An IndyCar future? The story of Mick Schumacher’s maiden test
- Archie O’Reilly
- Oct 14
- 12 min read
“One of the things my dad always said was…” Mick Schumacher begins.
The son of the great Michael Schumacher is sitting with an idyllic backdrop of the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) Pagoda, as the lowering evening sun fights its way through the unusual sight of empty grandstands on a bright October day.
A little further behind, to his left, is the frontstretch of an iconic track where his legendary seven-time Formula One champion father won five times between 2000 and 2007 in the track’s tenure as host of the United States Grand Prix.
After a split-second’s pause and glance out of the windows onto the tarmac of The Racing Capital of the World, he continues and recites his father’s words, ingrained in his mind…
“The Schumachers are usually faster if they can see their wheels.”
It is almost three years since Schumacher, who was forging his own path as a very successful product of the F1 ladder, last raced a single-seater car.
A champion in the FIA Formula 3 European Series in 2018 and FIA Formula 2 in 2020, Schumacher stepped up to F1 with American team Haas in 2021. But in an unupgraded car ahead of the 2022 regulations change and without a veteran teammate alongside him - instead fellow rookie Nikita Mazepin - it was a challenging first season.
After failing to score a point in 2021 though, Schumacher made a marked step forward in his second season, recording two points-paying results: eighth at Silverstone and sixth at the Red Bull Ring. He finished 16th in the standings and 13 points behind his new teammate Kevin Magnussen but ousted the veteran Dane 14-to-six in race results.
At the end of the year, though, Haas opted to replace Schumacher with trusted lieutenant Nico Hülkenberg, drawing to an end a relatively short-lived, 43-start F1 stint.
Schumacher was promptly signed by Mercedes as a reserve driver, where he remained for two years as a standby and participated in multiple test outings. He returned to racing in 2024, dovetailing his Mercedes commitments with a full-time drive in the World Endurance Championship (WEC)’s top class in the Alpine Endurance Team’s new Hypercar programme.
After a successful first season in WEC, marked by a maiden podium at Japan’s Fuji Speedway, Schumacher returned to Alpine for 2025 and parted ways with Mercedes. The programme has continued to improve, with further podiums at Imola and Spa-Francorchamps this season.
But there has remained a wheel-seeing, single-seater itch to scratch. And as of right now, Schumacher has no set-in-stone plans for the 2026 season.
So what could a maiden IndyCar test, the purpose of Schumacher’s IMS pilgrimage, mean?
“In terms of what I’m doing in ’26, it’s very open,” he said. “Obviously the options are all there. I think IndyCar is one of them so I really just wanted to know what it was so that I can make my mind up.
“I have different options - and this being one of them - so there is good potential. It’s about me now trying to figure out what I want to do and if this is one thing that I would consider for the long-term.”
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL)’s press release announcing that Schumacher would be testing for the team - suggesting it was “with an eye towards possible participation in the future” - more than implied that this could have a view beyond just a brief foray stateside.
RLL have Graham Rahal and sophomore Louis Foster locked in for 2026 but speculation has grown that ties could be cut with Devlin DeFrancesco after a tough 2025, possibly freeing a seat for Schumacher.
But it is not a decision insignificant in proportion for Schumacher, who has found a home and comfort in sports car racing across the past two seasons, to make. There is still the lingering thought of F1 in the back of his mind too, albeit he does not view a move to IndyCar as an obstacle blocking an F1 return if the opportunity ever arose.
“I do not believe that it would be in the way of coming back, no,” he insisted. “I think IndyCar has great talent and great people racing in it. I don’t think it would stop somebody from moving back to Formula One.
“I still have got to let everything sink in a bit, figure it out and make a decision down the line. It’s hard to say how high the percentage is [of moving to IndyCar]. Today has been very fun but I’ve got to analyse a bit more and see what that would look like.”
Whatever Schumacher ends up doing next season, he would not consider splitting his time between multiple different series. At only 26 years old still, he has a notable drive and focus and maintains a belief he can still make a lot out of his career.
“Obviously if I were to commit to any championship, I would do it 100 percent,” he admitted. “Dual programmes are not quite on my radar, as I feel like it would take quite a lot of energy and would be pretty distracting to do both.
“So if I were to commit, I would commit 100 percent.”
But while Schumacher remains noncommittal on what he will commit to for 2026 - though with a decision not too far away - after a day in an Indy car for the very first time, he could not shake the joyous feeling of driving a single-seater car again.
For all of IndyCar’s many appeals, which he recognises too, open-wheelness offers a major allure that would appear to usurp all else.
“It being a single-seater, that’s what’s attracting me to it,” he outlined. “I love having open wheels. I do like that quote [from his father]. It’s just the appeal of racing 17 times a year.
