Mick Schumacher has revealed a unique challenge he faces ahead of his much-anticipated Indy 500 debut this weekend.
Schumacher will make his debut at the Brickyard this weekend, having successfully qualified for the Indy 500 with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
The German will line up 27th for the 110th running of the race, the highest placed rookie on the grid, and crucially, ahead of his far experienced teammate Graham Rahal.
Sunday will mark the second time Schumacher has raced on an oval, yet it will present new challenges, given its unique format.
Responding to a question from Motorsport Week about the nuances of driving on ovals, Schumacher explained the differences in tyre management, revealing a positive impact of understanding IndyCar.
“I think the most intuitive has been to like be as smooth as possible, just you know from coming from Europe where you have obviously look after the tyres in quite a specific way” he said.
“I feel like it really helped me here in that sense where you know it’s important to be smooth on the throttle, like all the inputs have to be smooth essentially. And I feel like that really came a long ways you know towards me in those situations.”
Understanding racing in the pack
Schumacher then revealed the difficulty of managing pace due to the unique airflow challenges caused by following another car at speeds in excess of over 220mph,
“And yeah I mean the trouble in the air is pretty tough, it’s hard to manage you know the gap and make sure that you know the car feel is good at the moment, at the right moment and and kind of time it right so that you can have a run. Obviously it’s a lot more difficult when you’re further away in the pack, so if you’re deep in the pack like you know 10 to 15, like everybody kind of just pulls each other.
But if you’re up in the ground and you have like you know first two, like the first four probably, that’s a bit more different again.
“Like you really feel the difference between having a lot of cars or fewer cars in front and the behaviour of the car.”
Schumacher looked relaxed during his media session, but remiss that his maiden Indy 500 will be spent battling up order. He faces a baptism of fire at the Brickyard.
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