On the eve of his IndyCar debut, Mick Schumacher likened his car to what he drove in Formula 2. He finds it “pretty fun to drive,” and is enjoying the “raw motorsport” feel of IndyCar.
Schumacher opened up on the process of becoming increasingly interested in a move to IndyCar, and how the uncertainties which he had over oval racing were alleviated.
Mick Schumacher compares IndyCar car to Formula 2 machinery
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Schumacher signed up with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing for the 2026 IndyCar campaign. He has previously spent two years in the World Endurance Championship with Alpine, alongside Mercedes/McLaren F1 reserve duties, after losing his Haas seat at the end of 2022.
Appearing on the Off Track with Hinch and Rossi podcast, Schumacher was asked if he followed IndyCar from afar previously, or if it was only when he arrived that he developed an understanding of what it is about.
IndyCar is a spec series, and the highest class of American open-wheel car racing. The chassis is built by Dallara, while Honda and Chevrolet provide engines.
Schumacher said: “Once the whole situation with F1 became a bit more complicated, more and more teams were reaching out to me, where I was still on the trajectory of having good conversations with F1 teams, and the hope was still there to kind of go back.
“So I had not looked at it as a real option until, I guess, not last year, but the year before, where I was kind of more interested in it, learning a bit more about it, and seeing also how competitive it was, kind of just trying to understand a bit more about it.
“But now coming over here, you learn so much more in detail what it actually means to be driving an IndyCar, and how tough and challenging it is, but also how fun the championship is in itself.
“The people working here are just amazing to work with. They’re really ambitious on the racing side of things.
“It feels very much like a raw motor sport environment, which is something rare to find in some places. I felt like here, it was really just obvious that that was the kind of thing that was happening.”
Schumacher completed two road course tests, getting his first taste of IndyCar around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course back in October. He partook in the two-day Sebring road course test in February.
Schumacher was asked whether there was a moment in either of those tests where he thought this was awesome, and caught the IndyCar bug.
“I guess that would be the whole preparation of the Indy road course,” he said. “We went through so many in-depth conversations of preparing that test. And it just showed me that there’s a lot to it.
“The whole test itself in Indy went pretty well. The car is pretty fun to drive. It’s maybe a little underpowered here and there. I have to say that.”
On that note, Schumacher was asked whether the Indy car compares to anything which he has driven in the past.
It feels like the F2 machinery which he previously drove.
Schumacher spent two seasons in F2, which is regarded as the highest category on the junior ladder to Formula 1. He won the title with Prema in 2020, that his second and final F2 campaign.
“I guess, an F2 car, just with better tyres,” he said.
“If we bumped it up with maybe 100 or 200 horsepower more and got the weight down a little bit, I think that’d be pretty good.
“I guess that’s kind of the transition that the future car has gone into. So that’ll be pretty fun to see.
“But I think that it’s a fun car. It’s good that the safety is going up, and you can see that everybody’s involved, really trying to go that direction. So that’s great.
“But yeah, I guess with weight and stuff, it’s quite tough.”
Schumacher said that it was ovals which stopped him from giving an immediate yes to pursuing an IndyCar move.
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Another former Haas F1 driver, Romain Grosjean, initially opted not to compete in oval events on safety grounds after moving to IndyCar.
Mick’s uncle, Ralf Schumacher, has repeatedly questioned Mick’s move to IndyCar.
“The Indy road course really gave me a good, fun experience where I was seriously considering it,” Schumacher stated on his decision to come to IndyCar.
“The only thing I didn’t know was an oval. So how does an oval work. And that was probably the only thing that stopped me from saying, ‘Okay, let’s do it right away.’
“I just had to understand a bit better of what it was, how it was working, what are the safety measurements that have been taken care of, let’s say, in the close past, that kind of evolved it to what it is today.
“Once I understood that, there was really nothing in my way to try and come over here.”
After speaking with RLL teammate Graham Rahal, and team president Jay Frye – a leading figure behind IndyCar safety advancements – Schumacher said this helped him to understand “the ambition of the series.”
From what he had heard, and how well he was prepared for his Indy road test, Schumacher knew that he “would be well prepared” for his first oval test at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he completed 97 laps and reached a top speed of 194 miles per hour.
Five rounds of the 2026 IndyCar season will take place on ovals. The first will be held at Phoenix Raceway on 7 March.
The season gets underway in St Petersburg on 1 March.
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