Mick Schumacher confirms 2017 European F3 campaign with Prema

The 17-year-old will step up to the championship after finishing runner-up in the German and Italian Formula 4 championships this year with Prema.

Schumacher's announcement comes after several weeks of testing with Prema's F3 team, which will also run highly rated Briton Callum Ilott and Chinese Ferrari junior Guan Yu Zhou next season.

The fourth and final driver in Prema's line-up of Dallara-Mercedes machinery looks increasingly likely to be 2016 European F3 runner-up Maximilian Gunther.

Prema team principal Angelo Rosin said: "We are thrilled to continue working with Mick in 2017.

"Not only is he a skilled driver, he is a great guy and already shown he has all it takes to be a top all-round professional.

"Debuting in a challenging series like the FIA F3 European Championship is not going to be easy, but we will be 100% behind Mick to help him keep impressing as he did this year."

Schumacher, who besides his F3 testing has also been mounting a race-winning title challenge in the Indian-run MRF Challenge over the winter, added: "F3 will be the ideal step for me to make, and I'm totally fired up for the new year to start.

"I'm also really happy about staying with Prema, because this is such a professional team and I will again be able to learn a lot.

"The next season will surely be challenging, but the tests we've been doing in the past weeks proved the F3 car is extremely fun to drive - I can't wait for 2017 to begin!"

DID YOU KNOW...

Prema's first title - the 1990 Italian Formula 3 Championship with Roberto Colciago - came in the same year as Schumacher's father won the German F3 crown.