Schumacher headlines MRF grid at BIC

Manama : Mick Schumacher, the 17-year-old son of Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher, will be among the young stars racing this weekend at the first-ever Bahrain Motorsport Festival at BIC.

Schumacher is one of 17 competing in the India-based single-seater championship, the MRF Challenge which holds its first round in Bahrain.

Schumacher raced in the championship before, but this is the first time in Bahrain and MRF’s fourth appearance at the Sakhir track.

Earlier this year, Schumacher finished second in the championship standings of the Europe-based ADAC Formula 4.

The MRF provisional entry list for round one include Harrison Newey and Manuel Maldonado.  Newey is the son of Formula 1 design guru Adrian Newey while Maldonado is the cousin of former Formula 1 driver Pastor Maldonado.

Other drivers include Juri Vips, Dylan Young, Kimi Schramm, Joey Mawson, Ralf Aron, Pavan Ravishanker, Gilles Magnus, Yoshiaki Katayama, Moraes Cardoso, Felipe Drugovich, Rinus van Kalmthout, Bobby Eberle, Bruna Tomaselli and Christophe Mariot.

The MRF drivers will compete in one of Asia’s fastest racing cars, the MRF F2000, which has been redesigned for the new campaign and cars are powered by a two-litre Mountune Duratec engine with a max power of 250bhp.

Bahrain to host the first of four rounds with Dubai next month, New Delhi in January and Chennai in February.

Round two will be held in Dubai in December, round three in New Delhi in January and the season finale in Chennai.

Other support races to the FIA World Endurance Championship’s (WEC) Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain are the CIK-FIA World Championship, CIK-FIA World Junior Championship and the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East.

Racing in all these events will be held from Thursday to Saturday with the karting at the Bahrain International Karting Circuit (BIKC).

Tickets cost BD20 for all three days,  while children aged 12 years old and younger can get in for free and are available at BIC, the official website Bahrain City Centre BIC stand or Virgin Megastore.

Drivers for the 6 Hours of Bahrain have begun to arrive including big names such as Andre Lotterer and Loic Duval of Audi Sport Team Joest, and Kamui Kobayashi and Kazuki Nakajima of Toyota Gazoo Racing. Teams and drivers in all the championships continued final preparations today.