After crossing the line last in the Bahrain Grand Prix, Mick Schumacher took little comfort in the knowledge that he had made a far more successful debut than his father, seven-time champion Michael Schumacher.
By finishing 16th in his first outing for the Haas team, he was last of the classified runners, but beat his fellow-rookie teammate Russian Nikita Mazepin, who spun and crashed out at the third corner of the opening lap.
Mick’s father Michael also failed to complete a lap in his maiden race when he suffered a clutch failure on the opening lap of the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix. He had, however, done enough in qualifying seventh in his only race for Jordan to secure an immediate move to Benetton.
And Schumacher junior says: “Overall, I’d say I was 90 percent happy. I made a mistake, a spin, at the Safety Car restart, but I learned a lot.”