Schumacher explains choice of race number 47 for debut F1 season

Mick Schumacher has chosen the number 47 to race with on his car during his debut Formula 1 season with Haas in 2021.

The current Formula 2 championship leader will graduate to F1 next year with Haas on a “multi-year contract” in a deal that was announced on Wednesday ahead of this weekend’s Sakhir Grand Prix in Bahrain.

Schumacher explained that his choice of number was partly influenced by “a funny mix of things”, including both the success he has enjoyed and that of his father, seven-time world champion Michael.

It also came about by adding up all of the members of his family’s birthdays together.

“Four and seven are two of the numbers that I really like,” Schumacher said when asked why he had picked 47 as his race number. “Obviously four I won the F3 championship and the seven because obviously seven is a number that is very close to me as well.

“As both of them were taken, I think 47 was the best choice. Then at the end as well, which is quite, let’s say, ‘unblinded’, was the fact that if we calculated all the birthdays of our family together it would equal 47.

“So it was a pretty nice feature to it and I think it just underlined that we should choose that number.”

Schumacher confirmed the ‘seven’ is a reference to the number of world titles his father won during his F1 career.

“Definitely ‘seven’ is partly because of that,” said Schumacher, “but it’s also just a number that I generally like personally and I guess also our family we like the seven.”