Mick Schumacher says expensive junior series is one of the reasons why there is a lack of German drivers on the F1 grid.
Sebastian Vettel’s retirement announcement at the end of the season leaves Mick Schumacher to be the only German driver on the F1 grid. Previously in F1, there used to be as many as five German drivers at the same time on the grid.
Haas F1 driver Mick Schumacher described this as fascinating at the Hungarian GP. Given the rich history of German success in F1 particularly of Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Mercedes AMG, it is amazing to note see that in the 2023 season, there’d be only one German driver.
Asked why is this the case, Schumacher insisted that motorsport needs to bring some changes; to make the sport more attractive to young kids in Germany.
“I don’t know. It’s fascinating, right? Obviously, I wish there would be more Germans also upcoming – because there are not at the moment,” he said.
“I think we’ll just have to try and push the juniors in German motorsport, to try and make it a bit more attractive for them to start go-karting, try to go into Formula classes.”
“If that’s gonna be the case in the next few years, I don’t know,” Schumacher further added.
Asked if the exclusion of German GP from the F1 calendar is one of the reasons, the young German said, “I don’t think so. I think there’s more to it.” He also added that he would love a race in Germany.
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Junior series too expensive says Mick Schumacher
Schumacher spoke about his own experience of climbing the ladder of motorsport to reach F1. He said that there were a lot of German drivers at the time he was karting. Gradually, most of them made it to the next category, but some of them actually went to GTs for example, or something else.
He said, “There is something that we can do to try and help that. Obviously, if there would be more [German] people in motorsports, especially Formula One, that would be coming through, I’m sure that kids will wanna drive in F1.”
Schumacher expressed his frustration at the “quite ridiculous” prices to have a seat in the junior categories from Formula 2 to F4, and even go-karting. He believes funding is part of the reason why Germans are unable to make it to the pinnacle of motorsport.
As per an article by Flowracers, in total from karting all the way up to Formula 1, a racer is looking at spending around $10 million.
“You want to obviously manage to get the kids the [funds] to go through to Formula One, and the prices at the moment are honestly quite ridiculous. How much money do people have to spend to drive F2, an F3 and also F4.
“If you even think further back, go-karting these days is expensive if you wanna do a full season in a top team, which you have to do to really be able to improve.”
There’s already motion in that sense, to try and get the budget down in junior categories, and I’m sure it’ll take time. But with time there might be more [German] people in motorsport coming in,” Schumacher concluded.
