Mick Schumacher adjusting to life in IndyCar as maiden oval test looms

 The transition into the IndyCar Series has been relatively smooth for Mick Schumacher, so far.

It will get a bit steeper on Wednesday, though, as the 26-year-old German is set for his first oval test at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The private test at the 1.5-mile oval marks the first step of what he expects to be the toughest challenge: learning how to race on ovals.

“The challenges of it being so different and trying to understand what the high lines are, what the low lines are doing, what we can do in terms of aero disruptions from the front or the back,” Schumacher said. “That's all stuff that is very new to me. But I'm very curious and interested in learning about that.”

Schumacher, who signed with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) in November, will lean on veteran teammate Graham Rahal, along with recently-signed driver coach Ryan Briscoe, in aiding his development on ovals.

To this point, Schumacher has put in a day of work on the simulator in preparation for Homestead.

“There's only so much you can do on a simulator,” Schumacher said. “It just keeps going left. There's not much you can really learn from it, bumps and all that and the way the car behaves is quite difficult to replicate. But I'll have time to get through it and understand how it feels to drive an oval.”

And settling in sooner rather than later will be important for the son of seven-time Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher, with a full-field test Feb. 17-18 at Phoenix Raceway, a 1-mile oval that will also be the site of his first oval race on March 7.

Another element Schumacher will be getting used to in his oval acclimation is having a spotter, something he dealt with during his time in Formula 1 or the FIA World Endurance Championship.

“That's going to be a challenge and new,” Schumacher said. “But I've always been a driver, I think, more than some others that loved information, so I always kind of pushed my engineers to talk to me as much as possible. I guess that's going to be pretty similar.

“I guess one of the points that I was very vocal to my team about was why don't we have a dual-way radio system where those things that your engineer or whoever needs to can reach you even if somebody is talking so I think that's something I'm quite keen on trying to figure out because we have the problem that if somebody talking to you, the other person on the team can't get a hold of you. That's something where I come from, that's very common that we have an open discussion even as we're driving. It's something we need to figure out.”

Beyond familiarizing himself with the tracks, as well as a new car that also doesn’t possess power steering, the other smaller adjustment for Schumacher, the 2020 Formula 2 champion, has been down to general details such as vocabulary, as well as metrics.

“Instead of talking about meters we're talking about feet or yards or stuff like that,” said Schumacher, who will drive a Honda-powered No. 47 entry - the same number as his F1 days with Haas.

“It's quite tough for me at the moment. We're in a transition where I'm trying to understand everything and putting everything together.”