Inside Schumacher’s F1 debut 30 years ago today on track son races this weekend

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Mick Schumacher will make his Spa F1 debut at the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend – 30 years after the same circuit kick-started dad Michael's own amazing career.

On this day in 1991 the elder Schumacher, 52, was summoned as a replacement driver for Jordan to fill the void of the imprisoned Bertrand Gachot. He duly impressed by securing seventh in qualifying and although clutch problems forced him out of the race early on, a future star was born.

Indeed, just a year later he would proceed to win at the same venue with Benetton, the first of six career victories at Spa.

And now Mick, 22, who drove his father's Benetton B194 in a demonstration run at Spa in 2017, is keen to write his own chapter at the famous Belgian circuit.

“Driving my dad’s Benetton in 2017 was a great experience,” he said.

“Now, five years later, I’m driving in Formula 1 myself and that’s 30 years after my dad made his debut. It’s a really special moment for me and my family, so very happy to go there and put my mark on that special track too.”

Schumacher is yet to register a point for Haas in his debut F1 season but did impress at the Hungarian Grand Prix, going toe to toe with the likes of Max Verstappen and George Russell en route to a 13th-placed finish, later upgraded to 12th following Sebastian Vettel's disqualification.

And the Switzerland-born youngster has another fond memory of the track to build on – it's where he notched his first F3 win in 2018.

“In general, Spa is my favourite track, in any circumstance,” he said.

“It was my first win in Formula 3 in 2018 and the first one from a good streak. It was also my first pole position that year.

"It was very good to start off there as it’s such a special track to us as a family, and to me, so I’m very happy to be able to go back there and hopefully we’ll be able to pull something out of the hat, which would be great."

“For me, coming back to Spa is just great,” he added.

“I was there last year and previous years and obviously we’ve had a lot of ups and downs there. It’s definitely one of the most challenging tracks – it’s super long, there’s a lot of undulation in it, it’s very historical and definitely one of the most special weekends that we have on the calendar, so I’m really looking forward to going back.”

• Michael Schumacher
• Formula One

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