{"id":275742,"date":"2026-02-05T17:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T17:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/275742\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T17:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T17:06:12","slug":"mick-schumacher-gets-hang-of-oval-laps-in-first-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/275742\/","title":{"rendered":"Mick Schumacher Gets Hang of Oval Laps in First Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

Formula One stages the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, a road course with long, fast and sweeping corners, including one that is banked. But at its core, it\u2019s still a road course, unable to simulate the sensation Mick Schumacher would feel this week when he experienced a U.S. oval for the first time.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, the son of seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher said he found Homestead-Miami Speedway, a 1.5-mile oval, disorienting in the early part of Wednesday\u2019s test.<\/p>\n

\u201cKind of (not) knowing what side of the track I (was) on, which corner I\u2019m on and in,\u201d he said of the acclimation phase.<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t the only thing that was unique about Schumacher\u2019s experience. He admittedly found the approach to the track\u2019s first and third turns initially intimidating.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing into a corner without braking is a very new thing (for me),\u201d said the driver who spent two of his 11 professional seasons in F1. \u201cSo, the first time (through) I did have a little tap of the brake. \u2026 That was one thing I had to get used to, approaching the corner still being pretty much flat out going into the corner and then bleeding (the throttle) off (it).\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mick<\/p>\n

Driving Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing\u2019s No. 47 Honda, Schumacher (photo, above) completed 97 laps with a top speed of 194 mph.<\/p>\n

On hand to help Schumacher\u2019s transition were new RLL teammate Graham Rahal and the team\u2019s driver coach, Ryan Briscoe. Those two drivers have combined for 13 NTT INDYCAR SERIES victories, and Briscoe nearly won the season championship in 2009, atop the standings with two races to go before finishing third.<\/p>\n

Prior to the test, Briscoe took Schumacher on a 90-mph ride around the track in a minivan to offer pointers, including showing him the preferred line where Briscoe raced four times, made his series debut in 2005 and finished second in 2009. Schumacher, who has spent several days with the team at its Indianapolis headquarters, said he felt prepared \u2026 until he wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The South Florida track is notorious for wind gusts, and Schumacher had to adjust to them. Additionally, the team didn\u2019t have many track-specific notes to work from as the last INDYCAR SERIES race held there was in 2010, two years before this chassis debuted.<\/p>\n

Suffice it to say, RLL had some deciphering to do, and that tested Schumacher.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe (initial) approach and setup were very conservative,\u201d the series rookie said. \u201cWe weren\u2019t quite in the right (setup) window at that point, so everything felt a bit weird and awkward.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut as we were getting into a better spot with the car, things started to feel a bit more natural and a bit more self-explanatory. Toward the end, I felt I was in very good spot also in terms of confidence, in terms of how I was approaching the corners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schumacher conceded the early laps \u201ckind of destroyed\u201d his confidence, but then RLL helped him adjust the tools within the car.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Then) things started to add up and made more sense,\u201d he said. \u201cThen definitely everything felt as expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schumacher, who turns 27 on March 22, has considerable big-car experience on road courses, but he will certainly need to be on the fast track to learning ovals, and he knows that. He will participate with the full INDYCAR SERIES field during an Open Test Feb. 17-18 at Phoenix Raceway. He is looking forward to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very curious how it will be with the other cars on track and then feel the dirty air and the washout that we\u2019ll get from it and stuff,\u201d he said. \u201cYeah, lots to learn still, and by no means am I at the point where I can say I\u2019m very comfortable in everything, but we\u2019re chipping away at things. We\u2019re making sure we\u2019re getting ready for St. Pete now and then after that we\u2019ll worry about the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 18-race INDYCAR SERIES season begins Sunday, March 1 with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, which is held on a street circuit. The opportunity for Schumacher to experience his first oval race will come the next weekend at Phoenix. The Good Ranchers 250 is Saturday, March 7.<\/p>\n

Schumacher isn\u2019t ready to say he\u2019s set for the oval challenge, but he believes the test at Homestead-Miami was a proper first step toward that confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everything\u2019s going really well,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we\u2019re putting all the puzzles together so far already. The first day I didn\u2019t think we\u2019d be (this) far ahead of what I expected our starting point would be. We\u2019re on a good track to having everything sorted for the first race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next up for Schumacher (photo, below) is a group test Feb. 9-10 at Sebring International Raceway.<\/p>\n

\"Mick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula One stages the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, a road course with long, fast and sweeping corners,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-275742","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}