Yahoo Autos The Next Wave of F1 Drivers is Coming, and it's More Than Just Mick Schumacher
Mick Schumacher is a Ferrari Academy driver with a shot at Alfa Romeo alongside Kimi Raikkonen in Formula 1 next year.
Haas F1 Team has some interesting options for 2021 should team owner Gene Haas decide to part ways with Romain Grosjean and/or Kevin Magnussen.
If money is the deciding factor, Nikita Mazepin may beat several of his F2 mates to the F1 grid.
Much of the focus this past Sunday morning ahead of the F1 Russian Grand Prix in Sochi, Russia, was on Formula 2 and massive crash between Luca Ghiotto and Jack Aitken, which resulted in the race being stopped because of damage to the barriers in Sochi’s exciting Turn 3.
The two drivers touched under full loading through the long, long corner and both went off at high-speed, Ghiotto smashing into and destroying several Tecpro plastic barriers, before the car caught fire. Aitken hit the heavy-duty plastic barriers at a point where two joined together. He went between them and ended up between two rows of barrier. No one was hurt, but fire is so rare in the Formula racing world world these days that this grabbed attention.
It has been a pretty impressive season in Formula 2 for other reasons, with a string of very good young drivers coming up against one another. How good they ultimately are in Formula 1 terms remains to be seen, but at least three of them will be seen trying F1 cars in practice sessions before the end of the season.
Here's some names to know:
MICK SCHUMACHER
The championship leader Mick Schumacher, the 21-year-old son of seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher, has a name that resonates outside motor sport. He could lead a revival in interest in F1 in Germany, where the fans have never really embraced Sebastian Vettel nor Mercedes Benz, in the same way that they engaged with Michael.
Mick Schumacher is a Ferrari Academy driver and the word is that he will probably end up getting the second Alfa Romeo F1 drive next year, alongside Kimi Raikkonen, at the expense of Antonio Giovinazzi. As part of the Ferrari engine deal with Alfa Romeo (yes, it doesn’t make much sense in industrial terms, but is really no weirder than Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Honda) Ferrari gets to nominate one of the drivers at Sauber, while Alfa Romeo merely pours in a bunch of money to get the team name.
The deals are all a leftover from the days of Sergio Marchionne, and it will be interesting to see if it continues at the end of 2021 when the current deal ends, at which point Alfa Romeo will have become a brand of the new Stellantis company, which is the merged Fiat Chrysler-Group Peugeot. This will be under the control of Carlos Tavares, who was the man who made Alpine happen when he was still at Renault and is a great believer in using motorsport to promote car companies.
The new grouping will have a brand portfolio including Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroën, Dodge, DS, Fiat, Jeep, Lancia, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, Ram and Vauxhall and it will be fascinating to see whether Tavares decides to continue being involved in what is an unsuccessful F1 sponsorship, or whether he will decide to use a different brand, or to do nothing at all. The one thing we do know is that Peugeot will be used for Le Mans and DS is being used in Formula E.
Ferrari will probably nominate Schumacher for the Alfa Romeo seat and that will mean that Kimi Raikkonen will probably be retained for another year to help train up Schumacher and give the team some stability. It is not doing such a bad job as this year we have seen Alfa Romeo beating Ferrari on occasion, although this is really down to the fact that Ferrari is doing so poorly.
