Schumacher, it won’t be the first time we will be hearing that name in the paddock. Michael Schumacher is a driver often mentioned in the same breath as iconic drivers such as Ayrton Senna or Niki Lauda. Ralf Schumacher didn’t have such an illustrious career, often known better for being Michael’s younger brother rather than his own achievements in the pinnacle of motorsports.
Now the third Schumacher driver will make their appearance, this time in the form of young Mick Schumacher, Michael Schumacher’s son. Many are excited to see the Schumacher name back on the grid, but some wonder if perhaps the burden of his father’s name will result in too much pressure being heaped on Mick’s shoulders too soon, especially with him adopting the same MSC initials his father so famously raced under. Today, I wanted to take a look at Mick’s motorsport career thus far, to give an insight into his driving capabilities.
2011-2014: Karting
Schumacher started his motorsport career in 2008. To avoid attention because of his famous father, he started his career under the pseudonym ‘Mick Betsch’, using his mother’s maiden name. Later he dubbed himself ‘Mick Junior’ as he moved up the ranks. Although he did not race in karting under his real surname, his successes in karting were picked up by the international press.
In the Euro Wintercup of the KF3 class he finished 3rd in 2011 and 2012. Simultaneously, he came in 3rd for the KF3 Rating DMV Kart Championship. In 2013 he continued this trend by finishing 3rd in the German Junior Kart Championship and the CIK-FIA Super Cup KF juniors. In 2014, Schumacher started in International and National Junior Championships, ending the season 2nd in the German Junior Kart Championship, the European Championship and the World Championships.
2015-2016: Regional Formula 4 Championships
At the end of 2014 Mick completed test drives for Jenzer Motorsport in a Formula 4 racing car. In 2015 he moved out of karts and into a racing car for definite, making his debut in German Formula 4. Choosing to race under the Schumacher name from henceforth. His 2015 drive was with Van Amersfoort Racing. After a respectable but not outstanding rookie season, Schumacher remained in the German Formula 4 but switched to Prema Powerteam, a team known for its close links to the Ferrari Driver Academy. Besides the German Formula 4 – he additionally entered the Italian Formula 4 – and finished runner-up in both championships to Joey Mawson and Marcos Siebert respectively.
2017-2018: FIA Formula 3 European Championship
Image source: Formula1.com
His exploits in regional F4 series prompted a move up into what was then called European F3. Schumacher consciously avoided promoting himself via his family name and was able to avoid massive press scrutiny during his first year in F3, finishing 12th. It is noteworthy that he was the third-best-placed rookie in the championship.
Mick did snatch up the title in his second year via a fraught battle with Dan Ticktum. He had a slow start to the season, but gained momentum in the second half, taking eight wins, fourteen total podium finishes, seven pole positions and four fastest laps. This was to be the beginning of a trait of Mick’s in taking until his second season to show his full potential.
2019-2020: FIA Formula 2 Championship
Schumacher moved up to Formula 2 in 2019 with Prema Racing, driving alongside Sean Gelael. 2019 is also the year he joined Ferrari’s young driver Academy. Some highlights of the year include recovering from 19th to finish 5th in the sprint race at Baku or snatching up a reverse-grid pole position in Bahrain to finish 6th. He pulled off a second spectacular recovery drive at the Red Bull Ring by charging from 18th on the grid to finish 4th in the Sprint Race. This recovery drive came after a stall wrecked his Feature Race the day before. Another sprint race points-finish came at Silverstone with 6th place, and then was followed by his debut victory in Hungary after converting pole position in the Sprint Race.
Not everything went Mick’s way that year. Some of his less fortunate drives include a double retirement at Circuit Paul Ricard, one of which was caused by Gelael ramming him at turn 3 on the opening lap, and the collision with multiple cars during Monaco’s feature race. He also retired from both races in Russia, suffering an engine issue in the first and a collision with Giuliano Alesi in the second. He ended the 2019 season in 12th place in the championship with 53 points, not spectacular but annihilated his teammate who had two previous years in the Championship.
Schumacher was one of five Ferrari juniors in the F2 field in 2020. He took a few races to mount his title bid. This whilst FDA rivals Robert Shwartzman – his new Prema teammate – and Callum Ilott forged ahead in the early races. But much as he had in F3, Schumacher came good in the second half of the season.
Mick took his first Formula 2 Feature Race victory at a rather important venue, Monza. He repeated this at Sochi with a controlled drive to overcome Yuki Tsunoda. . He found himself on the podium quite often, with an additional 8 podiums which put him in the lead of the championship on 191 points, 22 more than second-placed Ilott, with four races in Bahrain to go.
In Bahrain he qualified in 10th and rose up to 4th in the Feature race, after which he finished 7th in the Sprint race. As a result, Callum Ilott was able to bring the deficit down to 14 points going into the final round on the Outer Track at the same venue, after the British driver finished 2nd in the Feature Race.
On the Outer Loop weekend, Schumacher had his worse qualifying in F2 after an incident near the conclusion of the session with Trident’s Roy Nissany left him 18th on the grid. He produced a good recovery drive up to 6th with fastest lap. This meant that the points gap stayed the same going into the final race after Ilott finished 5th. Here, he held off Ilott for the first half of the race, before a round of lock ups made it necessary for him to pit for softs and caused him to drop out of the points. As a result of hard attacking and defending, Ilott’s tires didn’t fare much better and he too slowly fell out of the points. This result confirmed Schumacher as the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Champion by 14 points.
2021: FIA Formula One World Championship
Mick had his first Formula 1 test outing during the 2019 Bahrain in-season test for the Scuderia customer team Alfa Romeo. He posted encouraging times, coming second to Max Verstappen.
Ferrari intended to give Schumacher his first run in an official F1 practice session with customer team Alfa Romeo at the Nürburgring, driving in place of Antonio Giovinazzi. Sadly, poor weather conditions forced the session – and Schumacher’s first run – to be abandoned.
Mick did manage to make his F1 practice debut later that year at the 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in the first practice session, driving for Haas in place of Kevin Magnussen. He later made an appearance for the American team in the 2020 Young Driver Test.
This year, Schumacher will be driving for Haas after signing a multi-year contract. His number is due to be 47, a nod to his F3 Championship winning car number (4) and 7 being a number close to the Schumacher family. . He will also be driving under the German flag, despite actually being born in a municipality named Vufflens-le-Château, located in Switzerland. Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto predicts that Schumacher will have a “very difficult” first season, but adds that he believed he could drive for Ferrari as early as the 2023 season.
Expectation: To win the Haas inter-team battle
