After four races in the IndyCar Series, Mick Schumacher’s best result so far is an 18th-place finish in Phoenix. With 31 total points, he is last in the overall standings and also trails the other rookies. Of course, the numbers only tell half the story, as some misfortune has hit Schumacher early in his IndyCar career. He never even completed a lap at St. Pete due to be collected in an opening lap crash.
But what can we learn from Schumacher’s IndyCar lap times? He completed the full race distance at Arlington, Barber, and Phoenix, so there is plenty of data to look over.
So let’s take a look at the top 60 percent of race laps from the races in Phoenix, Arlington, and Barber to answer the question of how fast Mick Schumacher has been racing so far.
With his sensational fourth-place grid position, the son of Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher likely raised expectations a bit too high. He attributed this success to a childlike carefree attitude on the oval—after all, as the first driver in qualifying, he had nothing to lose.
In the race, he was quickly dropped back to tenth place at the start, where he then settled in. The botched pit stop due to a faulty impact wrench then knocked him out of the lead lap. While a driver is allowed to defend against being lapped by the leader, he can no longer do so against other drivers. That’s why he had to let drivers pass him time and again.
In these statistics, Schumacher finished ahead of his fellow rookies Caio Collet and Sting Ray Robb. Alex Palou and Louis Foster retired so early that they do not appear in these statistics.
Overall, Schumacher finished third from last in lap times. Given his strong qualifying performance and promising early laps, this is a slightly sobering result, even considering the fact that he was lapped.
Arlington: A missed opportunity
Schumacher was one of a few drivers in the field who were banking on a caution period. They did get one, but only at the very end of the race, when it was of no use to them. Schumacher and a few other drivers therefore pitted once more in the final laps to get fresh tires.