“Probably the one word that stuck the most with me that somebody told me who works here in IndyCar [is] that the most important aspect of that team or making a decision is the driver. The fact that they rely so heavily on the driver is something that really spiked my interest and made it interesting for me to come out and try.
“There are great tracks out there. One of the big points, you will find more old-school racetracks than new ones and that aspect is pretty fun. Also, street circuits are usually very challenging and they demand a lot from a racing driver. There’s a good mix.
“Racing seems fun. We’ll see what opportunities it might have for me.”
Schumacher has been able to tap into his network of peers who have made the switch from the F1 realm to IndyCar, with many products of F2 excelling in IndyCar.
In winning his F3 title in 2018, Schumacher had to overcome current IndyCar drivers Robert Shwartzman and Marcus Armstrong as PREMA Racing teammates - and even four-time IndyCar champion Álex Palou for a less competitive Hitech outfit. Then en-route to his F2 crown, Schumacher had to oust Callum Ilott - doing so by 14 points at season’s end.
“I did talk to Callum a lot about [IndyCar],” Schumacher recalled, with Ilott having raced in WEC in 2024 before returning to IndyCar. “I saw him a couple of times in the WEC field and we actually spoke a bit about IndyCar.
“I have spoken to a couple of them. I know a lot of them. I raced with a few of them since I was in go-karts. From everything that I’ve heard so far, everybody enjoys the championship and they say it’s very fun.”
Influenced by these conversations or not, Schumacher has long had a desire to try IndyCar machinery. With an F1 seat unfeasible, he is keeping an open mind about different options across the motorsport landscape.
It was that intrigue that led to Schumacher joining forces with RLL for his outing on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile IMS road course on Monday.
“I wanted to try the car. It was simple as that,” he detailed. “It was very interesting to see what that would be about and how it would feel to drive an Indy car and actually if it is as heavy as everybody says it is, which it wasn’t, so it’s a good thing. Overall, the decision was very easy for me to say I’ll try it and just happened to be here in Indianapolis.
“I’ve been following [IndyCar] here and there since a couple of years. I saw a couple of the guys who are racing here; it did definitely somewhat spike my interest.”
Schumacher was one of seven drivers on track for one of IndyCar’s traditional private off-season test days, arranged by teams to either evaluate rookies or use up an allotted test outing for their established lineup.
For the second time after a recent Mid-Ohio outing, AJ Foyt Racing evaluated Brazilian Indy NXT runner-up Caio Collet. There were also debut outings for Lochie Hughes (with Andretti Global, where he will return for a second NXT season in 2026) and fellow NXT product James Roe (for Juncos Hollinger Racing).
Ed Carpenter Racing fielded the confirmed-for-2026 Alexander Rossi and Christian Rasmussen, as did Dale Coyne Racing with reigning NXT champion Dennis Hauger.
Schumacher joined the RLL team for the first time last Friday, when he met the squad at the race shop before spending a weekend embedded within the team to prepare for the test. He was also granted access to a half-day session on the Honda simulator.
“[RLL] were great,” he affirmed. “It really feels like a family business and family-owned team, as you can feel that everybody enjoys what they’re doing and they’re there because they’re passionate about motorsports.
“That’s for sure something that I felt right from the get-go from walking into the workshop that everybody is very excited about racing and very keen to just have people trying their cars and seeing what feedback they have to obviously move forward and improve.
“It was a great preparation. It was really important for me to get to see how a race weekend would run out and I think it was close to that. It was good to have the time with the team before I came out to the test. The simulator was a great opportunity for me to get a taste of the car before actually driving it so it wouldn’t be a complete surprise.”
The preparation enabled a solid structure to be in place for Schumacher’s test day. In fact, the biggest stumbling block he encountered - as well as a highlight of his day - was getting used to the Americanised racing terms.
“What is stickers?” he exclaimed upon hearing the term for fresh tyres. There was also a new system of measurements to grow accustomed to, though all offering a useful early insight into what life in IndyCar may entail.
Running the test on the road course at IMS was actually not a conscious decision, though it was hardly a bad thing to stumble upon given RLL’s consistent speed at the track, which saw all three cars qualify inside the top five back in May.
Add to that the storied history of the Schumacher name and it felt fitting.
“It just happened to fall well into the plan,” Schumacher said. “I did enjoy the track. It was good. Obviously very old-school. I like it. You get punished if you make a little mistake - but not in a bad way.
“I wasn’t really driving through nostalgia but driving through the here and now and trying to focus on what I had to do. Obviously I was very focused on doing all the programme and I believe the track has changed a little bit since [the F1 days].
“I was here earlier this year in May, just before the Indy 500 and the place was quite crowded compared to now. But it’s still nice to be here, to get to know the racetrack. It’s obviously one of those racetracks which [IndyCar] race on so we had good data to compare and analyse what I was doing and to see how it compares to the full-time drivers.”
