Mick Schumacher: ready to face his F1 destiny?

“I think that it’s quite clear that I’ve been under a sort of spotlight since a very young age, and especially due to the sport that I do,” he noted last year after landing the Haas seat.

“Nevertheless, I think it’s something that I’ve been able to get used to, and I would say about myself that I’m able to deal with it pretty well. I think the results speak for it.

“So I think I will do the same as usual in 2021, too. And we’ll just try and keep the same rhythm that I have.”

He’s had time to learn to deal with the attention: “It’s something that has always been with me, and I kind of got used to it, I didn’t really have to specifically work on it.

“But I think definitely one thing that is important is that you have a family that is always open and true to you.

“If you have friends that tell you how it is and you have facts, you will stay grounded, and you’ll be able to see things in a different perspective than if you would be trying to do all this alone. I’m lucky to have such a great bunch of people around me.”

They include folk who were a key part of Michael’s Ferrari career, and by coincidence are now in influential positions in the sport.

Jean Todt, Ross Brawn and Stefano Domenicali have all advised and helped Mick in whatever way they can, and no doubt will continue to do so.

“Obviously, all three have been a great part of my dad’s career, and also have been of mine,” he says.

“It’s great to see them all succeed so well in the sport and also do well aside from being team bosses or involved in teams.

“I think that we’ll have to see if it’s the same in F1 or not,” he says. “It’s really hard to say at the moment, but I’m pretty confident that I’ll be able to extract my maximum, and hopefully, I’ll be able to do that every time.”

One interesting aspect of his 2020 F2 season was that he didn’t take a pole. Was that a reflection of the way he approached his title campaign, focussing on the races?

“I think that you have to always take into account all the aspects of a season and where the preferences are,” he says. “At the end, if you do a good race, you’ll take 25 points home, if you do a qualifying and not a good race, you’ll take four points home.

“So, you really have to set your preferences, and maybe it’s been not easy for me to put everything together in one lap.

“But definitely, therefore, we were very consistent in races, conserve our tyres when we have to, and use the tyres when we did. I think it’s just a bit of a preference.

“It’s a bit of a mindset, where are your goals? I think we have very good drivers out there, and all have different driving styles and let’s say approaches to the weekend.”

“I’m pretty confident that I’ll be able to extract my maximum, and hopefully, I’ll be able to do that every time”

The key measure of Mick’s progress this year will be how he fares against Haas team mate and fellow rookie Nikita Mazepin, especially over one lap in qualifying.

Intriguingly, they have been teammates before, in karting in 2013 and 2014, so they know each other well.

If Mick was up against a more experienced driver at Haas – Romain Grosjean or Kevin Magnussen for example – it would be no surprise to see him behind initially, especially in qualifying, and he could enjoy a honeymoon period and learn from the older man.

In contrast the world will expect him to at least match Mazepin from the start, if not beat him, but that isn’t a given. It’s easy to overlook the fact that the well-financed Russian has many more F1 test miles under his belt than Mick.

Aside from beating his team mate, Schumacher has to replicate the sort of progress he made as he worked his way up the ranks by demonstrating progress, and do it in parallel with a team that is rebuilding after a poor season last year.

“Well, my approach is definitely going to be trying to improve as a racing driver, to try and deliver the best I can,” he acknowledges.

“Obviously, it’s going to be challenging, but I’m pretty sure that you know that the team has enough experience to give me the opportunities to develop.

“You always want to eventually improve from A to B, like beginning of the season to the end of the season. That’s really our aim. And so I’m pretty sure that we’ll manage that well.”

He’s certainly optimistic: “We have a super experienced team, super experienced people, a lot of very talented people as well working for Haas F1 team.

“So I’m not afraid at all that they will all work very well together, and hopefully improve the car as much as we can.”