Formula 1's director of motorsports Ross Brawn has appealed to team bosses not to push Mick Schumacher to the top before he's ready.
After a fairly quiet to the year competing in the FIA European Formula 3 championship, the 19-year-old exploded into form with a hat-trick of wins at the Nurburgring earlier this month.
He followed that up with two wins out of three last week at the Red Bull Ring, catapulting him to the top of the drivers championship ahead of longtime leader Dan Ticktum.
His spectacular recent run of form with the PREMA team has inevitably shot the teenager to the attention of team bosses in the Formula 1 paddock.
But Brawn - himself a former F1 team boss, and a good friend of Mick's famous father from their time together at Ferrari - advises caution.
"I'm excited that he's doing so well. There's a lot of good memories," he told the Russian news agency Tass.
"But he has to take a few more steps before he can go to Formula 1, I think," he added.
"Mick is a very mature young man and I think he knows he still needs to develop to be ready for being a F1 driver."
Brawn said that even if he clinches the F3 title in the final round at Hockenheim on October 14, Schumacher would be better off sticking to the plan of graduating to the Formula 2 series in 2019.
"If Mick wants to prepare properly for Formula 1, then Formula 2 is the next logical step for him," Brawn insisted.
Formula 2 - previously known as GP2, with champions including Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean - is positioned as the official 'feeder' series for drivers hoping to make it into F1.
Charles Leclerc won the inaugural F2 title, with George Russell currently dominating this year's championship ahead of Lando Norris and Alexander Albon.
"Today we have a much closer collaboration between Formula 2 and F1 and he could learn many of the tracks," Brawn pointed out.
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