Mick's dad, seven-time Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher, won the United States Grand Prix five times on the original 2.605-mile (4.192-kilometer) configuration of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course (2000 and 2003 through 2006), but famously said he would never run the Indy 500, calling the oval version of the track “too dangerous" at the height of his career.
While the elder Schumacher wasn’t a fan of the American series or its premier race, his son would benefit from a fresh start in the reemerging NTT IndyCar Series, following increased ratings from TV partner Fox Sports this past season, Fox's first at the helm.
Schumacher attended the 2025 Indy 500. He walked around the garages in the month of May, snapping photos with fans and signing autographs, presumably chatting with teams about joining the series and racing in the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing" himself one day.
Unfortunately for the younger Schumacher, there haven’t been many opportunities in Europe since his final F1 race at the end of the 2022 season. He made it clear that racing single-seat cars is his first love, and despite being an F1 reserve driver the past couple of seasons, his most recent race-day sessions have only come in sports cars.
Schumacher has also raced in the FIA’s World Endurance Championship. But he said conversations with other IndyCar drivers over the years led him to considering coming to America and racing full-time.
Mick was too young to remember attending any of his dad's races at Indy. He sure looked comfortable at IMS, however, turning the fastest lap in his group in the first three hours of testing on Monday, October 13.
“I can’t go back [to F2] because I won a championship,” he told media in a presser following the test. “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.”
Mick Schumacher in an IndyCar 👀 Could we actually see him make the switch stateside soon? 🇺🇸🏎️ The talent’s there — just needs the right shot. What do you guys think… should Mick go full-time IndyCar?👇 #MickSchumacher #IndyCar #Racing pic.twitter.com/wtXTZZDzEl
— Skyler (@Skylersportbook) October 28, 2025
But maybe it is a dangerous switch after all
Mick Schumacher never competed on ovals before. Six of next season’s 17 scheduled races are oval races.
His dad, in that same 60 Minutes interview on CBS from 2002, said of the IMS oval: “The speed you do that close to the walls, if you have an accident, there is no way a chassis can survive a certain way of having a crash. That means your legs can be heavily damaged or even further. And I don't see any point in that. I have nothing to prove there.”
Improvements in safety the past 20-plus years have made every rung of racing safer, including IndyCar and the Indy 500. Take Scott Dixon’s memorable airborne crash in the 2017 installment, which he walked away from with minor injuries.
In short, this isn’t Michael Schumacher’s Indy 500 or IndyCar Series anymore, which is something the younger Schumacher acknowledged.
“Frankly, it’s a great championship [with] 17 races,” Mick Schumacher said during the midday break with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. “I’m still young, so I do want to race as much as I can, and I think the people here really live motorsports. I also like the mentality of the driver being the main part of the team and [him] driving the team forward.”
RLL fielded cars this year for Graham Rahal, Devlin DeFrancesco, and Rookie of the Year Louis Foster. They could still find a spot for Schumacher if he wants the seat. He acknowledged that before any team decision, he must decide where he wants to be in 2026.
“It’s a decision that lies with both sides, and I think obviously in this moment, I guess it’s mostly on my end because I have to figure out if I want to do [IndyCar] or not,” he said.
Schumacher doesn’t plan to test on any ovals anytime soon, but he said he would be open to it – a noteworthy statement, given his father’s comments.
Not a publicity stunt
The Mick Schumacher test wasn’t done for the sake of publicity, according to IndyCar insider Marshall Pruett.
Schumacher wanted to test an Indy Car, and according to the veteran journalist Pruett, his manager made outreaches to all the teams with available seats at the end of the season. RLL was the only organization to take Schumacher up on the inquiry, with Pruett saying, “the team is determined to pull its third car up to a state of competitiveness” and “move away from the seat-for-hire model that has made the entry irrelevant.”
Schumacher, who also is the nephew of retired F1 driver Ralf Schumacher, made 43 starts in F1 in 2021 and 2022 for Haas and competed in the World Endurance Championship for Alpine. The 2020 Formula 2 champion now has test experience at Indianapolis, and he called it great preparation for the future, adding that it was “very productive” and “pretty extensive".
He could return to Alpine, or he could make a bold move to IndyCar and chase similar success to his father in the "Racing Capital of the World”, even if it’s not in an F1 car.
Maybe, if he does, he would generate the same kind of interest as reigning IndyCar and Indy 500 champion Alex Palou.
Is Mick Schumacher’s F1 dream dead?
Maybe. Aside from F1 seats being hard to come by to begin with, with only 22 via 11 teams next season, leaps from other series, including IndyCar to F1, have really been few and far between.
While Palou has opted against making the jump to F1 after years of saying that it was his ultimate dream, Colton Herta has made the switch from IndyCar to Cadillac to become their F1 test driver while also racing in Formula 2 in 2026.
The new American-owned team opted for the experienced pairing of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez, not Schumacher. After being dropped in 2022 after two seasons at Haas, he was a reserve at Mercedes in 2023 and 2024 but did not take part in an official F1 session.
Schumacher was originally linked to Cadillac, but the new team deciding to go in a different direction doesn’t bode well for him now or in the future, frankly.
Nonetheless, the Schumacher surname is extremely valuable in racing, even if it is accompanied by pressure and expectation on Mick. The teams and sponsors could see the commercial worth in an F1 return.
Until then, the younger Schumacher, whose father has remained out of the public eye since a severe ski accident in 2013 that left him in a coma, should make the jump to IndyCar and see if he can win in open-wheel. Winning in IndyCar certainly opened the door to a conversation for Palou, who is now a four-time champion.
The 2026 IndyCar season is scheduled to begin in St Petersburg, Florida on March 1, giving the namesake plenty of time for further testing and a move that could change his long-term fortune in a race car.