“It’s fun,” says Mick Schumacher after his first oval laps in IndyCar

Mick Schumacher has now accomplished his first laps on an oval in preparation for his rookie IndyCar season, and his early impressions are very optimistic.

On Wednesday, Schumacher spent a day testing at Homestead-Miami Speedway, about 30 miles south of downtown Miami within the state of Florida. It was a purely non-public check by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) – the crew for which Schumacher will probably be one in all three full-time drivers within the 2026 IndyCar season.

In the Rahal Honda, which is at the moment nonetheless painted fully black with Schumacher’s quantity 47, his skilled teammate Graham Rahal first went out within the morning to make sure that the automotive’s setup was appropriate for the monitor situations. With comparatively heavy cloud cowl initially of the day, which cleared up considerably because the day progressed, the air temperature in Homestead on Wednesday was within the vary of 20 to 23 levels Celsius (68 to 73 levels Fahrenheit). 

Since 2011, IndyCar groups have solely used the Homestead oval for check drives, as is now the case with RLL for the primary oval check in Schumacher’s IndyCar profession. The rookie took over the automotive instantly after the shakedown carried out by Rahal.

Apart from Rahal, Ryan Briscoe was additionally on website on the RLL non-public check on Wednesday to offer Schumacher with recommendation and assist. The former IndyCar driver from Australia was employed a number of days in the past by the crew of Bobby Rahal, David Letterman , and Mike Lanigan as a driver coach, particularly for Schumacher.

Mick Schumacher’s verdict after his first laps on the oval

In a brief video assertion posted on RLL’s social media channels on Wednesday throughout the check day, Schumacher stated that the check had gone properly to this point, noting that “we’ve completed a lot of laps.”

According to Schumacher, there have been additionally “a couple setup changes here and there to improve what we had.”

With these phrases, the IndyCar rookie from Germany stated goodbye for the afternoon. According to Schumacher, the crew’s objective for the second half of the check day was to ‘tick off a number of extra issues on our listing.’

What can clearly be seen on Schumacher’s face and heard in his phrases on the finish of the video assertion is that he actually loved driving an IndyCar on an oval monitor. “It’s fun. Stay tuned.”

“Well on the way” to turning into an oval driver

A little bit later, Schumacher elaborated: “The biggest difference to a normal race track is definitely that you enter a corner here without braking. For me, that was something I had to get used to first.”

“Having the feeling that, okay, I can throw the car into the corner without taking my foot off the gas was, of course, something that was completely new to me, but I got comfortable with it relatively quickly and didn’t have any major problems with it,” stated the IndyCar rookie. In normal, he says he “still has a lot to learn on an oval.” But he additionally assures us: “I’m on the right track.”

“Hopefully we’ll see you soon, definitely in St. Pete,” Schumacher stated in his first social media video, referring to the 2026 IndyCar season opener on March 1 in St. Petersburg, Florida.

St. Petersburg is one in all six metropolis races on the 2026 IndyCar calendar. Apart from that, there are six races on everlasting circuits and 6 oval races. However, as already talked about, Homestead-Miami Speedway, the place Schumacher examined on Wednesday, doesn’t seem on the race calendar anymore.

What lies forward

After his first profitable oval check, Schumacher has two extra check drives forward of him earlier than the IndyCar season opener.

Next Monday and Tuesday (February 9/10), all groups will check on the brief circuit at Sebring International Raceway. This conventional winter check serves primarily as preparation for metropolis races, as a result of metropolis circuits are sometimes equally uneven to the everlasting circuit in Sebring.

And the next week, on Tuesday and Wednesday (February 17/18), the ultimate oval check earlier than the beginning of the season will happen at Phoenix Raceway in Arizona, additionally with all groups current.

Phoenix Raceway is a one-mile oval that’s making its comeback on the IndyCar calendar this yr. The final race there was in 2018. This yr, Phoenix is scheduled because the second race of the season on March 7. It is the primary of six oval races on the 2026 IndyCar calendar.

Just eight days after Phoenix, on March 15, Schumacher will compete in what he himself describes as his “mini home race” on the brand-new road circuit in Arlington, Texas.

Article translated from German

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– The Motorsport.com Team