Prema boss Rene Rosin on Mick Schumacher’s motor-racing future. The young German racing driver encountered difficulties especially during qualifying in the 2017.

Mick Schumacher, the 19-year-old son of seven-time world champion and Scuderia Ferrari legend Michael Schumacher, has emerged from two of the three pre-season tests with the overall quickest time – a big step forward over his 2017 form and according to his Prema Powerteam squad, he “has matured a lot” and is ready to win races in the Formula 3 European Championship this season.

As an F3 rookie, Mick Schumacher managed to score just one podium finish for third position at Monza, but in the past month he has topped tests at the Hungaroring and Red Bull Ring. Prema boss Rene Rosin pointed out that the signs were there in Schumacher’s performance at the end-of-season Macau Grand Prix, where he set fastest lap following an incident early in the race.

“For sure Mick has matured in the winter.” – Rene Rosin said, as reported by Motorsport.com earlier today – “But I want to review Macau – for a rookie he did an excellent job, and it was like a new start for him. He followed everything we asked him to do, and if he didn’t go straight on at Lisboa [the corner at the end of the main straight] I would not have been surprised to see him on the podium.” – he added.

The young German racing driver encountered difficulties especially during qualifying in the 2017 season and Rosin revealed that this has been a focus over the off-season: “We have worked in the winter testing with that in mind, but as well he has matured a lot and he is ready now. I think he should just keep concentrating, and be thinking race by race, session by session, without putting pressure on himself. He doesn’t need to think about the championship – he just needs to do his own thing.” – the Prema boss explained.

Prema has a very evenly matched line-up comprising Mick Schumacher, third-year F3 drivers Ralf Aron and Guan Yu Zhou, and rookies Marcus Armstrong and Robert Shwartzman as it bids to bounce back from defeat in 2017 at the hands of Carlin’s Lando Norris: “With all the drivers we have been doing different tests and different stuff to understand better and to improve where we were missing last year. In all cases we have fulfilled what we were expecting to do.” – he concluded.

Prema boss Rene Rosin also predicted that the main rivals to his team in 2018 will be Motopark’s Macau Grand Prix winner Dan Ticktum, Carlin pair Sacha Fenestraz and Ferdinand Habsburg, and Hitech GP’s Alex Palou.