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Mick Schumacher in his current team Prema Racing
Photo: Frank Hoermann / imago images / Sven Simon
Mick Schumacher has made it, he will drive in Formula 1, the motorsport premier class.
Nevertheless, the 21-year-old will have to live for a while with the fact that no story about him can do without comparing him to his father.
So also in this case.
Because it is actually exciting to see how different the racing nature of the two is.
When Michael Schumacher entered Formula 1 in 1991 and placed his inferior Jordan racing car in seventh place on the grid on his debut in Spa, Belgium, the attributes that would accompany him from then on were quickly found: upcoming world champion, super talent, high-flyer.
That was how obvious his talent was.
For Mick Schumacher, who will appear in free practice for the first time in the Formula 1 air at the season finale in Abu Dhabi in December and then finally become a regular driver for the Italian-American Haas team from 2021, different omens apply.
Even if he is reminiscent of the young Michael Schumacher visually and in his way of speaking, he is a completely different type.
First okay, then the big jump
At the beginning of his career he started under the maiden name of his mother Corinna (Betsch) in order not to attract so much attention.
Even then, Mick Schumacher was not the great high-flyer who would have stormed through the kart series and then through the junior formulas as a child prodigy.
Again and again, what his new team boss Günther Steiner noticed: "The first season was okay, the big jump always came in the second." For the ex-GP driver Marc Surer a sign that Schumacher maybe not the absolute great natural talent who immediately stands out as the absolute high-flyer, but someone who learns better than many others.
“Someone who can soak up all available information and then act accordingly.
And that is perhaps even more important in today's Formula 1, ”Surer believes.
His slightly longer path to the top gave Schumacher time to mature.
At the age of 21, he is already very stable, certainly also influenced by the family circumstances, by the tragedy surrounding his father Michael.
In addition, he is represented from the start by a management team that already worked for Michael Schumacher.
Strongly shielded in the beginning, he was able to develop.
"We will certainly not compete for victories"
"Mick is already very advanced for his age, and he is also a very nice, polite young man - and he's quick, that's the most important thing," says Haas team boss Steiner.
The move to Formula 1 should still be at least a small culture shock.
The environment is different from that of his previous employer, the Prema Powerteam in Formula 2. In the future, Schumacher will have to deal with considerably more people with whom he will have to work in a team: “That will be unusual.
I hope I can get used to it quickly, ”he said at a press conference on Wednesday at which he was officially presented.
His contract with Haas runs for "several years," as it was called, which in Formula 1 jargon usually means at least two years plus options for extension.
The expectations are high just because of the name, Mick Schumacher knows that: "We will definitely not compete for victories next year," he said.
In fact, the Haas team is more of the backbench.
To make it into Q2 in qualifying, then to get a point every now and then in the race - that would be a great success for Schumacher.
And of course to stay in front of his teammate Nikita Mazepin.
His new boss, team boss Günther Steiner, will play a special role for Schumacher.
With his direct, uncompromising way of saying what he thinks, the South Tyrolean is a big exception in Formula 1. All the tricks of this entertainment machine, all of politics and its games - Steiner knows them very well and likes to comment on them.
This made him a cult figure in the Netflix documentary series.
For everyone who works with him directly, his manner can take getting used to.
On the other hand, Mick Schumacher can be pretty sure that he always knows what he is doing with his employer.
All in all, these are good prerequisites for getting to know Formula 1 quickly.
A few other racing sons who made it into Formula 1 could still count on the direct support of their fathers.
Nico Rosberg, for example, whose father Keke was always a contact, or Nelson Piquet jr.
Pietro Fittipaldi, who will now be in Bahrain as a substitute for Romain Grosjean after his fire accident in the Haas, has a special grandfather Emerson, world champion 1972 and 1974, to support the track.
The Fittipaldis are a prime example of family dynasties in racing - Pietro is the fourth member of the family to start in the premier class.
These connections are particularly helpful at the beginning of a career in raising sponsorship money.
It was the same with Jacques Villeneuve and Damon Hill, whose fathers Gilles and Graham died early, but who still made their way up.
Just like Bruno Senna, they learned that a big name can mean additional pressure, even if it was not the father but the uncle Ayrton that was the legend to be fought against.
Mick Schumacher knows it all too well.
So far he's coping with it pretty well.
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