Mick Schumacher: “Good sides and bad sides of being the son of the greatest F1 racer of all time”. 19-year-old Mick Schumacher recently joined the Ferrari Driver Academy.

The 2018 FIA F3 European champion and current Formula 2 driver Mick Schumacher admitted that there are downsides to following in the footsteps of his seven-times world champion father and Scuderia Ferrari legend Michael. The 19-year-old German, who recently joined the Ferrari Driver Academy, has made few public remarks on the legacy of his father, who was seriously injured in a skiing accident five years ago.

“I am happy to be the son of the greatest F1 racer of all time” – Mick said, as reported by FIA’s Auto magazine – “I’m happy that he is the greatest F1 racer of all time, and I admire him for that. And even if sometimes it can be a bit difficult, it is what it is. There are good sides to it and there are bad sides. Having the support I have from a lot of people all over the world can’t be a bad thing. I am thankful for that.” – he added.

Last year Schumacher scored won first single-seater championship in European Formula Three. He described how his father once asked him if he wanted to pursue a professional racing career: “Racing and karting is quite a normal thing in my family and I always loved to go karting with my father. It was big fun sharing that with him and I remember him asking one day if this would be a hobby for me or if I wanted to do it as a professional. I told him straight away I wanted to do it professionally. I never wanted to do anything else.” – Mick explained, according to FIA’s Auto magazine.

Schumacher took until the mid-way point of last year’s F3 season to score his first win in the category. After that a string of victories put him on course for a comfortable championship victory: “It started in Spa and then in Nurburgring, where I won all three races, it was clear that the title was in reach. In hindsight it may sound strange, but throughout the season I never thought the title was out of sight, I was always convinced that it was still possible to win it. We had the pace, but there always seemed to be something that didn’t go right, but I firmly believed we would sort that out.” – Mick concluded.