GP2 test is Schumacher ‘warm-up’ for F1 return – Haug

Norbert Haug has admitted that this week’s three day test with a GP2 test is a “warm-up” for Michael Schumacher’s return to formula one.

After reports in the German press said the Jerez session is simply a circumnavigation of the current F1 testing ban, both the GP2 series and Mercedes GP issued a media statement.

They said the Spanish event is in fact a “development test” to gain data for the 2011/13 GP2 car, with “numerous suspension configurations” and the testing of “updated components including a new clutch” on the agenda.

But Mercedes’ competition chief Norbert Haug described the test as a “warm-up” for the 41-year-old German, comparing it with Schumacher’s test in a two-year-old Ferrari prior to his aborted mid-season comeback last season.

The GP2/Mercedes statement did acknowledge that Jerez, to have its doors closed to the public for the test, will allow Schumacher “some motor sport mileage” in “preparation for his much-awaited return to formula one” this year.

The statement also said the test had the approval of the FIA and the F1 testing committee.

Reportedly on hand will be a sports doctor of the Bad-Nauheim clinic, despite the seven time world champion insisting there is no longer any trace of the injuries that prevented his Ferrari return in 2009.

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