The name Schumacher, a blessing and a curse
As the son of a seven-time World Champion, it will never be easy for Mick Schumacher to step out of the shadow of his famous father. His achievements will always be compared to those of his father and accusations that he owes his successes only to that last name is something he had to learn to deal with years ago.
In that regard, such a famous father is very disadvantageous, but it has certainly also benefited him, especially financially. The German has been appearing in front of the camera for several years with a well-known logo on his cap. The logo of the Deutsche Vermögensberatung, which was also Michael's personal sponsor for many years.
His last name will therefore have given him a financial push in the right direction and the cooperation with Ferrari does not come out of the blue either. Partly because of this, Mick got the chance to prove himself in the junior classes, but to get to Formula 1 he just had to prove himself on the track and in that respect he was judged extra strict because of his last name.
Start-up problems appear to be characteristic of Schumacher
The results were not spectacular from the start. In karting, he participated well and achieved several places of honour in major championships, but always came just short of a title. At the national, European and world level, he always just missed out on the most important prizes.
He made his debut in ADAC Formula 4 with the Dutch Van Amersfoort Racing. In his first race weekend at Oschersleben, he immediately won a race, but the rest of the season was downright mediocre. In the final standings, he even finished behind Lando Norris, while the Briton only competed for three of the eight race weekends.
It wasn't until his second season of F4 that the ball started to roll, a slow start that would bother him more often in the following years. He made the switch to the Prema Power Team and drove both the German and Italian championships. In both championships, he won five races and took second place in the final standings. In doing so, he lost to Joey Mawson and Marcos Siebert.
A crucial first title in Formula 3
Here you can say that his last name did help him, because while we never heard from Mawson and Siebert again, Schumacher was able to make the switch to Formula 3 for Prema. Here too he had a difficult start. While his peer Lando Norris became champion, Schumacher was not on the podium once and finished the season in twelfth place.
Schumacher was given time by Prema to mature and a year later he rewarded them for their patience. After another difficult start, he finally achieved his first title in racing in 2017 thanks to a series of victories in the second half of the season. A title that probably meant the salvation of his career.
This process was repeated in Formula 2. A poor first season was followed by taking the title in 2020. He did so with just two wins, but once again proved that he is a solid driver once he feels at home in a car. It earned him a place in Formula 1 with the Haas team.
Mick Schumacher in 2021
There, a major challenge awaits him from the first Grand Prix. Haas has been struggling to produce a competitive car for the past two seasons, and with the new investments at Williams, the team may well be lonely at the back this year.
In that case, he will have to fully focus on defeating teammate Nikita Mazepin. The Russian has a bad reputation for all sorts of reasons, but is treacherously fast and had an excellent season in F2 in 2020. Should Schumacher also have start-up problems in F1 and be knocked down by Mazepin, he will be judged hard on that.
