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After eight seasons away, Formula One will see the return of the Schumacher name to the grid when Mick makes his debut for Haas in the 2021 campaign.
The 21-year-old is the son of former Ferrari star Michael Schumacher whose tally of seven world championships is only matched by Lewis Hamilton.
But as Mick becomes the latest second generation star in F1, who are the other hopefuls who have come into sport with a big name behind them? Sportsmail looks at the drivers who had big shoes to fill before they had even turned a wheel.
Despite being under contract at Ferrari, Mick Schumacher (left) will make his F1 debut for Haas in 2021 eight seasons after his father Michael (right) last raced in the sport
Graham Hill and Damon Hill
After Mike Hawthorn in 1958, Graham Hill became just the second ever British driver to win the Formula One world championship with BRM in 1962 before going on to win the title again six years later with Lotus.
Regarded as one of the finest drivers of the 1960s, a decade dominated by British drivers including fellow world champions in Jim Cark, John Surtees and Sir Jackie Stewart, Hill’s skill behind the wheel also saw him triumph at the Monaco Grand Prix five times – a record only beaten by Ayrton Senna’s six.
Graham Hill was the second British world champion, winning titles at BRM and Lotus (above)
Under the watchful eyes of his father, Damon Hill takes to the wheel of the Lotus in 1967
HIll is also the only racing driver in the world to win the triple crown in motorsport – the Monaco GP, the Indy500 and the Le Mans 24 hour race. After forming his own team he sadly died in a plane crash in 1975.
His son Damon never looked like even making it to the F1 grid, not making his debut until 1992 at the age of 31. But he soon made up for lost time at the then all-conquering Williams team, battling for world championships with Michael Schumacher before finally taking the crown in 1996 to make him one of Britain’s most popular drivers of all time.
In doing so, he became the first son of a world champion to become a title winner himself. Short stints followed at Arrows and Jordan before he retired in 1999.
Damon would later emulate his father’s achievements by winning the 1996 title with Williams
Mario Andretti and Michael Andretti
Mario Andretti was not just one of the fastest drivers of the 1970s but he was versatile too, spending his peaks years during the decade running in racing series in the United States as well as in F1.
He finally proved his talent behind the wheel of the Lotus in 1978 when he took the world championship and to date remains the last American to capture the title.
Mario Andretti was one of the world’s biggest stars in the 1970s, winning the F1 title in 1978
The same fortune did not fall for his son Michael however. It was the case of right place at the wrong time for Andretti Jnr who grabbed a highly sought after McLaren seat for the 1993 season but unfortunately for him the team’s competitiveness was on the decline and he had the unenviable task of having to beat a team-mate in the calibre Ayrton Senna.
His struggles to adapt to circuits he had never driven at (this was before racing games could give you at least a small insight to learn a track) proved a downfall.
He failed to finish in seven of his 13 grands prix and left the team with three races to spare… after picking up his only ever podium at the Italian Grand Prix in his final F1 outing before being replaced by a certain Mika Hakkinen.
Michael Andretti (bottom left) came into the sport in 1993 with McLaren but struggled before being replaced by Mika Hakkinen (top left) three races before the end of the season
Gilles Villeneuve and Jacques Villeneuve
There are very few drivers who manage to become F1 legends without ever winning a Formula One world championships and Gilles Villeneuve will always be ranked among the best of them.
The Canadian made his debut for McLaren at the 1977 British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, yet he would end the year at Ferrari where to this day he is still adored by the ‘tifosi’ following his six wins for the team..
Gilles Villenueve (left) dazzled during his tragically short spell in F1 as he shares a discussion with Ferrari team-mate Jody Scheckter in 1979
Villeneuve’s aggressive yet fearless driving style may have led to a few mistakes but his bravery and skill also made him box office viewing and a major contender for world championships. However his potential was tragically never fulfilled after he was killed following a horror crash while qualifying for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix in Zolder aged just 32. Such was his popularity in Canada, the Montreal circuit currently used in F1 is named after him.
Sixteen years later Jacques Villeneuve arrived on the scene at Williams following impressive showings in the USA. Partnered with Damon Hill, he lost out to his team-mate at the last race for the title. However he managed to finally finish what his father started by putting an F1 title alongside the Villeneuve name by seeing of Michael Schumacher in 1997.
His F1 career slowly went into decline after though with winless spells at BAR, Renault, Sauber and BMW before his permanent departure mid-way through 2006.
However, his son Jacques Villeneuve would win the world championship with Williams in 1997
Keke Rosberg and Nico Rosberg
In a career spanning from 1978 to 1986, Keke Rosberg only ever triumphed five times across 114 grand prix starts, but it was his consistency that made him a major threat to rivals.
This was no more evident than in 1982 when the Finn claimed the world championship with Williams despite only winning one race all year at the Swiss Grand Prix held in Dijon, France.
Keke Rosberg celebrates winning the 1982 Swiss Grand Prix on his way to the championship
The Finn is the father of Nico Rosberg (left) who raced in F1 under German nationality
There was clearly talent in the genes though because in 2006 his son Nico Rosberg burst onto the scene with a mid-field Williams and took the fastest lap on his F1 debut in Bahrain.
