Ferrari "expect a lot" from Mick Schumacher in 2020!

F1 News

2 January 2020 at 12:28

Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto says that the team are expecting a lot from Mick Schumacher in Formula 2 this year, as he looks to build on his solid first season in the category. The son of Michael had a promising year in 2019, not always getting the results he perhaps deserved, resulting in P12 in the final standings.

However, the 2019 F2 grid was occupied by plenty of experienced, older drivers, with the top six drivers in the standings already having one or more season under their belt at the beginning of 2019.

This gives Ferrari hope that Schumacher will come good in 2020, but he won't have it all his own way. He'll be joined at Prema by the impressive F3 champion Robert Shwartzmann, and will have to face up against the likes of Guanyu Zhou, Dan Ticktum and the returning Artem Markelov.

Binotto told media including motorsport.com: "For Mick it was a good season to gain experience. And if you look at the rookies, he did quite well.

"I think the new season will be an important one for him, because he can show how much progression he made. We expect a lot from the coming year, because he has a season experience now and we are pretty sure that he will be a good candidate for Formula 1 in the future."

A spot on the 2020 grid was too early for the German, but with Kimi Raikkonen leaving Alfa Romeo at the end of the season, a spot at the team in 2021 could be up for grabs.

Binotto continued: "Whether he is a candidate for Ferrari in the future? That is too early to say.

"But the goal of the FDA is to find the next talent for Ferrari, and he is part of the FDA because we think he has the talent to belong to that group."