Short day for Schumacher on IndyCar debut

Mick Schumacher’s IndyCar Series race debut lasted all of four corners. The Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver’s No. 47 Honda was collateral damage in the opening-lap wreck caused by Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Sting Ray Robb, who locked his brakes firing into Turn 4 and slammed into AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci.

Schumacher, on the outside of Ferrucci, was collected and saw his car ride over the back of Ferrucci’s car. Although it was capable of being repaired, Schumacher was ordered to exit the stricken car, which led to his retirement.

“I saw Santino lock up and I wasn’t aware that there was another guy on the inside locking up,” Schumacher said. “Sting Ray seemed like he went a little deep; deeper than what was supposed to be, and that led to a chain reaction, unfortunately. Our real target was to finish the race, get in all the laps that we wanted. We got even less than that, so it’s very unfortunate.”

The 26-year-old won’t have to wait long to turn the page; action resumes on Friday at the one-mile Phoenix Raceway oval.

“I’m still happy about all the knowledge we gained throughout this weekend and things we can definitely take forwards and take to Phoenix now,” he said. “I’m looking ahead, not looking back, and will try and understand what we could have done better on our end, qualifying maybe being one of them. We were blocked and we kind of lost a bit of our momentum and [the possibility of] being in a better pack maybe. Always when you’re starting in the back things end up being difficult and tough anyways, but I think this just made it extra difficult for us.”

Ferrucci was also directed to exit his car by the AMR Safety Team and retired. Robb, who was able to drive away, was assessed one of the stiffer penalties for contact in recent memory with a sports car-style 30-second stop and hold.

“I thought I would reverse this thing out of here, but the safety team jumped on a bit quicker than that and the engine was off,” Schumacher said. “The AMR [Safety Team] pulled me out right away. That is one thing I have to say, the AMR [Safety Team] is doing an awesome job, creds to them. They were there instantly, and that's really good to know and feel that you are always supported whenever something happens. We wished we could have kept going. We had a decent enough car to drive and probably drive up the field. We felt pretty confident that we were on a good strategy and were interested to see what the others were going to do. From our side, we were keen to getting this race going.

“That’s racing. It’s very unfortunate. As a team, we really needed that race to get everything sorted and not have doubts going into the next event. But hey, we’ve got 17 more races to go. It’s just the first one, it’s just the start of it, and I’m very excited for the rest of the season.”