Mick Schumacher recognises father's seven F1 titles by choosing race number 47

Mick Schumacher will race with the number 47 on his car when he makes his debut in the 2021 F1 season.

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The 21-year-old, who will make his grand prix debut with Haas, said the choice of number was partly inspired by his father Michael Schumacher’s seven world championship victories. His seventh title, won in 2004 when Mick was five years old, set a record which was equalled by Lewis Hamilton last month.

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

Formula 1 drivers can select any number between two and 99, which is not in use by someone else, to serve as their permanent racing number.

Mick Schumacher, Alfa Romeo, Nurburgring, 2020 — Mick Schumacher will make his F1 debut with Haas next year

“Four and seven are two of the numbers that I really like,” said Schumacher when asked about his choice of racing number by RaceFans. “Obviously four for F3 and the seven because obviously seven is a number that is very close to me as well.”

Both numbers currently belong to other drivers – Lando Norris uses four and Kimi Raikkonen has seven. “As both of them were taken, I think 47 was the best choice,” Schumacher continued.

“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.”

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Two unfamiliar racing numbers will appear in this weekend’s F1 race as a pair of drivers make their grand prix debuts. Jack Aitken, who will take the seat George Russell has vacated at Williams, will use number 89. Pietro Fittipaldi, who is substituting for the injured Romain Grosjean at Haas, will race number 51.

Schumacher said he is proud to have earned the opportunity to race in the same sport where his father achieved record-breaking success.

“It’s great to be in the same sport and it’s a sport that we both love so much. To be able to go on a similar path, to get to know the sport inside out, really it’s amazing.

“To have finally reached my goal – everybody’s goal is Formula 1. All the junior drivers want to reach F1 eventually. So to be able to be one of those 20 drivers is something incredible.

“I’m just really a bit overwhelmed and happy that everything’s confirmed and that I’m really going to be standing on the grid next year.”

However Schumacher said the news of his Formula 1 debut came as no surprise to his mother. “My mum, definitely, she was actually quite unsurprised in a way,” he said.

“She was like ‘yeah, I was sure you were going to make it’. I always felt the great support from her side and from everybody within the family.”

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2020 F1 season

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12 comments on “Mick Schumacher recognises father’s seven F1 titles by choosing race number 47”

Retired (@jeff1s)
2nd December 2020, 12:06
The title came from a looong shot. He recognizes entire family, not just father.
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd December 2020, 12:32
Would there really be much point in changing a replacement driver to another replacement for only a single event? Surely, Pietro Fittipaldi would also do the Abu Dhabi GP should Grosjean still be unable to participate.
I assumed Aitken would use 40 as this is Williams’ FIA allocated reserve driver number, which he used for the FP1 he did in Austria and Nissany has used for his FP1 outings, but I guess 89 also belongs to the team in this regard. The same with 51 at Haas.
1. Jere (@jerejj)
  2nd December 2020, 17:15
  I forgot to take off the first portion from the preceding article.
Osvaldas31 (@osvaldas31)
2nd December 2020, 12:49
The fact he talks only about his mother’s reaction tells you a lot. It means, Michael is probably not talking, who knows if he is conscious. Very happy (for Mick’s debut) and sad moment at the same time. But if Michael is conscious, I’m sure he is proud of his son.
1. mw
  2nd December 2020, 13:00
  Or he didn’t say anything as even the slightest mention of Michael would have kicked of a load more speculation.
Dave
2nd December 2020, 13:32
I thought he would go for 91 which stands for his father’s total wins and also debut year.
1. DavidH
  2nd December 2020, 19:12
  He’s not his father though… he’s picked something that works for him but also references the legacy of his father. Seems fair enough. I wish him all the best and hope he puts in some above expectation performances to help him get a better drive sooner rather than later. It is a really wide open field of talented young drivers and Hamilton could easily continue to dominate for another few years, plus Alonso back as well. Gonna be a great few years coming up for F1!
Patrick P
2nd December 2020, 21:13
“Obviously 4 for F3”.
Nope, lost me there…
1. GongTong (@gongtong)
  2nd December 2020, 21:22
  I think he ran the number 4 in his F3 campaign.
  1. Patrick P
    3rd December 2020, 21:36
    Ah, I see. Thanks for clarifying, GongTong!
Balue (@balue)
3rd December 2020, 10:50
I believe 47 was one of FIAs temporary numbers given to Vandoorne when he subbed for Alonso in 2016, which he incidentally should have kept instead of the awkward no. 2 he later chose..
1. Esploratore (@esploratore)
  3rd December 2020, 23:17
  Ahah, I guess you mean number 2 as in he also ended up as alonso’s number 2!