After joining Mercedes in 2010 he would go on to take 23 race wins for the team and he retired almost immediately after his finest hour in 2016 saw him become world champion having seen off team-mate Lewis Hamilton. The German remains the only driver in F1 to have finished above Hamilton in the world championship in the last seven seasons.
Nico Rosberg’s finest hour in Formula One saw him win the 2016 world title with Mercedes
Nelson Piquet and Nelson Piquet Jr
To many in Britain, Nelson Piquet was the antagonist in the 1980s as he battled with Nigel Mansell for world championships while they were team-mates at Williams.
But away from his role as the pantomime villain, the maverick Brazilian can be spoken about as one of the finest grand prix drivers of all time having taken three world championships in 1981, 1983 (both with Brabham) and in 1987 with Williams. After this, race wins became rarer in spells at Lotus and Benetton and following 14 years in F1 he retired in 1991.
Nelson Piquet (left) was one of F1’s biggest stars of the 1980s alongside Ayrton Senna (right)
There was much hope for his younger son of the same name upon his promotion to Renault in 2008 having impressed in F1’s then feeder series GP2 by finishing a battling second to Hamilton in 2006.
However he struggled up against Fernando Alonso as a team-mate and despite recording his only podium at the 2008 German Grand Prix, failed to impress before he was replaced halfway through the 2009 season by Romain Grosjean.
Piquet Jr’s spell in F1 is remembered for being more notorious than just a poor run of results, having been part of the controversial ‘crashgate’ saga at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. It saw him deliberately spin into a barrier under instruction from his Renault team to enable his team-mate Alonso, who was found to be not involved in the plot, to take advantage of a safety car and claim a surprise win.
But his son Nelson Piquet lasted just one and a half seasons with Renault and in F1 before he was dismissed following a poor run of results
Piquet was involved in the controversial ‘crashgate’ saga in 2008 which saw him deliberately spin out of the Singapore GP under team orders to allow team-mate Fernando Alonso to win
Jos Verstappen and Max Verstappen
The cards have yet to fall for Max Verstappen in Formula One but he has already surpassed his father’s achievements in the sport, who struggled to kick on after making his debut with Benetton in 1994.
If your name wasn’t Michael Schumacher during the mid-1990s it tended to a struggle for any driver to get to grips with Benetton’s tricky but ultimately quick cars if you could adapt to them, and Jos Verstappen did achieve two podium finishes in his debut year.
Jos Verstappen (centre) was team-mates with Michael Schumacher at Benetton in 1994
He is the father of Red Bull star Max Verstappen who has shown title winning potential
However he soon tumbled down the field and spent the rest of his F1 career near the back of the grid putting in solid if not quite spectacular performances for Simtek, Tyrrell, Stewart, Arrows and Minardi before dropping out in 2003.
Max Verstappen has hardly looked back since becoming the sport’s youngest ever driver at the age of 17 years and 166 days in 2015 with Toro Rosso. Just over a year later he was promoted to the senior Red Bull team and won on his debut in the Spanish Grand Prix.
Eight more wins have since followed and only a lack of competitive machinery due to the Mercedes dominance has hindered him from leading a fight for the world championship. To many he is the heir to Hamilton’s throne once the 35-year-old Brit retires.
The Dutchman is regarded as one of the best drivers on the current Formula One grid
Ayrton Senna and Bruno Senna
We are perhaps ‘cheating’ by adding Bruno Senna to this list, but with Ayrton having sadly been killed at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix before he had the chance to start his own family, his nephew was the closest the sport could get to a next generation Senna.
Having won three world championships with McLaren in 1988, 1990 and 1991 Ayrton Senna is regarded as one of the greatest drivers of all time and was the idol that Hamilton looked up to. His three titles were a tally he was likely to add to before his Imola crash at the wheel of a Williams on one of F1’s darkest weekends.
But even before his death he was already talking about his nephew Bruno being potentially even quicker than he was and there was a watchful eye on his progress through the junior ranks.
Triple F1 world champion Ayrton Senna (above) talked highly of his nephew Bruno
A runners-up finish in the GP2 series in 2008 led to his F1 debut with the newly formed Hispania team in 2010 but he failed to impress in difficult circumstances due to the team being woefully uncompetitive.
He was given a second chance with Lotus at the back end of the 2011 season by replacing Nick Heidfeld for eight races, but was again not kept on before he made an emotional move to join his uncle’s last team Williams.
Although his team-mate Pastor Maldonado took a shock win in Spain and he failed to even achieve a podium finish all year, Senna throughout 2012 was a match for the Venezuelan and sometimes even faster on his way to 31 points. However by now it was evident that he was no more than a steady pair of hands and it proved to be his last season in F1.
However Bruno Senna (right), with Williams team-mate Pastor Maldonado, failed to reach the same heights during his low key spell in F1 between 2010 and 2012
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