Schumacher letting the nuances sink in from his first laps on IndyCar ovals

Mick Schumacher’s first laps around Phoenix Raceway’s legendary one-mile oval were completed with a healthy dose of respect.

The lifelong road racer, who reached the heights of Formula 1, recently sampled the relatively tame 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway oval to receive approval from IndyCar to continue his oval education at Phoenix and the other non-superspeedways, so he wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with the challenge.

But with its four unique corners that command an IndyCar driver’s full attention, Schumacher recognized the need to build up his speed and confidence in a progressive manner at Phoenix. Running wide open wasn’t an option; it’s lifting and working the throttle to keep an Indy car under control at the Arizona oval, and with the support from teammates Graham Rahal and Louis Foster, the rookie listened and applied their input to complete two invaluable days of running before his return for the March 7 race.

“It's obviously quite a bit shorter than what we had in Homestead, but it's been good so far,” Schumacher said. “I'm learning a lot from Graham and Louis. We're chipping away on our knowledge base and just building up whatever we need to know for the race weekend.”

Turns 1 and 2 – the old Turns 3 and 4 – have modest banking and can be navigated with plenty of speed carried in, through, and out of the corners. Turns 3 and 4 demand a different approach, with Turn 3 requiring a solid lift and settling of the car before charging away and blasting across the finish line.

Two drivers got it wrong at the Phoenix test – AJ Foyt Racing’s Caio Collet, a fellow rookie, and Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson – and met the Turn 4 wall, which only reinforced Schumacher’s education-first strategy that wasn’t always the fastest, but kept him and the No. 47 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda in motion during all three sessions.

Altogether, the 26-year-old completed 222 laps – the fifth-highest output among the 25 drivers – and was the quickest rookie, posting the 18th-fastest lap (171.096mph), which wasn’t far from RLL brethren Foster in 16th (171.705mph) and Rahal in 13th (171.984mph).

He has an entire season ahead of learning new tracks, and how to race on ovals, so there wasn’t much to take from his two days of firing around Phoenix Raceway that would predict how he’ll perform during the 250-lap race in March. But at least for a first outing where humility was chosen over bravado, there was a reason to be encouraged by what Schumacher can achieve with the No. 47 entry.

“These tracks are not to be taken on the light shoulder in any regards,” he said. “I spoke to a couple of drivers, and they all said the same – just approach it in a respectful and cautious way, because it's not a race weekend, so there's nothing to prove out here, right? So we were just learning, and then hopefully we come back prepared for the first race on an oval.”