The low profile enjoyed until now by the great Michael Schumacher’s son is over.
On Monday, recent rumours that 15-year-old ’Mick Junior’ was set to step out of karts and into single seater racing were made official.
The young Schumacher will make his car debut this year in the FIA-sanctioned German Formula 4 championship, driving for the Van Amersfoort team.
The team rose to prominence recently when Max Verstappen, just two years older than Mick, rose straight from its F3 outfit into formula one with Toro Rosso.
"Without Max we would still be ’a team from the Netherlands’," team boss Frits van Amersfoort told De Telegraaf newspaper. "Suddenly now we are the team of Max."
And now, it will become known as the team that is launching the single seater career of the legendary Michael Schumacher’s son.
Van Amersfoort admitted that the high-profile Verstappen graduation "certainly contributed" to the team’s signing of the young Schumacher.
It remains, of course, a difficult time for the Schumacher family, as the German legend is still recovering from a serious brain injury sustained in his December 2013 skiing fall.
The family has closely guarded its privacy during the last 14 months, to the extent that the actual state of Schumacher’s health is not known.
But now, 15-year-old Mick will be in the spotlight.
According to the Swiss newspaper Blick, Schumacher’s manager Sabine Kehm warned: "Any (media) coverage that goes behind the purely sporting aspect will continue to be not accepted.
"Mick is not active in social media," she insisted.
Meanwhile, former Marussia driver Max Chilton has been signed by Nissan to contest the premier Le Mans LMP1 category this year.