The Schumacher name is officially back in Formula 1
By Asher Fair
The Schumacher name is officially back in Formula 1 today, as Mick Schumacher’s journey begins with Haas for the 2021 season.
The opening two practice sessions for the 2021 Formula 1 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix at Bahrain International Circuit took place earlier today, and with that, the Schumacher name is officially back at the “pinnacle of motorsport”.
Mick Schumacher, the son of the legendary seven-time world champion and 91-time Grand Prix winner Michael Schumacher, turned his first laps on a Formula 1 race weekend behind the wheel of his VF-21 for Haas.
The 22-year-old German signed a deal with the sport’s lone American team early last December to compete alongside fellow rookie Nikita Mazepin on a multi-year deal, just days before securing the 2020 Formula 2 title.
Schumacher competed in Formula 2 for two seasons after winning the 2018 Formula 3 European title in his second year in that series.
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His participation in today’s practice sessions for the record-breaking 23-race campaign marked an end to a drought of more than eight years without a Schumacher in the sport. Prior to the beginning of that drought, 20 of the last 22 seasons had seen that name in the field.
Mick’s laps around the 15-turn, 3.363-mile (5.412-kilometer) road course in Sakhir, Bahrain were the first completed by a Schumacher on a race weekend since Michael’s seventh place finish in the 2012 season finale, the Brazilian Grand Prix, at Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace on Sunday, November 25.
Ralf Schumacher, Michael’s brother, also competed in Formula 1, but he last did so in 2007. He competed from 1997 to 2007 while Michael competed from 1991 to 2006 and then again from 2010 to 2012.
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The Bahrain Grand Prix is scheduled to get the 2021 season underway on Sunday, March 28. The race is set to be broadcast live on ESPN from Bahrain International Circuit beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET.