Mick Schumacher looks completely calm. There is a sense, even if just for a fleeting moment, that Formula One and the outside world are a million miles away. This feels like a safe space for him, the eerie quiet of the North Texas ranch broken only by the throaty engine notes of Schumacher's off-road Can-Am Maverick X3 as he drives around a track. The circuit is dug into the brown Texan soil in the far corner of the 400-plus-acre property his family owns.
"I could do this all day," he says with a grin as he removes his race helmet and steps away from the off-road buggy after one practice run. Nick Capone Jersey
It's the old cliché about race drivers spending their free time driving cars, but you know Schumacher is telling the truth. This Mick Schumacher is not the same one you would find at a Formula One racetrack. There's a different kind of calm about him. When the engine slows to a halt, the tranquil silence of the surroundings returns. The huge land around us feels like a sacred space, untouched, a place not sensationalised by documentary makers or photographers -- this is the Schumacher family ranch, just north of Gordonville, Texas.Logan Terness Jersey
"It's a retreat, a spot where I can do whatever I want," Schumacher tells ESPN. "Not having the feeling that I'm observed or looked at. I just come here to enjoy my time." Ryan Tverberg Jersey