F1 flop Mick Schumacher is back

Former F1 star Mick Schumacher has made his return to single-seater racing, after two seasons away.

Schumacher is the son of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, and the young German raced for Haas during the 2021 and 2022 F1 seasons.

However, Haas opted not to extend his contract at the end of the 2022 season following a year in which the young German had scored 12 points but suffered many crashes and on-track incidents.

Haas opted to replace him with the vastly more experienced Nico Hulkenberg, and Schumacher instead became a reserve driver for his father's old Mercedes team, learning from another seven-time world champion in Lewis Hamilton.

In 2024, Schumacher split that role with duties in the World Endurance Championship (WEC), where he raced for Alpine, and in 2025 that full-time seat away from single-seater racing was his only role, with Mercedes opting to have Valtteri Bottas as their reserve driver instead.

Now, as opportunities to rejoin the F1 grid have failed to materialise even with an extra team joining the sport, Schumacher has opted for a return to single-seater racing in a different series, racing in IndyCar with the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team in 2026.

And ahead of his debut race in that series in March, Schumacher has completed a private test with his new team.

Reflecting on his debut in the car, Schumacher said in quotes reported by Sky Germany: "The biggest difference to a normal racetrack is definitely that you enter a corner here without braking. For me, that was something I first had to get used to."

However, the IndyCar rookie subsequently said that he already felt 'comfortable' and saw 'no major problems.'

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Will Mick Schumacher ever return to F1?

Now 26 years of age, Schumacher was warned by Bottas not to move to IndyCar, out of fear that the German's talents would be forgotten by teams up and down the F1 grid.

At Alpine's WEC team, Schumacher felt closely linked to the F1 team, although managing director Steve Nielsen revealed last season that Schumacher was not a consideration to replace Franco Colapinto.

Schumacher was also snubbed for a move to the new Cadillac team, with the American outfit instead opting for a more experienced duo of Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, and the young German will likely find it hard to break back into F1.

Even becoming IndyCar champion might not be enough for Schumacher, although it would certainly remind everybody of the immense talent that was on show when he claimed F2 championship success back in 2020.

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