SAKHIR: Mick Schumacher, the son of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, will drive in Formula One for the first time with Haas next season, the team announced on Wednesday.
The 21-year-old will get a taste of what is in store when he takes part in free practice ahead of the 2020 season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Dec 11 before taking part in testing a few days later.
“Haas F1 Team has signed Germany’s Mick Schumacher as part of its all-new driver line-up for the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship and beyond in a multi-year agreement,” Haas said in a statement.
Schumacher Jr, long tipped for a Formula One spot, will partner Russian driver Nikita Mazepin, also 21, in the Haas line-up.
Mick Schumacher currently heads the Formula Two drivers’ standings with one race to go in Bahrain this weekend.
His father was seriously injured in a skiing accident in December 2013 and has not been seen in public since.
His wife Corinna, the mother of Mick, issued a rare statement on the Formula One legend’s 50th birthday in January 2019, saying the family were doing “everything humanly possible” to help her husband.
British driver Lewis Hamilton this year won his seventh Formula One world title to equal Michael Schumacher’s all-time record.