Mattia Binotto says a future seat at Ferrari remains the main goal with Mick Schumacher as he prepares to make his Formula 1 in 2021.
Son of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, the 21-year-old has been growing into a top young talent, following his European F3 championship in 2018 by claiming the F2 championship at the second attempt last year.
Of course, with a surname like his, Mick's journey has been capturing the attention of much of the motorsport world, with expectations that he can live up to the legacy of his father and, one day, race for the Scuderia.
“Mick Schumacher will be one of the drivers for Haas next year, which for us is a great opportunity, showing the strength of collaboration we’ve got,” Binotto explained.
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“Mick is part of our FDA [Ferrari Driver Academy] and the FDA program is not there to develop drivers for F1, but it’s there to develop drivers that one day may drive a Ferrari seat, a red car.
“When you move from F2 and jump into F1, the very first year cannot be directly into a red car because that would be too much responsibility and not enough experience. So knowing that we’ve got customer teams or partners on which we may count to continue developing our drivers in F1 is an important element.”
Ferrari's most recent young prodigy is of course, Charles Leclerc, who stepped into the team after just one year in F1 with Sauber in 2018.
And the man Binotto has tasked with helping Schumacher and the other Academy prospects is Jock Clear.
“Jock is a great person, a great professional who has been in Ferrari for many years,” he said.
“His role in 2020 was driver coach – an engineer who is supporting the drivers in order to perform in terms of driving to their best; looking at the lines, look at the way they are braking, through the corner, accelerating, managing tyre and to make sure that the driver is developing well.
“We had some chats with Jock in the past weeks. We would like to develop him some more as a driver coach not only for Charles, but looking ahead to the future with all of our young driver line-up that we’ve got in the Ferrari Driver Academy.
"So next year we’ve got Mick in Haas starting his experience in F1, but we’ve still got young drivers competing in F2 – for example, Robert [Schwartzman] or Callum Ilott, who will be our test driver next year who still will do the simulator and free practices.
“So the role of Jock will be to assist all these drivers to develop themselves as drivers and try to exploit the most of their potential.”
As for Schumacher, he actually played down the significance of stepping up to F1.
“It’s great to be driving in Formula 1 and it’s great to be driving with great drivers but, to be honest, it’s not a big difference from junior racing,” he is quoted by GPFans.
“Obviously, every single year is a very competitive year that I have been in at the moment.
“It’s strange the first time you get into an FP1 and everybody has been driving the whole season and you’re the newcomer but I think that for sure will change next year and I will feel much more established in a position.”
