IndyCar veterans praise Mick Schumacher for 'shockingly good' qualifying effort

Josef Newgarden is full of praise for Mick Schumacher for putting the #47 car on the second row for his oval debut

Josef Newgarden qualified second in Phoenix IndyCar qualifying, lining up alongside Penske teammate David Malukas, who earned his first career pole. But directly behind Newgarden will be a pair of RLL cars -- veteran Graham Rahal in third, and his rookie teammate Mick Schumacher alongside in fourth.

The son of Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher earned massive respect from the entire field of drivers for qualifying so high up on the grid in his oval debut.

Newgarden's word carries weight in the IndyCar scene. The 35-year-old champion is a fixture in the series and one of the best oval racers in the field.

When asked whether Mick's fourth place on his debut had surprised the competition, Newgarden replied: "I thought he was shockingly good. What do you expect? I mean, the guy is – literally – a stranger to oval racing. He did a great job."

Praise for the whole team

However, Newgarden added that it wasn't just the driver, but also the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing package that worked excellently on the day. RLL had massive problems on short ovals until last season. The third and fourth starting positions for Rahal and Schumacher is a testament to the work done by RLL in the off-season.

"I would also say that Rahal generally looked much better than in the past," added Newgarden. "I haven't seen Graham [Rahal] qualify so strongly on an oval in a long time. So that's also a compliment to the team," said Newgarden. To put it in context, the last time RLL had two cars in the top four on a short oval was two full decades ago.

Josef Newgarden, hier bei seinem Sieg beim Nashville-Finale 2025, gehört zu den angesehensten IndyCar-Fahrern

Josef Newgarden, pictured here winning the 2025 Nashville finale, is one of the most respected IndyCar drivers.

Photo: Penske Entertainment

Nevertheless, the rookie's performance remains outstanding for him: "What a tremendous achievement by Mick. The race is another story, but I say this all the time: you have to be open-minded in this series. He could just come in as a natural talent. That's not unheard of. We've seen people adapt to these conditions right away. He passed his first test with flying colors."

Favorable conditions

Of course, the Penske driver also pointed out that Schumacher, who was the first to take to the track, had a slight technical advantage due to the track conditions, as the track continued to heat up in the midday sun:

"I think, especially at the end of qualifying, you saw a significant drop in performance in the second lap for most drivers, including myself. Compared to the very early drivers, it was probably a little worse; you just weren't as consistent in the second lap."

Newgarden continued: "Mick, for example, was the first out. He was extremely consistent on both laps. With the last driver to go out on the track, you could clearly see this loss of performance on the second lap. I think that was the decisive difference today."

Rahal: He's so smooth with his feet

Teammate Graham Rahal also praised Schumacher, saying of his rookie teammate: "I think Mick did a first-class job. He's incredibly smooth with his feet, much smoother than me or Louis [Foster]. That's obviously a big advantage for him. But this is really a big step for all of us because we knew that short ovals are our Achilles' heel," said the IndyCar veteran.

But qualifying is just a small part of the challenge ahead of him. There will be 250 laps of racing and 24 other cars on track when the green flag flies on Saturday, and he will have some giants of the sport all around him. Whether he can maintain this pace in the dense traffic remains to be seen.

Translated from German