Ferrari Driver Academy boss admits team is closely watching progress of Mick Schumacher

Despite the best efforts of management and his family, there is growing interest in the career of young Mick Schumacher, son of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher.

And as the youngster heads to the European F3 Championship, having finished runner-up in both the ADAC (German) and Italian F4 series last year, Mercedes and Ferrari - teams for which his father raced - are eyeing the youngster's progress.

"Obviously we follow him," Ferrari Driver Academy (FDA) boss Massimo Rivola told Gazzetta dello Sport. "And this year we will have the opportunity to stay very close to him, because he will be the teammate of our FDA driver Guan Yu Zhou in the Prema team.

"Regarding his future, I don't know what he will decide to do," admitted Rivola, "but if he would like to enter the FDA programme he will find a red carpet."

However, it is not merely his exploits on track that attracts Ferrari, the team is also impressed with his attitude outside the cockpit.

"He seems very polite and he's not full of himself, so congratulations to his parents, they did a very good job with him. He's very young, and he must manage a huge media pressure, but he is doing it very well."