INDIANAPOLIS — Mich Schumacher has a lot to learn as he embarks on his first season in the NTT IndyCar Series.
The son of seven-time Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher has competed in Formula 1 and in the World Endurance Championship, but has joined Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing during the offseason and will run his first Indy car race next month at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
He’s had limited testing time at this point with a session at Sebring Int’l Raceway looming in the coming weeks.
“The adjustment has been fine. It’s really just about putting the dots together,” Schumacher explained. “I think it’s mostly vocabulary at the moment, where it’s been very different. Metrics have been quite different, as well. Instead of talking about meters we’re talking about feet or yards or stuff like that. It’s quite tough for me at the moment.
“We’re in a transition where I’m trying to understand everything and putting everything together. The team has been great in helping me doing those things and helping me along the way, finally putting the team together with Mike, as well, and the engineering group is great.
The car guys are amazing, so I think we’re all in a pretty good place to start off the season on the correct foot hopefully.”
Schumacher makes no bones about what his biggest challenge will be in the IndyCar Series.
“Oval racing,” he said during IndyCar content days. “The challenges of it being so different and trying to understand what the high lines are, what the low lines are doing, what we can do in terms of aero disruptions from the front or the back. That’s all stuff that is very new to me.
“But I’m very curious and interested in learning about that. The good thing is we have Graham on board, who has done a couple of these races in his lifetime, and therefore I can learn very much from him.”
Schumacher will test at Homestead-Miami Speedway before his first oval race, which will come at Phoenix Raceway.
“I think in many case, I have the Homestead test before Phoenix,” he said. “So I will have a first understanding of what an oval is like to drive, even though it’s going to be a low one I’ll still have that experience beforehand, and then Phoenix is going to be great because it’ll be with everybody out on track, so I’ll get that understanding for how it is to drive in dirty air, for example.”
Schumacher believes he’s a much mature racer than when he began his Formula 1 career.
“I’ve aged since then. I’ve gotten a lot older. I feel like I’m in a much more grown-up place in some ways,” he said. “Maybe the excitement is still there, but it’s in a different way. It’s maybe less excitement of yeah, I’m all for it, and it’s more about a structured approach to it. I’m very excited about getting going, but I’m excited to also build a team around me and build my experiences.
“Basically I’m going into the season knowing much more of what I want and how I want things to be, and I’m much more straightforward about that. So that’s, I guess, very different to how my first year in F1 was, for example.
“Therefore, yeah, the season I’m sure is going to be very different.”
