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Mick Schumacher is showing his adaptability once again, as he is set to expand his racing resume even further next year with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in the 2026 IndyCar season.
The son of Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher will begin his first foray into IndyCar and the American racing scene next year, alongside his new teammate, 2025 IndyCar Rookie of the Year, Louis Foster, and Graham Rahal. He will be racing with the number 47, which is an homage to his family, combining Schumacher’s favorite number and his father’s iconic 7.
After getting his first taste while testing with RLL Racing this past September at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
His performance during the test piqued the interest of the entire team, with RLL Racing co-owner, Bobby Rahal, commenting, “His test with us on the IMS road course was exceptional — he impressed every single team member. Everyone walked away from that event determined to do what we could to bring Mick into our program.”
On his own first impressions during the test, Schumacher said he was, “immediately impressed by the car and the American style of motorsport, which seems more like pure, direct racing to me, and that’s exactly the aspect I’m really looking forward to.”
Indeed, 2026 will be a year with plenty of new experiences for Schumacher to get excited for, beyond just starting in a new series. The IndyCar calendar will see him race on oval tracks for the first time in his career, with his oval debut set to happen during the second round of the season, at the Phoenix Raceway in Arizona.
“I’ve taken that decision to race in IndyCar even without having done a test on an oval racetrack,” Schumacher said on the MP Podcast with Marshall Pruett. “I know a lot of drivers have said that it's very specific, very different to whatever I've done in Europe.
“But on the other hand, I've always been very adaptable. I’ve been very easily drawn to new things and kind of loved to explore these different forms of racing. And oval racing will not be different.”
With his extensive racing career, Schumacher will certainly be ready to hit the ground running. He has been racing competitively since 2015, and holds the 2018 Formula 3 and 2020 Formula 2 Championship titles, both with Prema. After a successful junior career, he made his F1 debut in 2021, where he drove for Haas alongside Nikita Mazepin and served as a reserve driver for Ferrari. His F1 career lasted two years, both with Haas, during which his best result was a sixth place finish at the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix.
He then pivoted into the World Endurance Racing series, driving for the French outfit Alpine Endurance Team for two seasons, in 2024 and 2025. This had him going from open-wheel racing to a closed-wheel, team-centric sport which demands a very different mindset and driving style.
On the transition to WEC, Schumacher said to Motor Sport, “It’s a very different approach to F1– sometimes I still catch myself trying to be the fastest.
“It’s just about learning to take the information, process it and be able to use it right away, counterchecking with the experiences of my team-mates so I don’t go in blind – we’re trying to position ourselves with a car where we know we can last around 10 hours.”
In his first year with Alpine, Schumacher made it onto the podium with a third place finish at the 6 Hours of Fuji event. He then followed that up with two more podiums in the next season, at the 6 Hours of Imola and 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
With his varied history of both single seater and endurance racing, Schumacher will come to the IndyCar grid with both the experience and resilience that should set him up for success. He has already made multiple jumps between series, and this is just the next big leap in his career. And from there, it will be up to him to make the best of it.
Cover image courtesy of Penske Entertainment, Joe Skibinski.
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