It’s clear that Mick Schumacher’s biggest inspiration in F1 was his legendary father Michael. The latter is arguably the greatest driver to ever grace the sport, winning seven World Titles and smashing all records back in his day. Still, he isn’t the only great this sport has produced.
Brazilian driver and three-time World Champion Ayrton Senna himself is an inspiration to an entire generation of young drivers. The likes of Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo have cited the late great Senna as their hero. It turns out that even Mick is a huge fan of the Sao Paolo-born driver. However, he refused to clearly state that during an interview.
Ahead of the Sao Paolo GP earlier this year, former Ferrari driver, Felipe Massa asked the 23-year-old which driver he would like to have as an idol between Senna and his father. Schumacher took little time to come up with a clever answer and replied, “the Brazilian version of my dad.”
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2022 season ends in disappointment for Mick Schumacher
Schumacher made his F1 debut in 2021 with Haas and impressed a lot of people in his rookie season, despite driving the worst car on the grid. In 2022, however, the former F2 Champion massively struggled to live up to expectations. His teammate Kevin Magnussen completely outperformed him and he made quite a few costly errors that led to crashes at the beginning of the season.
In spite of his early season problems, Schumacher’s progress was undeniable. The former Ferrari junior improved consistently and even got his first points finishes this year in Silverstone and Austria. There was hope that his contract would be renewed until the closing stages of the season when it was evident that it won’t.
Team owner Gene Haas and team principal Guenther Steiner seemed to think that Schumacher’s inexperience was limiting them. As a result, they decided to opt for more experience in the 35-year-old Nico Hulkenberg. The former Renault driver last raced full-time in F1 back in 2019 and was a reserve for Racing Point/Aston Martin since then.
For Schumacher, it seems likely that he will land up a reserve role at one of the teams, with Mercedes’ team boss Toto Wolff expressing heavy interest in him.
Also read: Mick Schumacher losing F1 seat at Haas contributed to Mattia Binotto’s potential Ferrari exit
