Marcus Ericsson picks 5 racing legends ft. Michael Schumacher for his "dream grid"

Marcus Ericsson recently revealed his dream grid that he would want to race in a hypothetical race. The Swedish driver named 5 racing legends, including seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher.

The 34-year-old was an F1 driver himself in the 2010s. He raced in the open-wheel racing championship between 2014-2018, before joining the IndyCar grid in 2019.

Despite Ericsson finding greater success in the American open-wheel racing series, his love for the F1 world could be deciphered from his pick of racing drivers to battle in his dream grid. The Andretti driver named fellow countryman, Ronnie Peterson, as his first pick.

The former F1 driver died after an incident at the 1978 Italian Grand Prix and was the most successful F1 driver from Sweden. Ericsson then moved on to pick the 1976 F1 champion, James Hunt, in second spot, who was followed by three-time F1 champion Ayrton Senna, being his third choice.

The former Indy 500 winner revealed the reason behind choosing Senna and said:

'"The biggest raw talent that ever raced in Formula 1."

Subsequently, he moved on to F1 legend Michael Schumacher. The German won seven world titles and five drivers' championships consecutively with Ferrari between 2000-2004, as he said:

"Someone I watched a lot growing up and sort of draw my interest into Formula 1 as a kid."

Lastly, Ericsson picked Kimi Raikkonnen; he raced the Finnish driver in his time on the F1 grid.

---

Marcus Ericsson admired Michael Schumacher when he was young

Marcus Ericsson with the Borg Warner trophy after winning the 106th Indianapolis 500. Marcus Ericsson - Source: Getty

Marcus Ericsson has been a fierce driver in the IndyCar field and has had strong results at the Indy 500 over the years. However, his initial love for racing stemmed from IndyCar's European counterpart, F1.

Moreover, Michael Schumacher was his inspiration to start racing back in the day. The German driver remained at the top of F1 in the 1990s and the early 2000s, and revealed how the seven-time champion was his racing hero, Ericsson told Autoweek in 2020:

"For me, the strongest sort of memory I have from being a kid is watching Formula 1 with my dad and watching Michael Schumacher win in the red Ferrari. For me, Ferrari and Schumacher were always the ones I was looking at and wanting to be. So I would have to say Schumacher was my inspiration as a kid."

On the other hand, Marcus Ericsson's F1 venture ended in 2018 after his contract with Alfa Romeo (now Sauber) ended. He was replaced by Antonio Giovinazzi for the 2019 season, while he moved away to racing full-time in the United States with Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.

The Swedish driver then moved to CGR and won the 2022 Indy 500, and now races for Andretti on the 27-car grid.