Mick Schumacher has no problem comparing him to his father Michael. "My dad is the best, that's why he's my role model," he says in an RTL documentary broadcast Saturday (1pm) ahead of Formula One qualifying in Abu Dhabi.
In the film, Mick Schumacher also remembers his beginnings in motorsport when his father put him in a kart. In Kerpen they made their rounds on the kart track, even if it was actually closed. And at some point his father then asked the question of all questions: "Do you want to do this professionally now?"
Mick Schumacher wanted - and he seems to have made the right decision. In 2014 he took two second places in the kart championship and two years later also second places in the German and Italian Formula 4.
This season Schumacher won thanks to a performance improvement in the second half of the season with the European Championship triumph in Formula 3 his first major title. It is likely that he will move up to Formula 2 in 2019 and then switch to Formula One in a year or two. For experts, he is not considered a super talent.
Michael Schumacher had once expressed the wish that his son would decide once for a different profession and thus also avoid the inevitable comparisons with him, the seven-time Formula 1 World Champion out of the way. "I hope my son man becomes a tennis player, a golfer, anything - but nothing father did before," Michael Schumacher said in 2006.
Mick Schumacher has barely given any interviews so far. Mother Corinna Schumacher and manager Sabine Kehm had tried to shield him from the public - especially since his father's serious accident. When Mick Schumacher rode in karting, he did so for a long time under a pseudonym.
In the documentary "Schumacher: The Next Generation" RTL also accompanies Mick's cousin David Schumacher (17), son of ex-Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher and "Rookie of the Year" in Formula 4 and Maximilian Günther. The 21-year-old was the only German in Formula 2 this year and is now switching to Formula E.