Berlin (AFP) – Mick Schumacher will attempt to follow in his famous father’s footsteps on Saturday when he races in the Macau Grand Prix to decide arguably the world’s best Formula Three driver.
“It’s great to be back in Macau, it was a fantastic season for the whole team and I’m proud to be coming here as European champion,” Mick Schumacher, 19, said after arriving in China with his Italian Prema Team.
“This is the race that every Formula Three driver wants to win. I’ll try my best to do just that.”
Famous past winners of the Macau Grand Prix for F3 drivers include Ayrton Senna and David Coulthard, plus both Mick Schumacher’s father Michael and his uncle Ralf.
Michael Schumacher, 49, the stricken seven-time former Formula One world champion, was just 21 when he won the 37th edition of the race around the streets of Macau in 1990.
Fast-forward 28 years and Mick Schumacher is one of the favourites for the 65th edition — essentially the World Cup of Formula Three — after winning this season’s European F3 title last month.
He will battle Japan’s F3 champion Sho Tsuboi and Britain’s 2017 Macau GP winner Dan Ticktum, who finished second behind Schumacher in the 2018 European F3 title race, on Macau’s famous Guia Circuit in a field of 28.
Schumacher junior finished 16th in last year’s Macau Grand Prix, despite clocking the fastest lap.
“The Macau Grand Prix is a race with great history, with many of the victors being some of the most successful drivers of all time,” added the teenager.
“It would be a great honour to appear on the list of winners.”
Michael Schumacher has not been seen in public since suffering head injuries in a skiing accident in Meribel, France, in December 2013 and his current condition is a closely guarded secret.
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