Schumacher to Indycar – Mick Schumacher has been out of Formula One now for three seasons. He debuted with Haas F1 in 2021 alongside Russian driver Nikita Maxepin. Yet the season was a disaster for the American owned team as neither driver were able to score a single point.

Come 2022 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine saw the son of a Russian oligarch banned from competing in international sporting competition and so Haas recalled their previous driver Kevin Magnussen.

This recruitment appeared to rejuvenate the team, with the Danish driver early scoring points in Bahrain with a strong fifth place finish and Magnussen was in the points again next time out in Saudi Arabia and in round four at the Emilia-Romagne Grand Prix.

 

 

 

Mick the new ‘crashtor’

Yet it was mid-season before both Haas F1 cars finished in the top ten, with Mick Schumacher scoring his first F1 points of his career at the British Grand Prix. All this was to play out against a background of the Haas F1 team boss, Guenther Steiner, being publicly critical of Schumacher in particular for a late race crash with Sebastian Vettel at the Miami Grand Prix.

Schumacher’s tenure at Haas was littered with high and costly crashes, but Steiner initially explained this was not the only factor in his dismissal from the team. “It’s part of it,” admitted the Italian, “but you cannot just say, ‘Oh, he crashed’, obviously, which wasn’t good.”

However, Steiner was highly critical of Schumacher in his subsequent book and on the Netflix series “Drive to Survive.” In the book, the Haas boss details a difficult year for the team with Schumacher, dominated by  inconsistency, poor decision making and the German’s ability to handle pressure.

Whilst not a full frontal attack, there is a clear sense of frustration Steiner had felt with the apparent lack of progress Mick was showing in his driving. Steiner also  enjoyed a very public spat with Mick’s uncle Ralf who is an F1 pundit. Ralf would attack the Haas F1 boss whenever he spoke negatively about his driver and his many crashes. In his book Steiner revealed he wanted “Ralf’s blood” during the height of their conflict in 2022.

Alonso gone

 

 

 

Schumacher wants more than 8 races

Since the dismissal of Steiner from Haas, he claims he and Ralf have buried the hatchet. Yet the public debate about Mick Schumacher’s performance during his years at Haas, appears to have done him no favours as he presses for a return to F1.

Now Mick is competing for Alpine in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) and was linked with a move to Williams which was eventually filled by Carlos Sainz. Schumacher recently told Munich publication TZ that, “I think I’m too young in some ways to only drive eight races,” referring to the WEC calendar.

The son of German legend Michael has been linked this season with the incoming Cadillac F1 team for 2026, but hopes are fading this will happen for Mick, as Cadillac appear to be heading towards signing multiple Grand Prix winners in Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas.

Speaking at the Canadian Grand Prix, 1997 F1 champion Jacques Vileneuve who clashed regularly on track with Mick’s father now doubts Mick will succeed in finding a way back into Formula One.

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No way back to F1

“It seems that no team wants Mick Schumacher,” said the Canadian. “Mick and his team have made a push, but no one seems to be rushing to get him on their team.”Villeneuve now 53, believes the very public and sustained criticism of Schumacher by his old boss Guenther Steiner is  a major hurdle for the young German to overcome.

“That’s worrying for the teams,” he said. “Do they want to take the risk of hoping that Mick is better than he was? At the moment it doesn’t look like that.”

Mick ruled out a move to Indycar last year following speculation he had been in talks with one of the smaller teams in the North American open wheel racing series. “I have never spoken to any Indycar team,” he said. “I don’t know where that rumour comes from. I’m not thinking about it right now because it’s not my goal. My goal has always been Formula 1 and it will always remain Formula 1.”

Yet with hopes fading of an F1 return fading and limited racing in the WEC series, there is again talk of Schumacher crossing the pond and racing in America. In the run up to the Hungarian Grand Prix, uncle Ralf Schumacher dismissed the suggestion of his nephew making the transition to Indycar.

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Ralf rules out Indycar

“That would not be an option for me,” the former Williams F1 is reported as saying by Der Westen.“Indycar has always been very dangerous for me. Hats off to what the guys are doing there. But when compared to Formula 1, it’s always clear that the level isn’t the same.” A number of drivers have made the move from F1 to Indycar, with Sweden’s Marcus Ericson doing so in 2020 having driven for Caterham and Sauber between 2014-2018.

Following a rookie season in the USA for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Ericson was picked up by front running outfit Chip Ganassi Racing, going on to prove his worth by winning the blue ribbon Indy500 event in 2022 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

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Ericson role model for Mick

Whilst the Swedish driver was in F1 for three seasons longer than Mick, he did spend his time driving back of the pack cars like Haas F1. With no top seat open to Ericson, he has made a success of a career in Indycar, although his current season hasn’t worked out so well as he sits 20th in the driver standings.

Indycar is a very different challenge to F1, with races taking part on both large and small oval circuits, along with street and road courses too. For F1 drivers making the transition it is the oval racing which is the toughest to master, although as Ericson proved this is not impossible having won the “greatest spectacle in motor racing” on the biggest oval of them all.

Mick will have been out of F1 for three seasons come the end of this year and few drivers ever return to the sport after such a lengthy time out. Indycar currently has sixteen rounds of racing on its 2025 schedule, which would prove Mick with more than the eight races he is getting in the WEC. The fact that his uncle Ralf is publicly discussing the Indycar option, would appear to suggest its a possibility for Mick Schumacher.

 

Would Michael have backed an American adventure?

When it comes to Mick Schumacher’s future, speculation inevitably turns to the man whose name still echoes through every Formula 1 paddock—his father, Michael. A titan of the sport and embodiment of F1 obsession, Michael’s legacy was forged in a world where IndyCar wasn’t even on the radar. For him, Formula 1 was not merely the top rung of the motorsport ladder, it was the ladder.

So would he have endorsed his son trading Eau Rouge for Iowa, or Copse for Carb Day? That’s where things get tricky. Michael was fiercely competitive but also pragmatic. He knew the value of staying race-sharp, having made his own return to F1 in 2010 after years out. That comeback laid foundations for Mercedes’ eventual dominance. Had he faced a closed F1 door in his prime, would he have taken a detour via the States? Unlikely. But for Mick, the equation is different.

A legacy re-routed or reborn?

The Schumacher name still commands attention, but Mick’s F1 prospects are now hanging by a thread. With Cadillac offering perhaps the last realistic entry point for 2026, and even that being contested, it’s easy to see why an IndyCar shift might start to look like less of a Plan B and more of a survival strategy.

Would Michael approve? Perhaps not publicly. But privately, it’s not hard to imagine a nod of understanding from a father who knew better than most that in racing, momentum is everything. Waiting on the sidelines for another year might preserve dignity, but racing in front of 300,000 fans at the Indy 500 might just resurrect a career.

So the question isn’t whether IndyCar is good enough for a Schumacher. The real question is whether Formula 1 still is.

 

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