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Happy Birthday Mick Schumacher, 21-years-old today

Sam Tomlinson22.03.2020

On this day, 22 March 1999, one Mick Schumacher was born to Michael and Corinna in Vufflens-le-Château, Switzerland. As fate would have it, his father was already well on his way to becoming the most successful driver in Formula 1 history.  

Inevitably, much of Mick’s youth was spent trackside in and around the F1 bubble. His own career began in karting in 2008, where he’d progress to ADAC KF3 in for 2011 and ‘12 where he’ld place ninth and seventh. Mick moved on to international karting in 2014 to deliver impressive performances including second places in both the World and European series.  

Young Schumacher stepped up to the main circuit, debuting in ADAC Formula 4 in 2015 with Dutch team Van Amersfoort Racing – a team with four decades of developing careers for the likes of Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen in recent years. His first year brought a win and two podiums putting him tenth overall. Mick commenced his relationship with Ferrari youth development programme affiliated Prema Powerteam in 2016, ending up second in both the German and Italian F4 series before moving up to the FIA European Formula 3 in 2017.  

Armed with experience and knowledge of a learning year under his belt, young Schumacher came back for a shot at the 2018 F3 title and after a slow start,he  returned from the summer break with a certain spring in his step to deliver a maiden Euro F3 win in Spa’s race 3. That proved to be his first of eight wins through the season, including five in a row that included a Nurburgring clean sweep as Mick stormed to championship victory.

That came with a promotion to Formula 2 in 2019 with Prema, while Mick was also confirmed as a Ferrari driver academy, following the footsteps of his father. His debut F2 season got off to a solid start with two points finishes in Bahrain after which he recovered well from a first race retirement to place fifth in race 2 at Baku before taking a dominant lights-to-flag maiden win at the Hungoraring.

Mick ended up twelfth in his maiden F2 season, scoring 53 points. F2 drivers typically take use their first year to develop their skills with the tricky cars and the needs of their tyres, before a full tilt in the second year and many expect the 21-year-old to be a title challenger once this year’s championship commences, as Mick continues at Prema alongside 2019 F3 champion Robert Schwartzman.  

Having already driven one of his dad’s Benettons and two of the Ferraris Michael drove to his seven Formula 1 World Championships, Mick became the first Schumacher since his dad to take the wheel of a current Ferrari F1 car when he tested last year’s SF90 at the young driver’s test Bahrain in April. He was right at home in the car from the get-go before enjoying 56 laps to end up second on the timesheets.  A sign of things to come…? (Photo: Ferrari)

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