Malukas, Schumacher Experience Different ‘Firsts’ At Day 1 of Indy Open Test

By Dennis Krause

He may not yet be a grizzled, old veteran, but David Malukas knows his way around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. But Day 1 of the Open Test for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES in preparation for the 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge provided a first for the twenty-four year-old — his first laps of the legendary oval behind the wheel for Team Penske.

Malukas’s initial impressions of driving the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet on Tuesday at the Speedway?

“Oh, she's fast. She's good” Malukas said, smiling, after turning a lap at 223.892 mph.

“I felt very comfortable first few laps. The race running at the end there, so much confidence. Let's just say I'm very excited for the 500 to come around.

“I thought it was great. There was some sitting around, trying to time when we can go out with other people and get some traffic running. But overall, I mean, it was awesome. Good first day back. It feels good to be back here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.”

Having driven for different teams at Indianapolis in the past, Malukas admits it didn’t take long to feel comfortable in one of Team Penske’s cars.

“I mean, almost instantly. I don't know. I felt so confident. It felt so good. For me it helps having an advantage having (engineer) James (Schnabel) on board. I worked with him last year at (A.J.) Foyt (Racing). We did an incredible 500 for us last season. We were able to work off of that previous setup, right?

“Went out, felt very similar to last year. Now even after today we already made some changes, some progress forward where I'm even more comfortable.

“I think that's the good thing coming into this season. We're not going off of this is a fresh start, let's see where we're going. We're going off of this is what we had last year, now we can start there, continue working, finding more potential, more progress. Makes me even that much more confident coming into this 500.”

Coming off a second-place finish in last year’s 500 for Foyt, Malukas is understandably confident heading into this year’s month of May for Penske. But he’s also well aware that the weather and other variables could easily lead him down the wrong path when it comes to dialing in the car setup.

“100%,” agreed Malukas.

“For sure, even today you start from the morning session, go to this afternoon, you can make some small little change and the car will feel completely different. In those moments, I think it depends on the team, but if you have good people around you, good engineers, it's definitely needed to stay calm and make sure that that change shouldn't have actually been that massive. It's probably not that big of a deal. I think it's probably a little bit of track change, track progression with temperature. There's no need to panic.

“Obviously for me, I feel like I'm surrounded by the best of the best when it comes to engineers and mechanics. They'll always make sure to remind me to stay calm.”

While Malukas was experiencing his first day with Team Penske at the Speedway, rookie Mick Schumacher was getting his first taste of the 2.5-mile oval, completing the Rookie Orientation Program.

“Was interesting,” said the son of 7-time Formula One World driving champion Michael Schumacher. “Obviously going through our RP at the beginning, I think it was great just to get to know the track, get to know the feelings you have driving out there.

“Overall just inching my way towards being flat, then trimming and trimming. Essentially then, yeah, we spend a lot of time in the box to try to run through some setup differences that we wanted to do and change. So yeah, now we got a lot of ties for tomorrow.”

The driver of the No. 47 ENVE Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda credited the rookie program for helping him get up to speed comfortably.

“I think in this case, personally, I probably would have done it anyways, like slowly getting in and making my way to the speed. So I didn't really feel like I needed a specific target.

“Actually when I went a bit quicker, people were a bit upset,” Schumacher allowed. “Essentially I feel like this is not a totally new experience. I mean, we had Phoenix. I did the test in St. Louis. I feel like I had a good amount of knowledge of ovals. Obviously Homestead is the closest it comes to here in some ways.

“I thought it was very straightforward, very nice for me to get going and get comfortable quickly.”

Even though Schumacher passed his test with ease, he did have a moment in Turns 3 and 4.

“Yeah, essentially I think one of those important key messages that I've been told since starting on an oval has always been whenever something doesn't feel right, come in and we'll fix it.

“For me in that instant, it just didn't feel exactly the way it should have. It felt a little light on the rear specifically. Rightfully so we came in and saw that there was an issue on the car. We got that fixed and went out again.”

While Schumacher’s oval experience is limited, at best, he noted the difference in driving the Speedway versus a short oval like Phoenix Raceway earlier this season.

“I thought, like, it was obviously interesting to drive, though I would say that a short oval personally was a lot more impressive just because in Phoenix when I drove and that new turn, turn three and four, for the first time it felt like I could nearly go a proper hard entry. That was pretty impressive.

“Here you're kind of driving in a way that you always just try and nurture it through the corner,” Schumacher explained, “be as clean as possible and stuff, but you never really feel like now I can go because everything is flat.

“Now having said this, I don't know how it's going to be once we're trimming, once we've gone through quallie power. These things are still up for me to understand and learn and see and experience.

“For now it's been very calm and very understanding. It's just building up, that knowledge, so that when we get to quallie day we're all settled and good to go.”

Schumacher’s best lap on Tuesday was 220.781 mph.

Track activity during the two-day test continues from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. ET Wednesday. The track will be open to all cars from 10 a.m.-noon and 1-5 p.m., with noon-1 p.m. reserved for Katherine Legge’s refresher test.

Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute. Follow him on X @DennisKrause500 or motorsportsminute.bluesky.social or motorsportsminute on Threads or MotorsportsMinute+ on Facebook.

Malukas, Schumacher Experience Different ‘Firsts’ At Day 1 of Indy Open Test

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