Schumacher Prepares For Indy Car Test

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By Marshall Pruitt

Mick Schumacher’s first IndyCar Series test takes place on Monday with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. To prepare for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course run, the ex-Formula 1 driver will spend the coming days on RLL’s shop floor getting to know the Dallara DW12-Honda he’ll pilot along with onboarding information inside RLL’s engineering offices, and turn virtual laps at Honda Racing Corporation US’s driver-in-the-loop simulator.

“Mick’s coming in tomorrow and from eight to noon he’ll do the seat fit at our shop, then we’re headed with him to the simulator, the DIL, from one to five,” RLL president Jay Frye told RACER. “We’ll take our engineers and spend the afternoon there and get him a head start on what’s coming on Monday. Then he’ll come back and visit us on Saturday, we’ll look more over on the car, go through more of the chassis side and the vehicle dynamics with our engineers, and get everything loaded up and ready to go for Monday morning.”

The German holds a serious interest in IndyCar, and in response, the team owned by Bobby Rahal, David Letterman, and Mike Lanigan has marshaled the resources to give Schumacher all of the pre-test support an elite driver would want while evaluating a new series.

“Everybody here is excited to have Mick coming in to test with us, and Honda’s been a big part of that, too,” Frye said. “Their DIL was shut down for doing some servicing and maintenance, and they accelerated the whole process to make sure to get Mick in for some sim time. Huge thank you to Honda for making that happen.”

Schumacher will also have support from Louis Foster, RLL’s IndyCar Rookie of the Year, who’ll spend Monday in a supporting role. RLL’s Graham Rahal also hopes to be in attendance, but with he and his wife Courtney on baby watch, family duties could come first.

“Louis is going to be there to help answer anything Mick might want to know and Graham really wants to be there, but they’ve got a baby that’s almost here so he’ll have to play that one by ear,” Frye said. “But Mick won’t be short of people to get him into our world and comfortable for Monday. It’s an important day for all of us.”