Mick Schumacher has been following in his father's footsteps and wheel tracks even more closely than usual this week. The 18-year-old is currently competing in the FIA European Formula 3 Championship with Prema. But on Wednesday, he was spotted behind the wheel of his father's 1994 title winning car. He was trying out the Benetton-Ford B194 for size at Spa-Francorchamps. He's slated to take the car for a special exhibition drive at the circuit in two weeks time. He'll be delighting crowds attending the Belgian Grand Prix an hour before the start of the race. The run is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Michael Schumacher's first Grand Prix career win, here at Spa in 1992. Mick Schumacher at the wheel of his dad's title-winning car!
Can't wait to see it........ I hope he can one day emulate his dad and we get to see the greatest driver name in F1, Schumacher, at the top of the time sheets alongside the greatest marque in F1, Ferrari
This is great to see/read. I wish him and his family all the very best. May the Gods of speed look kindly upon Mick. I dream of seeing him on the F1 grid very soon taking victory after glorious victory!
Unlikely. He is struggling this season in F3. He dominated F4 but hasn't come to terms with this level yet
Give him time, if he has an ounce of his fathers skill, he will dominate F1. Forza Mick, Forza Michael
MS was a late bloomer himself: at Sauber he was on par with Frentzen His insane talent only became visible once he sat in a F1
Michael didn't step into F1 until after he raced Mercedes sports cars for a bit, where I heard he wasn't as formidable as he was in F1. I believe he was 22.
exactly. Mercedes plunked down some serious cheddar to get him a F1 seat, which IMO was out of their desperate desire to see a talented German driver in F1 and he was the most marketable at the time.
Never heard that story (not saying it is not true just never heard that). I thought it was Mr. 20% Weber who paid for the Jordan test at Silverstone and the rest was history (Jordan hired MS, then came 7th on grid at Spa and Briatore bought him for Benetton). All documented in the Piranha Club, chapter 1
The word I've heard was Mercedes paid 450,000DM for Schumacher to race at Spa alone. At the time, Mercedes were actually about to take a crack at F1 themselves per a former exec, Jochen Neerpasch. That obviously didn't happen. It was Julian Jakobi (managed Senna and Prost for a time I believe) who contacted Jordan, who asked for the $70k for the one race which was cheap. Weber and Jakobi had to fudge the details at Schumacher's shake-down at Silverstone earlier in the week re Schumacher's Spa experience as Jordan did not want his car with a Spa novice, so of course they said of course he had driven Spa even though he had not. They also signed a weak letter of intent, but very hesitantly, as they all knew (everyone except Jordan) that Schu was the hottest property since Senna. Jordan wanted an actual contract signed but they got out of that with a letter of intent which was totally non binding. Clever. Weber was against being in any kind of contract with Jordan at the time but I think he knew he had to sign something, even if it was a sort of back-door letter of intent, so to get Schu in the car. Jordan in return received some $750k from Mercedes for the rest of the 91 season. What's really funny is Jordan thought he could get a further commitment from Schu but Bernie was actually backing Schu as well as he had been trying to get Germans more into F1, which of course they were with the rise of F1. It's all about timing in this game isn't it.
I should add that Michael had signed a third contract in the early 90s with Mercedes stating they were to have top priority for Michael's able skills should Mercedes join F1. Sauber tried to capitalized on this with some existing contract with Mercedes saying he was to enter F1 and Michael was going to drive, but Sauber had misinterpreted this and it of course never came to be. 'Misinterpreted' to me says one side had more/better counsel than the other.
We attended one such race. You could visibly see Michael was braking later in the Merc than other cars. In F1 Michael adapted his style to brake slightly earlier, which clearly worked for him in generating greater stability and greater speed through the corner.
Very interesting, thank you for that. I heard his use of the throttle in corners was somehow different as well, but I'm not sure how. I heard Senna hit the throttle and constantly modulated through a turn and Michael was somehow different, but no one has clearly explained to me how.
Example at Copse corner - Michael's throttle/braking and car control resulted in a 20km/h faster exit than Barichello in identical cars. Schumacher was in a class of his own.
