Schumacher: Indy 500 Going To Be Highlight of the Year

By Dennis Krause

Mick Schumacher has yet to experience the Indianapolis 500 in full, but what the driver of the No. 47 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda has gone through so far has only left him wanting more.

“I guess everybody has been saying like, oh, it is a month, but it's actually just two weeks,” Schumacher said. “I was anticipating a lot more driving, but actually it's gone by really quickly. Obviously things go by very quickly when you have fun.

“So we were working a lot, we were trying different things, running a lot of different damper packages, different air configs, and really just to try to build as much data as possible, simply. I think it's been great so far. I've really enjoyed it.

“I'm very much now looking forward to the race. I think that's going to be the highlight of the year. It's such a special event and such a special race, and I just can't wait for everybody to be here.”

According to the son of 7-time Formula One World Driving Champion Michael Schumacher, the run-up to the 110th running of the 500 has met and exceeded his expectations.

“It's been great. It's been amazing to see all the fans here. I feel like they really make the event special. You can see how passionate they are for the sport, how passionate they are also to support the drivers. I think that's something that really stood out to me. I'm obviously very excited to see the whole place booming and full of crowds and go and race in front of them.”

Schumacher, who turns 28 on Friday, has already driven in many high-profile events in his racing career. He competed in Formula One with the American Haas F1 team in 2021-’22 and the FIA World Endurance Championship from 2024-’25 - neither of which he says really compares to the Indy 500.

“Obviously they're all very different, and they all have very different targets, right? Different targets in the sense like how you approach the week or the timing.

“F1 is very fast-paced because you have one race after the other,” Schumacher said, “and it's a pretty long season, so you kind of have to try to make sure you're in the right mode and stay in the right window for as long as you can.

“Then there's the whole development side of things. So you kind of really run through things with the team to kind of improve the car also throughout the year.

“Le Mans is -- it's obviously a very -- it's a long period,” Schumacher continued, “but then not only is it a long period, but then you also have a long race. Like the 24 hours is mentally very draining. I remember like after it I was pretty depleted, especially because it just feels like you don't sleep for two weeks. You're always constantly driving and day and night; your whole rhythm is shifted.

“That was a lot different here because you have these very consistent timings that you will be driving, and you have the very consistent approaches that you have to do. Obviously mentally it's also still very draining because you have the speed, you have to like analyze the car, you have to feel out little bits and pieces.

“You only have those four corners, but all the corners will have different feelings, different wind conditions, different car behaviors essentially. So to really rely on what you feel is important here.

“So I'm very curious how it's going to be in the race with the 33 cars on track. It's obviously going to be very different. Unfortunately, we're starting quite at the back of the pack, which doesn't make it easier going into turn 1.”

While qualifying didn’t go as he had hoped with a four-lap average speed of 229.450, making him officially the fastest rookie in the field, Schumacher is confident he can move up from his ninth row starting position.

“Obviously it's not ideal. It's not what we wanted,” Schumacher admitted. “I think that we're looking at the morning practice, and we kind of felt like we had more pace in the car.

“Obviously after some analysis, we know what happened, and we know what didn't go right. It's something I won't really discuss here, but it obviously cost us a couple of -- well, a tenth in speed essentially.

“Ideally we would have liked to be further up, but hey, we've got to make it work. It's a long race. It's 500 miles. We'll get there.

“I think the approach is going to be the same as always,” Schumacher continued, “like try to maximize our package, try to maximize our strategy and make sure we're on the front foot and not on the back foot. I think that's the important part.

“(Teammate) Graham (Rahal) starts close by, which will help us to kind of maybe do something together and then hopefully go through the field together.”

As the days and hours tick down to race day, Schumacher, one of four rookies in this year’s field, reflected on his experience, so far, at Indy.

“Yeah, it's a very big buildup, and now it's kind of slowing down a lot with the next three days pretty much just being media and appearances and stuff. It's obviously Sunday like going from very fast tech and going from one session to the next to kind of like slowing down and just one final practice before race day.

“It's cool, like it's a great event. You can see how many people are even turned up when it was raining, on Saturday when it was supposed to be qualifying and we didn't qualify. People were still here enjoying their time and just using the facility. It's a beautiful place. You have the golf course. You have everything here essentially, so you can spend a good time out here.

“Yeah, it's great to experience it like this, and very, very excited about the race to see -- obviously it's a sold-out event, and I think it's totally worth it.”

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.

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