– He looks relaxed. After two weeks of pure tension at the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” Mick Schumacher completed all 200 laps at the 2026 Indianapolis 500, became the best rookie, the first German to finish in 103 years, and left two of his three teammates behind.
Read more Russell praises new regulations — Wolff wants to «dissect with a scalpel»
For Mick Schumacher, who is not known for bursting into a racing series, this was a good performance. Criticism from fans only came for his weak first half of the race. For a long time, he was in last or second to last place – but always close to the field.
That was intentional, as he lets on. “I took it easy at the start, maybe a bit too easy. Because of that, I was overtaken on the left and right,” recalls the son of Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher.
Photo gallery: Mick Schumacher’s results in the 2026 IndyCar season
“But everyone told me that it’s such a long race and you have to stay in it. And that’s what we did. The team did a perfect job, the pit stops were perfect. The changes to the car during the race were always right for the balance and the feel of the car.”
While super-experienced drivers like Ryan Hunter-Reay, Ed Carpenter, and Josef Newgarden dropped out due to their own mistakes, Mick Schumacher stayed in the race and slowly increased his aggression. In the second half of the race, he began to make up places. The lapping battle against Felix Rosenqvist and Patricio Pato O’Ward was the highlight.
The wall contact at the penultimate restart ended any ambition to gain more ground. Schumacher takes it lightly: “Hey, how many people can say they finished the Indy 500 after touching the wall?”
“Overall, I can be satisfied. Of course, you always want to finish further up, but considering where we started and everything that happened, we can be happy with that.”
Surprisingly, Schumacher, who usually describes outstanding events like the Indy 500 or the 24 Hours of Le Mans as just another race on the calendar, shows enthusiasm for the event itself for the first time:
“Now I understand why they call the race the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. It definitely is. It’s totally crazy. It’s incredible to be a part of it and I’m just completely thrilled. There was an insane finish between Felix and David. Congratulations to both. But honestly, I’m ready to lie down for a bit and process it all.” (The race in chronology)
Read more “Couldn’t shake you off”: Hamilton-Verstappen chat goes viral
Schumacher’s teammates annoyed
Mick Schumacher beat his teammates Graham Rahal and Louis Foster. Here, frustration is the main feeling, as both were lapped. Unlike the German, they also failed to execute a lapping maneuver when it mattered. Accordingly, the mood is down, as both had very different goals than Schumacher.
“It was a disappointing day. I’m glad we could run the race, but we simply didn’t have the speed at any point today. The car didn’t feel good even in the first laps; it didn’t feel like it did on Friday at all and I don’t understand that,” says Rahal.
“I don’t understand why we are great one minute and not competitive the next. It wasn’t that it was terrible, but I just couldn’t follow the others closely enough. On Friday, I could follow very closely. This time, I couldn’t get close enough to do anything. We need to make these cars more consistent. All four of us struggled today.”
Foster adds: “It was a tough race for us. The car simply wasn’t in the window it needed to be today. Honestly, I spent the whole time out there just surviving and trying not to crash. Whenever there was a yellow phase, I tried to push and make something of it, but the car just became too oversteering and unstable. So it was a very difficult race for me.”
“But there are things we can take away from it. We finished the race, completed all the laps, and got home in one piece. I think as a team it was definitely a somewhat disappointing day, but those are the days we use to move forward as a team for next year.”
Takuma Sato saved a tenth place, which was mainly due to being on the right strategy. He also criticizes the speed of the car: “It was a tough race all around. I struggled in traffic and couldn’t really make overtaking moves, but instead lost positions. Through work on the car after the pit stops, it got better and better, but by then we had probably already lost a lot of positions.”
- Formula 1Black Sunday: Russell penalized after retirement!
- Formula 1“Couldn’t shake you off”: Hamilton-Verstappen chat goes viral
- MotoGPValentino Rossi amazes VR46 riders: “He sees things no one else sees”
- DTMWho slept worst last night: Timo Glock
“In the end, we went for the alternate strategy, which worked well, and we moved up to 8th place. But the penultimate restart was a bit messy because everything got very congested and I had to brake before the green flag was out, and I was already overtaken. So it’s a surprise that IndyCar didn’t call a jump start there.”
Read more Bagnaia fit again: Strong signal at the Misano test of the VR46 Academy
