Schwartzman and Schumacher: Can Ferrari’s youth make it to F1?

Mick Schumacher and Robert Schwartzman found themselves as teammates in the 2018 F3 season at Prema Theodore Racing. The pair now hold the roles of the two most promising talents in the Ferrari Driver Academy — an academy that in recent years has developed Charles Leclerc and the late Jules Bianchi. Those two names are example of extremely talented drivers with glittering youth careers, but it begs the question of whether Schumacher and Schwartzman can rise to the level of Ferrari’s recent academy successes?

Son of Michael, nephew of Ralf. Expectation sits heavily on Mick Schumacher’s shoulders. He was aware of this, running under the aliases ‘Mick Betch’ and ‘Mick Junior’ until his inaugural F4 stint.

Schumacher entered the F3 Championshup with Prema Powerteam in 2017, but finished 3rd among the season’s rookies finishing an unconvincing 12th overall. It’s worth noting that current McLaren driver Lando Norris competed in F3 this season, also as a rookie, but won comprehensively with a total of nine victories. Mick pushed on with Prema for the 2018 Championship, ending the season as F3 Champion, after amassing 14 podiums and 8 victories across the season.

Ahead of the 2019 F2 Championship Mick put pen to paper with the Ferrari Driver Academy, securing a drive for Prema’s F2 team in the process. In his rookie year Schumacher secured a single win, in the 8th round at the Hungaroring. On paper, this doesn’t look promising. Russell and Leclerc won their F2 titles in their debut seasons, but with time his time F3 Mick proved that he can be a superb driver once he’s used to a team and car. It’s also worth recognising that Mick’s sole win at Hungary came in the race before the unfortunate passing of fellow F2 driver of Anthoine Hubert — making it unreasonable to cast harsh judgement on any driver’s performance across the championships last three rounds.

Mick needs to turn up in 2020. Nyck de Vries showed that after three years in F2, a championship win isn’t the golden ticket to an F1 drive that Schumacher wants.

Schwartzman signed for the Ferrari Driver Academy earlier than Schumacher, signing ahead of the 2018 season. In his first drive within the academy he raced for M2 Competition in the Toyota Racing Series, narrowly winning the title ahead of Red Bull junior Richard Verschoor and fellow Ferrari junior Marcus Armstrong. He claimed only one win, but showed incredible consisitency for such a young driver — finishing 75% of the races in podium positions.

For the 2018 F3 season, Robert Schwartzman found himself playing the part of Schumacher’s teammate at Prema for the F3 European Championship. In his rookie year, Schwartzman finished third (behind Schumacher and Dan Ticktum), convincingly finishing above all other rookies in the championship. This showed more talent that Schumacher’s debut year in F3, but he would still need a second year to claim the championship.

In his sophomore year of F3, Schwartzman dominated the field, finishing 60pts above any other driver in a field that included Marcus Armstrong, Pedro Piquet and Christian Lundgaard. Due to this display, it was confirmed by Prema that he would join Mick Schumacher as teammate for the 2020 F2 season.

You could argue that Schwartzman has shown more raw talent than Mick Schumacher has, but F2 and above are different realms of racing. In F2 it’s make or break — it’s where the best are seperated from the best, it’s where Schwartzman needs to prove himself.

Personally, I think both can find themselves within F1. Schumacher will get a seat for his name, but has the talent to deserve a drive if he continues his second season trend of winning championships. Robert Schwartzman can use his consistency, winning the points regularly while others falter in an F2 Championship filled with inconsistent results, and may find himself contesting for the title this season.

With both youngsters driving for the same F2 team it raises the stakes somewhat. It’s make or break. One of them has to make it, and one of them can — Raikkonen is in the Autumn of his career, and Giovinazzi is failing to impress, so it’s very likely Alfa Romeo will have a seat up for grabs in 2021. A seat that Schumacher and Schwartzman both want, but only one can have.