Fabio Schwarz – the 16-year-old son of former World Rally Championship star Armin – looks set to follow his father into rallying’s top flight as early as next season.
Schwarz Jr will tackle six events in Latvia this year before taking a Rally2 car to a limited program of WRC rounds in 2022.
Schwarz Sr told DirtFish: “The plan is for him to do three events in a Fiesta Rally4 car in Latvia, then three more in a Rally2 car. This year is about him getting as much seat time as possible.
“He is spending some time in CrossCars, but also doing a lot of testing in Subarus and Fiesta – basically he’s driving everything he can get his hands on.”
After this season, Schwarz will follow fellow teenagers with famous fathers – Kalle Rovanperä and Oliver Solberg – into the WRC’s support series.
“You can see how this was benefitting Kalle and Oliver,” said Armin. “Immediately, they are getting good experience of the events and the competition. He needs this international learning curve and WRC2 or WRC3 is the perfect place for that.”
Schwarz has watched his son develop in the last few years and is increasingly impressed with his pace.
“He did a test for 160 kilometers (100 miles) in the Fiesta Rally2,” said Schwarz. “He didn’t make one mark on the car – not a scratch and by the end his speed was just a couple of tenths of a second per kilometer off my times.
“But he was doing this all the time, the car wasn’t on the limit, he was just playing. It was very impressive.”
