SUTTON

In the name of the father: the Schumacher

dynasty 30 years on

Thirty years ago next Tuesday, Michael Schumacher stunned the Formula 1 world by qualifying seventh for his grand debut in the Belgian Grand Prix. Three decades later, his son Mick will next week continue his promising rookie F1 campaign at the same circuit: Spa.

Time, then, to get to know young Schumacher. Right from his early days in the sport, he has been tremendously popular as a down-toearth lad with no airs and graces. Alex Kalinauckas’s interview with the Haas racer on page 16 portrays a likeable character, who only wanted to make it to F1 once he felt he had earned the right (and he well and truly did that), and not because of his family name. We also look into his father’s tumultuous first 12 months as an F1 driver. On p24, Adam Cooper talks to leading lights, including Ross Brawn and Pat Symonds, from the Benetton team of the period leading up to the first Schumacher GP victory. Then Sky Sports F1 analyst Karun Chandhok tells a beguiling tale on p28 of how he not only tracked down a Jordan 191, as driven by Schumacher at Spa in 1991, but had no trouble persuading Mick to join in the fun of driving it at Silverstone.

Over in Berlin, Nyck de Vries became Formula E champion (p40) only for his Mercedes team to announce its pullout (p6), following Audi and BMW. It really is like the DTM revisited… Matt Kew has all the details, and assesses de Vries’s F1 chances (p12).

Marcus Simmons Deputy Editor Marcus.Simmons@autosport.com

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COVER IMAGES Griffiths; JEP, Sutton/ Motorsport Images

PIT & PADDOCK 4 Le Mans 24 Hours looks wide open 6 Mercedes pulls out of Formula E 8 Tincknell lands late LM Porsche seat 11 Vinales suspended, and switches teams 12 Opinion: Matt Kew 13 Opinion: David Malsher-Lopez 14 Opinion: Marco Seefried 15 Pictures of the week

INSIGHT 16 Mick Schumacher on his first F1 season 24 Schuey Sr’s amazing first 12 months 28 Behind the wheel of the Jordan 191

RACE CENTRE 34 Rally Ypres: Neuville at home 40 Formula E Berlin: de Vries is champion 46 BTCC Knockhill: Turkington fights Sutton 52 IndyCar Indianapolis: back at full Power 55 World of Sport; NASCAR; MotoGP

CLUB AUTOSPORT 67 New car for rebranded GB3 series 68 Unique Super Sprint format for Equipe 70 AMOC to review its racing offering 72 Wilson takes first BRC win for 16 years 73 Opinion: David Brabham 76 Reports: Knockhill TOCA; Silverstone GB3; Snetterton; Mondello Park; Brands Hatch; Oulton Park 84 Brooklands Relived celebration

FINISHING STRAIGHT 86 What’s on this week 88 From the archive: 1987 German GP 90 Have a go hero: Michael Bartels

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19 AUGUST 2021 AUTOSPORT.COM 3