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Germany’s FIA F4
series beckons for
Mick Schumacher
Schumacher Jr to German F4
Seven-time Formula 1 champion’s son to make single-seater debut
NEXT GENERATION
MAX VERSTAPPEN
DUNBAR/LAT
Making it big
Max Verstappen After a stunning
rookie F3 season, Jos’s lad is into F1.
Bruno Senna Now racing for McLaren
in GT after following uncle Ayrton to F1.
Lucas Auer Gerhard Berger’s nephew
moves from F3 to DTM with Mercedes.
Alex Brundle After inconclusive stint in
single-seaters, Martin’s boy is LMP2 ace.
in Formula 3 last season.
ADAC F4, Germany’s new series
for Tatuus-Abarth cars run to the
FIA’s new F4 concept, kicks off at
Oschersleben on April 25-26, by
which time Schumacher will be 16.
He has competed in karting
under the names Mick Junior and
Mick Betsch (his mother Corinna’s
maiden name) and last season
finished runner-up to Briton Enaam
Ahmed in both the World and
European KF Junior title fights.
His maiden test in a car was in a
French F4 Championship machine,
while his first taste of an ADAC F4
Tatuus came at Valencia before
Christmas with Jenzer Motorsport.
Schu Jr with Frits
Van Amersfoort
The sons and nephews of Michael Schumacher’s 1994 F1 rivals
Missing out
Greg and Leo Mansell Sons of
Nigel haven’t raced for some years.
Josh Hill Damon’s boy looked decent to
F3 level, but preferred drums to Dallaras.
Anthony Comas The son of Erik raced in
Formula BMW without any great success.
Sam Brabham David’s lad is a British
Formula Ford winner unsure of next step.
JOSH HILL
XPB IMAGES/LAT
MICK SCHUMACHER, THE
15-year-old son of seven-time
Formula 1 world champion
Michael Schumacher, will
make his car-racing debut this
year in the ADAC Formula 4
Championship in Germany.
Schumacher will race with
Van Amersfoort Racing, the
Dutch team that propelled Max
Verstappen – son of Schumacher
Sr’s 1994 Benetton F1 team-mate
Jos Verstappen – to prominence
Bubbling under
Hugo Hakkinen Mika’s son, 14, has
been karting in Europe for a few years.
Pietro Fittipaldi Cousin-onceremoved of Christian moves from
Formula Renault to F3.
Louis Deletraz Jean-Denis’s son
has won in Formula Renault NEC.
Aurelien Panis Olivier Jr, a Renault
Eurocup race winner, heads to FR3.5.
Giuliano Alesi It’s karting at the
moment for Jean’s 15-year-old son.
Jules Gounon Son of Jean-Marc has
won French Carrera Cup scholarship.
LAST YEAR’S ANNOUNCEMENT
that British GT would introduce
all-Silver pairings split opinion.
In fact, some of those it irked were
so put out they considered whether
they’d even continue in the series.
So, while it’s great to see a marque
like McLaren invest in youth, to have
a new car in the series, and have
two young guns in Ross Wylie and
Andrew Watson land proper GT3
drives (see page 98), it’s got the
potential to cause some problems
throughout the grid.
That pairing in that car, run by a
team as capable as VonRyan Racing,
should win the championship. In a
‘straight’ fight, the Pro-Am pairings
would not compete. So they will
have to be pegged back.
It’s not as though it’s something
the championship officials have
no experience of. After all, they’ve
allowed Gold and Silver pairings in
the past (though the partnership of
Ahmad Al Harthy and Michael Caine
is no longer, now that’s been banned),
and they didn’t win the title last year.
A Pro-Am pairing did.
How the Balance of Performance
is weighted against the Silver Cup
pairings will be crucial to retain a level
playing field in what is predominantly
a Pro-Am championship. While we’d
all love to see GT3 machines being
thrashed around by professionals for
three hours, the bottom line is that
British GT is where it is because of
the gentleman driver.
Their value should not be
underestimated and their irritations
should not be ignored. Until then, let’s
not disregard what is very good news
for two very promising young drivers.
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