Mick Schumacher, the son of seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher, will drive the new Ferrari SF90 on Tuesday, April 2, following the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The youngster is currently racing in Formula 2 this year with the Prema team, but is also a Ferrari Driver Academy member. After testing for the Scuderia on Tuesday, he will jump behind the wheel of the Alfa Romeo Racing car on Wednesday, as Sebastian Vettel will take over testing duties for Ferrari.
While Mick Schumacher has never driven a modern-day Formula 1 car before, he has sampled his father’s 1994 Benetton at Spa during a demo run a couple of years back.
“I am obviously more than excited and would like to thank Ferrari for giving me this opportunity,” said the 20-year old German. “I am really looking forward to what I’m sure will be a great experience. But for the moment, I am consciously putting all thoughts of the test to one side, because I am also very much looking forward to competing in my first F2 race and would like to focus a hundred percent on the weekend to come.”
Also, Callum Ilot, who races for the Sauber Junior Team in Formula 2, will get to try out Alfa Romeo’s F1 car at an upcoming Barcelona test session on the 14th and 15th of May.
Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto stated that his outfit firmly believes in the value of the Ferrari Driver Academy “as a high level training program for talented youngsters and the decision to give Charles Leclerc a race seat with our team is proof of that.”
“We are therefore very pleased to be able to give Mick and Callum the opportunity to experience driving a Formula 1 car. Mick, who joined the FDA in January, and Callum, who has been with us since 2017, are definitely drivers on their way up and I believe that driving the SF90 in an official setting such as the tests in Bahrain and Barcelona can be very useful at this stage in their career.”
Unfortunately, Michael Schumacher is still receiving medical treatment and rehabilitation at his home in Switzerland following his December 2013 skiing accident that caused head injuries and put him in a medically-induced coma for six months. Although we have no official news concerning his health, as the family chose to keep him away from prying eyes and we’re not falling for “reports” that have proven to be false, we’re pretty sure he’ll be very proud of his son driving a Ferrari F1 car for the first time.
