How IndyCar rookie Schumacher became RLL’s unexpected oval ace

Mick Schumacher’s rookie season in IndyCar has produced an unexpected result as the newcomer to the series closed his first adventure in oval racing as the best performer for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team.

The former Formula 1 driver arrived at RLL with no oval knowledge, but can be proud of his achievements after being the team’s only driver to complete all six oval races. Schumacher’s lifetime of road and street course experience was expected to be useful at 12 of the 18 races on the schedule, but the six ovals were the wild card where no expectations were held. That changed quickly at the first oval on the calendar at Phoenix Raceway where he qualified a remarkable fourth and continued at the Indianapolis 500 where he was the top rookie finisher in 18th and the second-best within RLL, behind only two-time Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato.

Schumacher led the team to the finish line at World Wide Technology Raceway’s one-mile oval, and did it again at Nashville Superspeedway’s 1.3-mile oval where he placed eighth – his best so far this season – to lead RLL and was second to RLL sophomore Louis Foster, the 2024 Indy NXT champion, last weekend at the Milwaukee doubleheader where Foster finished 11th and 12th, respectively, while Schumacher was nearby in 12th and 13th.

Altogether, the driver of the No. 47 Honda – who’s had five different race engineers steward his car in 2026, including RLL technical director John Hennek of late – completed the six oval races as RLL’s best driver with 97 points captured, which ranks 17th in the field. Foster earned 79 points on ovals to rank 19th, and team veteran Graham Rahal ranked 22nd with 65 points.

Schumacher’s fellow rookies Dennis Hauger at Dale Coyne Racing – the 2025 Indy NXT champion – and AJ Foyt Racing’s Caio Collet – who took second to Hauger in the NXT standings – made their IndyCar debuts with oval training gained in IndyCar’s development series, but ranked 24th (Hauger, 60 points) and 25th (Collet, 44 points) in the oval standings.

The 27-year-old German was spun from contact in the last race at Milwaukee and recovered to take 13th, which preserved his 100 percent finishing record.

“I’m really proud of the team,” Schumacher said. “The pit stops have been good and we dealt with what we had. There has been a lot of confidence built up throughout. I think the biggest one was, by far, the Indy 500, where I feel like I just learned the most. And Nashville, where there was a big step again in my progression.”

Schumacher is expected to join Meyer Shank Racing for 2027 and race the No. 66 Honda.

“So all of these obviously helped [at Milwaukee] and they will help for next year,” he continued. “Looking at the two races in a day, that was pretty tough but I’m happy that the weather held up and IndyCar managed to get us through the races [Sunday] afternoon.”