MOTORSPORT: New Schumacher's star rising fast

Michael Schumacher's teenage son Mick could be headed for stardom after a hat-trick at the weekend in the European Formula Three Championship.

The new Schumacher is now just three points behind Red Bull junior Dan Ticktum, who is a chance to be in Formula 1 next year with Toro Rosso. Schumacher is racing for Italian-based Prema Powerteam, which has close links to F1's top teams, Mercedes and Ferrari.

Michael Schumacher was the most successful driver in F1 history, winning 91 grands prix and seven world titles. The last five of those titles he won with Ferrari, while he finished his career at Mercedes.

He suffered severe head injuries in a skiing accident in France almost five years ago, was in a coma for months and for the past four years has been at his home in Switzerland, out of public view and – nearing his 50th birthday – with little yet known about his condition.

The new Schumacher has said that his father is "my idol and my role model" and that F1 is his goal too. Two years ago Mick was beaten to the German Formula 4 Championship by Australian Joey Mawson, now racing in GP3 – a support category at European GPs.

The 19-year-old Schumacher, only 12th in his first season in Euro F3 last year, has now won six times this season after his hat-trick at the Nurburgring in Germany. His other victories in recent weeks included successes at Spa in Belgium and Silverstone in Britain, two other tracks where his famous father triumphed in F1.

While 24 races have now been run in this year's Euro F3 series, Schumacher's six wins have come in the past 10. He is the only driver to have made a clean sweep of the three races at any round.

Schumacher has 261 points to the 264 of Brit Ticktum, who is also 19 and races for German team Motopark, which uses Volkswagen engines, while Prema is powered by Mercedes. The F3 open-wheelers are built on an Italian-made Dallara chassis powered by 2.0-litre four-cylinder engines.

The remaining two rounds are at Spielberg in Austria on September 22-23 and Hockenheim in Germany on October 13-14.

New Zealander Marcus Armstrong, 18, a Prema teammate of Schumacher and member of Ferrari's junior driver academy, is third in the series on 220 points.

Another Prema driver and Ferrari protege, Russian Robert Shwartzman, was second in all three races at the Nurburgring, while Ticktum was third in two and fourth in the third race on Sunday – in which Schumacher opened a 1.2-second lead on the first lap and won by almost five seconds.

Australian Ryan Briscoe raced for Prema in the early 2000s, winning the Euro F3 title in 2003 before becoming a Toyota F1 test driver and then moving to the US, where he has competed in Indy, sports car and GT racing.

Lawrence Stroll, the Canadian billionaire who has bankrolled his son Lance in F1 with Williams and led the syndicate that recently acquired the Force India F1 team, was reported in 2016 to have bought Prema.

While there is no sign of a Stroll presence at Prema now, after Lance Stroll won the 2016 Euro F3 title, it has backing from Teddy Yip Junior, son of the Hong Kong real estate magnate Teddy Yip who long ago supported Australians Alan Jones and Vern Schuppan in international open-wheeler racing.

Jack Doohan, the 15-year-old son of Australia's five-time 500cc motorcycle world champion Mick Doohan, already has an association with Prema, although his primary focus this year is the British Formula 4 Championship, in which he is fourth with the Arden team.

Enzo Fittipaldi, 17-year-old grandson of two-time Brazilian F1 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi, is another youngster in the Prema 'family'. He is second in the Italian and German F4 championships this season with the team.

Two of Prema's recent success stories have been Frenchman Pierre Gasly, who will replace Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull Racing next year when the Australian moves to Renault's factory team, and Charles Leclerc, the 20-year-old from Monaco tipped to be the next Ferrari F1 driver.

Leclerc, already in F1 with the Ferrari-powered Sauber team, won last year's Formula 2 Championship with Prema, while Gasly – now at Red Bull's junior F1 team Toro Rosso – won the 2016 GP2 title with Prema.