Mick Schumacher is looking forward to making his Formula 1 debut with Haas this season, 30 years on from his father’s maiden appearance.
The younger Schumacher last year won the FIA Formula 2 Championship with Prema Racing, and joined Haas for a post-season test outing in Abu Dhabi last December.
Michael Schumacher made his Formula 1 debut with Jordan at the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix, winning seven world championships in a 19-year career (over 21 seasons).
His son’s F1 career will start later this month with the Bahrain Grand Prix (March 26-28), with three days of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit starting this Friday (March 12-14).
“Obviously now being one of the 20 drivers in Formula 1 is very special,” Schumacher said.
“As a child, I’ve been dreaming about this for 15 years – and now it’s actually happened.
“It’s emotional and just something very nice.
“My father actually had his first race in Formula 1 30 years ago this year – that makes it even more emotional and even nicer.”
The German will share pre-season testing in the Haas VF-21 with team-mate Nikita Mazepin, affording each only a day and a half of running.
Though he sampled the Haas VF-20 late last year, and the car is largely unchanged for the coming campaign, the focus will be on acclimatising himself in his new office.
“The definite priority is to get even more comfortable in the car and just trying to sort out everything that needs to be sorted out from driver kit, the seat, driver position, through to how the car feels on track and working with the team,” he said.
“These are all focus points I set myself some time ago. And now we’re at the point we’re going testing it’ll be the case we can work on that.
“I’m looking forward to that and figuring out everything we need to be ready for the first race.”
Schumacher will be first in the car when testing begins on Friday morning (local time), before handing over to Mazepin for the afternoon.
He’ll then be back on deck for Saturday afternoon before ending his scheduled running on Sunday morning.
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