In Formula 1 the door is closed, so Mick Schumacher is guided by – and tests a career alternative that he had always excluded.
Mick Schumacher will first take a test drive to an Indycar car in Indianapolis on October 13th. The 26-year-old will drive a Dallara DW12 by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, the team of the triple IndyCar champions and former Indy-500 winners Bobby Rahal on the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“I’m really looking forward to completing my first IndyCar test,” Schumacher is quoted in a message from the racing team.
“A big thank you to the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Team that you give me this opportunity. The same applies to driving this car for the first time on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a racetrack with great history on which my father has already driven,” said the former Formula 1 pilot, who is currently driving in the long-distance World Cup WEC for the French team Alpine.
So far, Schumacher had always rejected a possible commitment in the United States – his dream was Formula 1, he emphasized again and again. In the premier class, the German will not get a cockpit in 2026.
Newcomers Cadillac prefers to relate to the veteran Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez, Alpine boss Flavio Briatore also said that there was no place for the son of F1 icon Michael Schumacher for the French.
Indycar series A “new straw” for Mick Schumacher
Schumacher may now seriously consider the IndyCar series as a career alternative. “It is no secret that I am a big fan of one-man races, so this first IndyCar test will be an experience that I will appreciate, and I’m really looking forward to driving a car where I can see my bikes,” he said with a view to his test premiere.
“It is a rethinking at Mick Schumacher, a new straw at the single Seaters, in order to gain a foothold in America and sit in formula 1-like cars and to show what he had on it,” RTL reporter and sport.de-Expert Felix Görner Schumacher’s Indy sample in Indianapolis.
With a cockpit in the IndyCar series and convincing services, Schumacher may “make the attention of Formula 1 again,” said the long-time F1 reporter.
At Schumacher “a serious process took place. This is an idea with long -term and the possible back door Formula 1,” estimates Görner. In the United States, Mick can “take away from the American nonchalance. Not everyone will plunge to him because it is called Schumacher. This is a very, very good idea – albeit born out of necessity. You can only keep your fingers crossed.”
Video: Here Mick Schumacher jumps out of the plane
Indycar team boss is looking forward to Schumacher test
The contact with Rahal Letterman Lanigan came about via Schumacher Manager Dirk Müller. Müller drove for the team in the American-Le-Mans-Series (Alms) and even won the GT2 title with BMW together with Joey Hand in the 2011 season.
“I followed Mick’s career from afar, as well as that of his father, so the idea of seeing him in one of our racing cars is very exciting,” said the former Indy500 champion Bobby Rahal. “I think it will be a great day for RLL and also for Mick because he has his first experience in an Indycar.”
Schumacher “obviously has a lot of talent,” said the 72-year-old American. Since his team had pretty good setups for the route in Indianapoli, that should give him a good basis from which he can start. “
Mick Schumacher drove for the US racing stable Haas in Formula 1 in 2021 and 2022, but did not get a contract there for 2023. Since then he has fought in vain for an F1 comeback in the grid, since 2024 he has been driving for alpine in the WEC.