Mick Schumacher Tests at Indianapolis, but Is Undecided About Future in IndyCar

• Mick Schumacher says he’s letting all the data and feelings from the experience sink in.
• There are multiple options on table for former F2 and F3 champion.
• His father’s remark about open-wheel racing made 26-year-old take closer look at NTT IndyCar Series

Mick Schumacher tested an IndyCar Monday with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

But the 26-year-old son of seven-time Formula 1 World Champion Michael Schumacher said he’s still making up his mind about what his 2026 racing season looks like. The NTT IndyCar Series scored well on his appeal meter after spending a couple of days in the RLL shop and a half-day on the Honda simulator.

Schumacher said he wants “to let everything sink in a bit, figure it out, and I guess make a decision down the line. It’s hard to say how high the percentage [of joining the NTT IndyCar Series] is. Today has been very fun. But I guess I’ve got to analyze it a bit more and see what that would look like.”

He indicated, though, that he won’t drag out the process, saying, “I think it won’t be too long until I make a decision. Whether or not that’s going to happen before or after I do an oval [track] test, I do not know.”

“In terms of what I’m doing in ’26, it’s very open. The options are all there. IndyCar is one of them, so I really just wanted to know what it was so that I can make my mind up,” Schumacher said. “I have different options, this being one of them. So I think there’s good potential and 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 long-term.”

He did say with certainty that whichever option he chooses, he would be all in and not divide his calendar into two racing pursuits at once. “That’s thinking quite far down the road. If I were to commit to any championship, I would do it 100%. Dual programs 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%.”

Part of the reason this single-seater fan wanted to take a closer look at IndyCar was its open-wheel designation. “I love having open wheels. One of the things my dad always said was ‘The Schumachers are usually faster if they can see their wheels.’ So, I kind of do like that quote. And I think it’s just the appeal of racing 17 times,” he said.

He drove the Dallara Honda on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 14-turn, 2.439-mile circuit where his father won the United States Grand Prix five times between 2000-07. After Monday’s laps, Mick Schumacher said it “feels very much like an F2 car, maybe a little bit heavier in terms of steering. I was pretty successful with the F2 campaign [He was the FIA’s 2020 Formula 2 champion]. F1 is obviously another step ahead and has just a lot more downforce, a lot more power, hybrid system, and all that stuff. So it drives itself a little different.”

With an IndyCar, “you have to be a bit more aggressive. You can be more aggressive. The tires do take quite a bit of that rigid driving. So yeah, there’s a lot of fun in that. I think I got a good idea of how it would be. We didn’t do a very long stint. We were focusing on other aspects of driving, but I think a lot of the guys that I’ve spoken to scared me more than what it actually was. So I think it’s not as heavy as I would’ve imagined and anticipated. Most drivers 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 really very connected to the car.”

Schumacher, the Swiss-born-and-raised German driver who also is the nephew of retired F1 driver Ralf Schumacher, himself has 43 starts in F1 (2021-2022) for Haas and competes in the World Endurance Championship for Alpine.

Although he said his Indianapolis experience “wasn’t in any way groundbreaking,” he called it “a great preparation. It was really important for me to kind of get to see how a race weekend would run out. And I think it was kind of close to that. So it was good to have the time with the team. The simulator itself 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—even though it wouldn’t have been, as it was actually pretty close to what I’m used to and what I’ve driven before.” All in all, he counted it as “very productive” and said he was “very happy about the preparation we’ve done. It was pretty extensive.

“It’s been definitely good to spend so much time with the team beforehand and be able to talk through some of the points that we’re keen on trying, some of the points that we were feeling like would be important for the team, but for me, as well, to test. And I think that enabled us to have a very good approach and a very structured approach, which is something that you definitely want,” Schumacher said. “We really managed to get through all the run plan and all the test items we wanted to do. I think we’re stoked about what the lap times were doing. And I think it wasn’t a main target, but still it went pretty well. So yeah, happy about today.”

Schumacher—who brought PREMA the 2018 FIA F3 European title and raced to a top-10 finish at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans—shared the track Monday with Caio Collet (A.J. Foyt Enterprises), Christian Rasmussen and Alexander Rossi (Ed Carpenter Racing), and INDYNXT standouts Dennis Hauger (Dale Coyne Racing), Lochie Hughes (Andretti Global), and James Roe (Juncos Hollinger Racing).