In the unofficial times from the test, Schumacher placed third with a 01:10.980s quickest lap, with Hauger leading the way a little over two-tenths of a second ahead and veteran Rossi splitting the pair at one-tenth clear of Schumacher.
But as is the nature of a test day, successfully completing the intended run plan was the biggest achievement of the outing.
“We’re stoked about what the lap times are doing - it wasn’t a main target but still it went pretty well,” Schumacher admitted. “Happy about today. Very productive.”
He was also pleasantly surprised by the car. Though he did not complete any extremely long stints as part of the test, warnings from his fellow drivers about the physicality of the car - without any power steering - felt overblown.
“A lot of the guys that I’ve spoken to scared me more than what it actually was,” Schumacher said. “I think it’s not as heavy as I would have imagined and anticipated. Most drivers that I spoke to said: ‘You better get into the gym if you want to drive that.’
“I didn’t think it was that heavy. I actually thought it was more fun actually with the steering as it was just because you feel very connected to the car and it gave you a very positive feeling and feedback.”
IndyCar’s aeroscreen offered something else to get used to, with Schumacher instead experienced with a halo in his F1 and F2 days. But it quickly became an afterthought once he got in a rhythm, even if the lessened air flow did make the cockpit noticeably hotter than he is used to.
Of those two halo-shod cars, Schumacher felt the Indy car was much like an F2 car in nature - a machine he had much success with. On the flip side, compared to an F1 car, there are more noticeable differences.
“F1 is obviously another step ahead and has a lot more downforce, a lot more power,” he assessed. “This one, you have to be a bit more aggressive; you can be more aggressive. The tyres do take quite a bit of that, let’s say, rigid driving.
“Obviously I think it’s all… maybe that sounds bad but a bit more old-school. In an Indy car, it’s more rough and an F1 is probably more fine-tuned. Aero pieces are important and crucial; if one little piece doesn’t sit right, it can affect the whole car.
“The procedures are a bit different and sometimes clinical in F1 and very precise, while here it’s maybe rough and a bit more contact to the road. The fact that they don’t really have a skid was very interesting to me, that it’s just the tub that is the limit.
“There’s a lot of fun. Every aspect has their benefits and negatives. It’s been good to see the difference and I think both have their flair.”
An aspect of IndyCar that a question mark does still linger above for Schumacher is ovals - an alien discipline to a driver raised on the European ladder. But while an unknown, it is not necessarily a deterrence for him amid a keenness to try driving on an oval.
“I don’t want to talk too much about ovals; that’s why I didn’t kind of go there,” he admitted. “I am considering at some point maybe doing an oval [test] just to see what it’s about.
“From what people have told me, if you have a good feeling for a stable car and if you have a good feeling for when you get close to the limit, you’re going to do well. Obviously that could be something interesting to try down the road, maybe to do an oval test at some point.”
The safety aspect at largely unprecedented speeds - particularly on superspeedways - is something that has put drivers off with a racing background like Schumacher’s. But there is an awareness of the evolution of safety that offers comfort to this particular ex-F1 driver.
“Safety is obviously something that is at a high priority for everybody,” Schumacher acknowledged. “IndyCar has made a lot of adjustments and changes to make it safer and I’m sure they’re going to improve even further.
“At some point, you can only make it as safe, though, with the speeds that you are going. But I think all the precautions have been taken so I’m not concerned. I haven’t driven an oval so I can’t say more than that. But for now, I haven’t heard anything that would scare me off.”
In all likelihood, given a narrow timeframe to make a decision on his future, Schumacher would probably have to decide to switch to IndyCar before first testing on an oval.
“At some point, I want to be sure about my future so I think it won’t be too long until I make a decision,” he disclosed. “Whether that’s going to happen before or after I do an oval test, I do not know.
“I do have the options and IndyCar is one of them, as is some other ones out there. It’s a matter of me trying to just figure out what I want to do. I probably won’t take too long to make that decision, then I’ll make sure to let everybody know.”
For a driver who will unquestionably have graduated to F1 as a champion of the premier leader series with the long-term goal of becoming F1 World Champion, nigh on three years removed, a career crossroads has been hit. With the F1 dream having dissipated - or at least having been put firmly on the backburner - a reevaluation has been necessary.
But as he peers 20 years into the future, Schumacher does not want to end his career regretting that he did not make the most of it. And that is the principle he will abide by no matter where he may end up racing - IndyCar, F1 or elsewhere.
“The most important part would be to look back at it and say: ‘Okay, I enjoyed everything I did.’ And I think that’s really why we are doing it - because we love the sport, we love racing. That’s what it should be.
“As long as I am enjoying my time and enjoying what I’m doing, I will be doing it well. That’s above everything for me.”
Comments