Jenson Button is warning against “totally unfair” comparisons between Mick and his father Michael Schumacher as Formula 1 appears to beckon.
Speculation is growing about the current F2 championship leader, with Ferrari admitting last week a Friday practice appearance is coming with the Nurburgring identified as a likely option.
As for a full-time F1 seat, it is also now suggested Schumacher is guaranteed to be promoted should he finish in the top three of the F2 standings.
“I think he’s ripe to take the step into Formula 1,” former driver Gerhard Berger told SpeedWeek. “I like him a lot and slowly he is working his way to the top in every category.
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“For me, it is important to see whether a racing driver has fluctuations or a Championship profile; that he fights for a title with his head and with stamina, even if he ‘only’ comes second in the end.
“I see that with Mick – his father also had it very strongly.
“His walk, his way, his way of working, he is very similar to Michael. Of course, the footprints are extremely big,” the Austrian added.
“But I’m very happy when Mick achieves success and finds his way into Formula 1 – of course for the family and for Michael too.”
One of Schumacher’s father’s greatest rivals, two-time world champion Mika Hakkinen, is also talking up the young German.
“It is great to see Mick’s career progressing well, including now leading the Formula 2 Championship, and I am certain he will find a seat in Formula 1 very soon,” he wrote in his Unibet column.
“It will be a special moment for him, the Schumacher family and Formula 1 when it happens.”
However, Jenson Button notes the attention and the expectation likely to be placed on the 21-year-old will be immense.
“It’s tough [for him], it really is,” he told Sky Sports. “People are always going to compare him to Michael and I think it’s totally unfair.
“He is a different person and a very different animal to Michael. He really does seem like a lovely kid. He seems to have a great ethic which Michael definitely did have and he has grown over the last couple of years in F2.
“I think he does deserve a seat in F1, then we can really see what he has got then when he has got some proper pressure.”