Schumacher: I must be ready and comfortable before F1 step

Mick Schumacher has refused to set a timescale to reach Formula 1 by, stressing he must be “ready and comfortable” before making the step up.

Schumacher, the son of seven-time F1 world champion Michael, claimed his maiden victory in Formula 2 in Hungary ahead of the summer break, pulling off a lights-to-flag win at a circuit his father recorded four victories at.

With a lack of up-and-coming German drivers emerging, and given the success of his father, Schumacher has often found himself at the centre of talk linking him to a future F1 drive, possibly with Ferrari, the team at which Michael secured five of his seven drivers’ titles.

Asked if he would feel ready to step up to F1 as early as 2020, Schumacher replied: “I think only time can tell.

“Obviously having the first victory in F2 is a great thing. I still need to work a lot on myself. Whether I go to F1 next year or in two years or three years, I don’t know. Only time can tell that.

“I will do my best possible to try to learn as much as possible so that when I do the step, I am ready and comfortable.”

The reigning European Formula 3 champion had endured a difficult rookie campaign until his breakthrough result, having finished no higher than fourth place in the opening 15 races.

Schumacher has now moved up to 11th place in the championship having scored 45 points, 151 adrift of current standings leader Nyck de Vries.

“I went into the season without really having a set goal,” he explained.

“I went in open-minded, I went into the season trying to learn as much as possible about the car, about the tyres, because that was really the one point that was different to what I was used to in F3.

“In general I think we have managed it pretty well. We’ve had very good races where we really showed that we were able to fight for wins, and now we have won, so that is very special, and it shows that you can step up from F3 into F2 and get used to the tyres.

“Obviously the next race we’re going to Spa, it’s a very good track for myself where I feel very comfortable. Hopefully that result will give me a boost going into the next race, so I’m really looking forward to that.”