Formula One driver Mick Schumacher returns to Indianapolis to turn laps on road course in an IndyCar

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Mick Schumacher enjoyed getting a first-hand view of the Indianapolis 500 in May.

Whether he’ll make Indy his next racing stop is yet to be determined.

The 26-year-old son of seven-time Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher spent Monday taking laps on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course in the No. 75 Honda, and afterward the soft-spoken younger driver smiled when asked about racing in the United States full time.

“ I’ve been interested in doing a test in Indy for a while now, and I did see some of the guys that race full time at some of the F1 events across the past two years and they always said how fun it was,” Schumacher said. “So I just wanted to see what the car felt like and so far, so good. The people are very great to work with, so, yeah, I’m happy to be here and happy to drive the car.”

Schumacher may be looking for a fresh start after his once-promising career got derailed in Europe.

After winning the Formula 2 championship in 2020, he made the jump to the Haas F1 team. But two seasons of sub-par results and expensive crashes cost him his job.

In 2023, he landed as a reserve driver with Mercedes-AMG Petronas and also drove a Mercedes entry for the past two seasons in the FIA World Endurance series.

Now, with his 2026 plans still uncertain and most of the F1 seats locked up through next season, Schumacher is considering a move he’s watched other European drivers make successfully.

His first chance in an IndyCar came on the road course initially built for an F1 race, which his father won five times. Michael Schumacher continues to battle a traumatic brain injury he suffered in a skiing accident in 2013.

Mick Schumacher was too young to remember attending any of his dad’s races at Indy and the road course has since undergone modifications.

Still, the younger Schumacher looked like a natural as he joined Alexander Rossi, Christian Rasmussen, Caio Collet, Dennis Hauger, Lochie Hughes and James Roe. Schumacher turned the fastest lap of the group in the first three hours of testing.

“IndyCar comes the closest to what I can still race,” he said. “I can’t go back (to F2) because I won a championship. IndyCar might be a good option. Obviously, my target the past couple of years has been to go back to F1, but that option hasn’t quite opened up this year or the years previous to that. So, at some point I want to race again in single-seaters, and therefore (this) option is a good one.”

Switching series does pose some challenges for Schumacher.

He, like many European racers, has never competed on ovals. IndyCar organizers have scheduled six of next season’s 17 races on ovals, including the fastest of them all — the Indianapolis 500.

Though there have been some IndyCar drivers who specialized in either oval racing or street and road course racing, that’s not what Schumacher intends to do.

“That’s what the championship is about, and I think it would be wrong to say ‘OK, I’m just going to do one part of it — if I commit,” he said.

Schumacher also understands there’s a difference in the role IndyCar drivers play on a team compared with what is expected in F1, a difference he embraced while working with the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team in preparation for Monday’s audition.

“I like that mentality of the driver being the main part of the team and trying to drive that team forward,” Schumacher said. “I’ve spent a couple of days with the team and it’s been great to see what their direction has been.”

But the determining factor could come down to one thing — having fun racing again. And it’s a decision Schumacher knows must happen soon.

“I want to enjoy what I do, I want to enjoy racing,” he said. “To do that, I have to find where I feel the most at home. I’m not saying that or WEC or any of those other championships aren’t that, it’s just that I feel like maybe racing in a single-seater is always what I wanted to do and therefore, I think IndyCar might come closest to what I want to do.”

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing