Sakhir, Bahrain: Mick Schumacher, the son of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, will drive in Formula One for the first time with Haas next season, the team announced on Wednesday, leaving their new recruit “emotionally exploding” at the realisation of a dream.
Schumacher junior, 21, long tipped for a Formula One spot, will partner Russian driver Nikita Mazepin, also 21, in the Haas line-up.
Haas team principal Guenther Steiner welcomed the two F1 debutants in a tweet: “Super excited about having two rookies in our team for next year! Welcome, Mick!”
They replace Haas’s current driver pairing of Romain Grosjean - who escaped a fiery crash in Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix - and Kevin Magnussen.
“I’m really looking forward to next year’s challenge...it’s really been a dream that I’ve always dreamed about and now it’s finally coming true,” Schumacher said in a video posted on Twitter.
“So I’m just really really happy and emotionally exploding.”
Mick Schumacher currently heads the Formula Two drivers’ standings with one race to go in Bahrain this weekend.
Haas’s new signing will get a taste of what is in store when he takes part in free practice ahead of the 2020 season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on December 11 before taking part in testing a few days later.
Confirming the news 24 hours after Mazepin’s appointment, Haas announced that they had signed Schumacher “in a multi-year agreement”.
Schumacher leads the F2 standings by 14 points after achieveing 10 podium finishes and feature race victories at Monza and Sochi.
Steiner said the Formula 2 championship had long served as a proving ground for talent to showcase their credentials. He added: “Mick has won races, collected podiums and excelled against some pretty exceptional talent in 2020.
“I firmly believe he’s earned the opportunity to graduate into Formula 1 based on his performances.
“We are putting in place our building blocks for the continued long-term growth of the team and I look forward to Mick’s contributions both on and off the track in that process.”
Schumacher’s father was seriously injured in a skiing accident in December 2013 and has not been seen in public since.
Michael Schumacher’s wife Corinna, the mother of Mick, issued a rare statement on the Formula One legend’s 50th birthday in January 2019, saying the family were doing “everything humanly possible” to help her husband.
In a statement on the Haas team’s website Schumacher wrote: “I want to acknowledge and extend my love to my parents - I know that I owe them everything.”
British driver Lewis Hamilton this year won his seventh Formula One world title to equal Michael Schumacher’s all-time record.
Haas will be counting on their 2021 pairing to prove their mettle on the track after Grosjean and Magnussen’s frugal haul of just three points between them this campaign with two races to go.
