Mick Schumacher Turns Back the Clock as he Drives Michael’s Ferrari

There has been a lot of talk about the 2019 German Grand Prix being the last one ever. However, if that does come to pass, the organisers are hell-bent on bowing out in style. To be precise, the Schumacher name was reunited with Ferrari, but this time it was Michael’s son Mick Schumacher at the wheel.

Ahead of qualifying, Mick Schumacher delighted the crowds when he piloted the Ferrari F2004. The very car that Michael drove when he seized his seventh and final Formula One world championship. Schumacher Jr and the F2004 will make their presence known in front of the adoring German crowd before the drivers’ parade.

Back in the days of Michael Schumacher, Hockenheim often sold out its tickets, boasting of crowd of 120,000 strong at every race. During those times, the German fans flocked to the circuit to watch him rather than F1. Michael was one of a kind and no other German driver has had as big a pull as he did, not even Sebastian Vettel or Nico Rosberg.

Coming back to Mick Schumacher, he has a chance to revive Germany’s interest in Formula One. Currently, Mick is racing in F2 for the Prema team and has proven to be a formidable driver.

At Hockenheim Sebastian Vettel praised Mick’s potential and his influence on German motorsport. “Michael was the one who set off a huge hype when we were kids,” he said. “Therefore the name Schumacher is 100% known in Germany due to him. To have Mick at the doorstep of F1 and one day hopefully joining would be huge and hopefully a big boost for Germany.”

Mick Schumacher is still developing as a driver and his potential has been laid bare for the world to see. In his first F4 race at the Oschersleben circuit, the turnout was far higher than usual. It later transpired that fans came in droves, upon seeing the Schumacher name. However, in F2 things have been different and even more intense for Mick Schumacher. He has made errors and had some bad luck as well as he adjusts to a more competitive series.

So, he is treating it as a massive learning curve before taking the leap of faith into Formula One. After a costly spin in Baku, he took it in his stride, saying, “I have learned from it. It won’t happen again hopefully and I will take that as a lesson and try and grow from that.”

Mick returns to the scene of, what must be an emotional moment in driving his father’s car. A tribute and crowd-pleaser all in one but Mick desperately wants more and Prema boss, Rene Rosin believes he may yet prove a chip off the old block. “Some people were criticising him at the beginning of 2018 but I knew it was just a matter of time,” he says. “From the third race he was already on the top two rows and by the fourth race he started winning and then it was like a machine.”