Mick Schumacher completed his first ever oval qualifying session this afternoon, and his IndyCar competitors are already praising his abilities behind the wheel.
After completing his two solo laps around the one-mile Phoenix Raceway as the first driver on track, the F1 veteran watched his time stand up well and found himself sitting in fourth position on the timesheets at the end of the session.
His strong showing was extra impressive considering it was his first ever qualifying attempt on an oval, and he is racing for a team that has recently struggled with short oval performance.
Other drivers immediately appreciated what the 26-year-old had done, with veteran Josef Newgarden taking time after his front row performance to admire what Schumacher and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing had accomplished.
“I thought he was shockingly good,” said the two-time champion. “Right? I mean, what do you expect, you know? This guy is like a complete foreigner to oval racing. I thought he did a great job.
“I would also just say it looked like [RLL] in general looked significantly better than they have in the past, right? I mean, I haven’t seen Graham qualify like that on an oval in a while. So I think it’s also a team comment.
“But for Mick, what a tremendous job. The race is a different story, but you know, I say this all the time. You got to be open-minded in this series.
“He could just come in and be a natural. It’s not unheard of. We’ve seen people do that where they just take to these racing conditions, but to pass his first test, I think he passed it with flying colors. Now he has a couple of other tests that he needs to pass now.”
Quick study
Even though Schumacher was wrecked on the first lap of his maiden IndyCar race last weekend, he still received accolades from the rest of the field.
With an oval race coming up so shortly after, he is having to find all his adaptability in short order to keep up with a full list of new challenges.
At the preseason test at Phoenix two weeks ago, Schumacher was 18th quick. He and his team certainly appear to have found some additional pace since then.
His team-mate Graham Rahal has been effusive of his skills since their relationship began this offseason, and offered a few more words of praise after qualifying.
“I thought Mick did just a top-tier job,” said Rahal, speaking to Fox Sports. “He’s silky smooth with his feet. Way smoother than me or Louis, so that’s a big benefit.
“Big step. We knew that short ovals, that’s the [team’s] Achilles’ heel, so it’s gotta get better.”
Schumacher will put his ability to adapt to the test even more on Saturday when he attempts to stay up front for 250 laps with the rest of the field bearing down.
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