Mattia Binotto has all-but confirmed that Mick Schumacher is on course to drive for Ferrari in the near future, and to that end he will now be mentored by veteran Formula 1 engineer Jock Clear.
Having clinched this year's Formula 2 title, Schumacher is to make his F1 debut at Melbourne in 2021 with the Ferrari-affiliated Haas F1 Team. Binotto confirmed that this was being seen as a 'stepping stone' for the 23-year-old.
“Mick Schumacher will be one of the drivers for Haas next year, which for us is a great opportunity, showing the strength of collaboration we’ve got," the team principal stated at a post-season media event as reported by RACER.com.
Schumacher is just one of several talented young drivers being nurtured by the Ferrari Driver Academy, which Binotto explained has a very particular purpose.
"The FDA program is not there to develop drivers for F1, but it is there to develop drivers that one day may drive a Ferrari seat, a red car.
“When you move from F2 and jump into F1, the very first year cannot be a directly into a red car," he continued. "That would be too much responsibility and not enough experience.
"Knowing that we’ve got customer teams or partners on which we may count to continue developing our drivers in F1 is an important element."
That approach was shown in the way that Charles Leclerc was brought into F1 at Sauber (now Alfa Romeo) for a season before being promoted to Ferrari alongside Sebastian Vettel the following year.
Leclerc has since signed a five year contract to keep him at Ferrari until the end of 2024, while Carlos Sainz takes over from Vettel in 2021 on a two-year deal. That suggests Schumacher could replace the Spanish driver as early as 2023.
The expectation for Schumacher to make the jump sooner rather than later is underlined by Ferrari tasking Jock Clear to work with the F1 rookie next year, as well as Leclerc and other members of the FDA.
Before joining Ferrari, Clear was Jacques Villeneuve's race engineer at Williams when he won the world championship in 1997.
“We had some chats with Jock in the past weeks," Binotto explained. "We would like to develop him some more as a driver coach not only for Charles, but looking ahead to the future to all of our young driver line-up.
“Jock is a great person, a great professional who has been with Ferrari for many years,” he said.
“His role in 2020 was driver coach, an engineer who is supporting the drivers in order to perform in terms of driving to their best - looking at the lines, look at the way they are braking, through the corner, accelerating, managing tyres.
"Next year we’ve got Mick at Haas starting his experience in F1, but we’ve still got young drivers competing in F2, for example Robert [Shwartzman]. Or Callum Ilott, who will be our test driver next year and will still do the simulator and free practices.
“The role of Jock will be to assist all these drivers to develop themselves as drivers and try to exploit the most of their potential.”
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