Mick Schumacher is inevitably heading to Formula 1 and by his own admission he never contemplated any other career from the time he went karting with his legendary father Michael Schumacher
And despite the pressure of being Schumacher’s son, the youngster does not allow this to hinder him but rather relishes the fact that his father is the most successful race driver of all time.
In a wide-ranging interview in the latest edition of the FIA’s Auto magazine, 19-year-old Schumacher said, “I am happy to be the son of the greatest F1 racer of all time. I’m happy that he is the greatest F1 racer of all time, and I admire him for that.”
“And even if sometimes it can be a bit difficult, it is what it is. There are good sides to it and there are bad sides. Having the support I have from a lot of people all over the world can’t be a bad thing. I am thankful for that.”
The teenager – being billed as Schumi III – knew he was destined to race from an early age, “Racing and karting is quite a normal thing in my family and I always loved to go karting with my father. It was big fun sharing that with him.”
“I remember him asking one day if this would be a hobby for me or if I wanted to do it as a professional. I told him straight away I wanted to do it professionally. I never wanted to do anything else.”
And by all accounts Schumacher junior shares similar traits to his father, asked if his Dad’s approach influenced the way he worked, the 2018 European F3 Champion replied, “For me, everybody has to find his own way of approaching a race weekend, everybody has to find out for himself what is best for him, what he needs to go into a race or what information he needs to develop.”
“It is better finding your own way than just copying. Personally, I am convinced as well that this is important, but it would not mean that you cannot do it differently and still be successful.”
A new era of Schumacher-mania is gathering momentum, how far it will go depends on how young Mick fares in Formula 2 this next season.
So far, with his F3 success, he has ticked the first box. The second box requires him to finish in the top three of the forthcoming F2 championship, although another year in the second tier would delay the inevitable, but would not wreck his ambitions.
Schumacher explained, “Again, everybody has to find out for himself what’s best for him. We always said that we wanted to take time for me to develop as a racing driver in the best possible way, and we were good in doing it the way we did.”
As for his rookie F2 season with Prema Racing, he said, “I am very eager to learn more, improve my skills both in driving the car but also in working with the team, and I am really looking forward to that new adventure.”