retained to complete the six-strong team. We would’ve appreciated a call, Alpine.

Ahead of the next chapter of his career, Mick also recently spent some time with Top Gear magazine during an evening out in Tokyo with a Mercedes-Benz 190E Evo II and a rendezvous with Smokey Nagata. And yes, that was as cool as it sounds.