Mick Schumacher to race for Max Verstappen's old team
Monday 27 April 2015 09:43, UK
The teenage son of Michael Schumacher, Mick, will begin his car racing career in German Formula 4 this season.
The 15-year-old finished runner-up in the world, European and German karting championships last season and has been signed by Dutch junior team Van Amersfoort Racing for the inaugural ADAC Formula 4 championship, which runs to the FIA’s new F4 format for young drivers.
Mick Schumacher, who has raced in karts in the past under his mother Corinna’s maiden name of Betsch, joins the same team that 17-year-old Max Verstappen raced for in European F3 last season prior to graduating to F1 with Toro Rosso as the sport’s youngest ever driver.
"We've watched him carefully during tests, noting how skilful he is. We're looking forward to a successful season," said team owner Frits van Amersfoort of Schumacher Jr.
"In the last couple of years, it has become a tradition for us that we offer the runner-up from the German junior karting championship (DJKM) a test session in our simulator.
"This is handled by the DMSB, the German motorsport authority, and that is how we first got in touch with Mick Schumacher last autumn. He spent a full day in the simulator at our headquarters in the Netherlands.
“Then we witnessed him during a test session at Valencia and eventually, we reached an agreement to compete together in this year's ADAC Formula 4 series."
Mick’s father Michael, the most successful F1 driver of all time with seven world titles, continues to recover at home from the severe head injuries he suffered in a skiing accident in the French Alps in December 2013.
After five months at Grenoble Hospital in southern France, it was announced in June last year that Schumacher was no longer in a coma and had been transferred to Lausanne Hospital in Switzerland. Schumacher then returned home in September to what is believed to be a specially-constructed medical unit at the family’s base on the shore of Lake Geneva.
