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MALTATODAY 3 April 2019 Midweek

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maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 3 APRIL 2019 23 SPORTS SAILING Answers to the MaltaToday crossword will be published next Wednesday Weather Rather cloudy Visibility Good Wind Southwest force 2 to 3 backing South force 3 to 4 Sea Slight Swell Negligible TODAY TOMORROW Weather Crossword Across 1. Invaluable (9) 8. Smith's block (5) 9. Punctuation mark (5) 10. Breathe out (6) 12. Make indistinct (4) 14. Belonging to us (4) 15. Pines for (6) 17. Directed a light (5) 18. Gaze fixedly (5) 20. Principal angel (9) Down 2. Revolution (3) 3. Icily (6) 4. Good fortune (4) 5. Having a resemblance (7) 6. Horse bred for racing (9) 7. Lawyer (9) 11. Place of shelter (7) 13. Individual (6) 16. Yes (4) 19. Part of verb to be (3) MAINLY CLOUDY UV: 6 RAINY UV: 6 16 0 / 11 0 17 0 / 14 0 A story came full circle on Tuesday morning in Bahrain, when Mick Schu- macher stepped into the cockpit of a Ferrari Formula 1 car 12 years and four months after his father Michael vacated one for the last time. Two days of testing in Bahrain - one for Ferrari followed by one for the af- filiated Alfa Romeo team - are the first steps in a plan aimed at establishing whether the son of the most success- ful grand prix driver in history has the talent to follow his father's footsteps into F1. Michael's success and fame mean 20-year-old Mick will have to do this in a spotlight with which most aspir- ing F1 drivers do not have to contend. But there is another dimension, too - Michael's health following the skiing accident in 2013 which left him with severe brain injuries, since when he has not been seen in public. 'Being compared to my father is no problem' The Schumacher family will not speak about Michael's condition, be- lieving that he would want it that way - he was always a very private man. But it is inevitably the elephant in the room in any interaction Mick has with the outside world, and particularly the media. Holding his first news conference at a grand prix in Bahrain last weekend, there was a calm composure in the way Mick dealt with any questions re- lating to his father, however oblique. What does he feel about all the extra attention he receives through being Michael's son? "It is a difficult question," Mick says. "It is part of me. I am the son of my dad and I am happy that I am. What he has done is the best ever in F1. It is something I look up to and I am happy to have him as my dad." But it is something other drivers don't have to face. "It has always been part of me. I kind of had the time and the chance to grow into that. I had a lot of people behind me who helped me on the path." What did you learn from your dad about being a racing driver? "I guess I wouldn't be the person I am now if it wasn't for him." Anything specific about driving, about racing, about how to handle the whole business? "Obviously we shared quite a few points in karting and then it helped me a lot along the way." Mick - then just 14 - was skiing at his father's side when Michael suffered the accident that changed his life. The emotional torment must have been horrendous, but a career in motor- sport already beckoned, and with it the need to find a way to navigate the inevitable attention that comes with being his father's son. Mick Schumacher completes family circle with eagerly awaited Ferrari test drive Mick was 14 when his father Michael Schumacher suffered the accident that changed his life

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