Mick Schumacher wants to rewrite his story. It’s a saddeningly familiar one in sports: second-generation star, enveloped by the shadow of his father’s success, fighting to establish himself as worthy of respect and opportunity.
The son of all-time Formula 1 great Michael Schumacher had his own time in F1, two years spent with Haas F1 — the second-worst team on the grid while he was there — and with no significant results in hand, fell out of the series where his father made the family name.
At 26, Mick is young enough to take another shot at making it to the top, but F1 has moved on in the three years since his last start. Newer challengers have arrived and signed on as test and development drivers; Schumacher, the 2020 Formula 2 champion, has been relegated to the sidelines.
He’s staying busy doing F1 simulator work for Mercedes and racing sports cars for Alpine in the FIA World Endurance Championship, but it’s akin to being a former starting quarterback who’s stuck on the sidelines in a backup role. After contesting 43 F1 races in 2021 and 2022, Schumacher is missing the fulfillment of open-wheel competition, and with F1 out of the picture, he’s turned his attention to the United States and the IndyCar Series.
An exploratory test on Oct. 13 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course gave Schumacher a taste of IndyCar’s heavier and unapologetically physical formula. The cars are identical in almost every way, which provides the closest thing to parity and equal opportunity for success, and don’t have power steering — things that aren’t found in F1 — which made wrangling nearly 5,000 pounds of downforce through the steering wheel a crucible to survive.
Schumacher was instantly fast at IMS and unfazed by the muscular driving demands exacted by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s No. 75 Dallara DW12-Honda.
“I think that’s what you want from a race car, like full push and go for it,” said Schumacher, who impressed RLL. “So yeah, it’s positive. I think the preparation that I’ve gone through has been really preparing me for that, and I’m happy to have the ability to work with the team.”
He was joined at the test by his mother and brother-in-law, who spent an exceptional amount of time with RLL’s leadership group. The presence of Corinna Schumacher was telling; with her son considering a significant redirection in life, she wanted to meet and assess the people who were presenting the opportunity. Caring for husband Michael, who suffered a traumatic brain injury while skiing in 2013, has been her primary focus along with raising Mick and his sister Gina, and with her son’s newfound interest in IndyCar, she kept a watchful eye on the team and test.
If Mick chooses to relocate and relaunch himself as an IndyCar driver with RLL, he’ll be surrounded by an organization that’s made by multi-generational talent.
Three-time IndyCar champion and 1986 Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal originally formed his own team in 1992 with Carl Hogan and reimagined RLL in the years that followed with friend and television legend David Letterman along with Chicago business maven Mike Lanigan. Bobby Rahal’s father, Mike, an amateur racer in the Midwest, inspired his son to pursue the sport, and with Bobby’s retirement in 1998, it wasn’t long before his eldest son, Graham, was working his way up the open-wheel ladder to IndyCar.
The junior Rahal, whose 37th birthday arrives in January, just completed his 19th year in IndyCar — the past 13 with RLL — and, like Mick with F1, Graham had two formative seasons in IndyCar before his career stalled.
Bouncing between one-off drives and part-time opportunities, Rahal spent two years chasing something solid to reestablish his career, and in 2011, he landed with Chip Ganassi Racing. By 2013, the door opened to join RLL, where he’s won six races and placed as high as fourth in the championship.
Similar to what Schumacher is seeking, RLL is chasing the same spark after its presence among championship-contending teams went sideways in recent years. It’s here where the potential lineup of Schumacher, Rahal and RLL’s new Rookie of the Year Louis Foster would give the team a proper chance to rediscover its edge.
“Mick, in his brief time with us, he was incredibly humble, incredibly down to earth, very grounded,” Graham Rahal told ESPN. “Everyone raved about his mother and the family just being amazing people. If you think of a family that’s seen the highest of highs, worldwide fame at a time when, really, Michael Schumacher was synonymous with Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and that was probably it, and all they’ve had to deal with from the injury, and to see where the family is today, it just shows you they’re exceptional people.”
Graham Rahal loves the idea of a racing union between the Schumachers and Rahals, but for the simplest of reasons.
“Mick’s a racer, and Formula 1 is great if you want to be a politician, but I’m not so sure that Formula 1 is great if you want to be a pure racer,” he added. “Look at Max Verstappen. He’s a pure racer, and you can see his frustration all the time, even when he’s at the mountaintop, dealing with the nonstop bull. IndyCar is the opposite.
“If you want to be a racer, IndyCar racing is where you go. The money’s not here like it is in Formula 1, of course, but I think that’s what attracts these young guys to come over here and not be limited by the chassis you have or the engine and however it’s doing that year. I would love nothing more than to see Mick run with us and for us to be able to help him and give him new life in his career.
“Put the name aside; the kid can drive, he can perform. There’s no deal or anything to my knowledge, yet, so that’s on him to decide. He’s shown us to be a tremendous young man, despite dealing with all the pressures he’s grown up with. By a much smaller amount, I understand the difficulties in having my last name at my level, which is certainly not with the last name of Schumacher. And so to be as humble as he is and as quick as he is, that’s just extremely impressive.”
Oval racing would be the biggest learning curve for Schumacher to clear if he signs with RLL.
“If you’re a good racer, you’re going to be fine on an oval,” Rahal said. “Going the other way is the harder way. You can’t take a good oval racer and make them a great road racer. You’ve got to have a big touch of bravery, and for all he’s accomplished so far, you don’t get to where he’s gotten without bravery. If you’re a damn good wheelman, you’re gonna be a damn good wheelman on an oval. Feel is feel. And I’m sure that Mick can jump in and do the job. I have zero concern.”
RLL president Jay Frye, who organized the test for Schumacher, is anxious to learn of Mick’s decision.
“Sometimes things just feel right, and this has got potential to be really good,” Frye said. “This starts with our ownership with Bobby and Dave and Mike; they’re 100% behind making this team the best it can be, and then you bring in Mick and he’s a great kid, but very serious about his craft.
“And even from the team perspective, you could tell he clicked right away. When he got out of the car, he went around and shook all the team members’ hands. You could tell there was a definite connection amongst them already. That’s pretty cool to see.
“My wife and I got together with Mick and his mom and family for dinner, and it was like they were old friends of ours right away. It was remarkable. How many times does that happen in your lifetime? Then we did a debrief over Zoom a couple of days later and he gave great feedback to our engineers; we learned a lot of good things. So overall, it couldn’t have been a more positive experience, and we’ll see where it leads.”
