Mick Schumacher joins RLL

In a press release that was meant to come out Tuesday, but went live Monday instead, Rahal Letterman Lanigan announced that Formula One and World Endurance Championship alum Mick Schumacher will drive their renumbered #47 car in the 2026 IndyCar season.

“I think I speak for everyone at RLL when I say how thrilled we are to welcome Mick to the team and to INDYCAR,” said team co-owner Bobby Rahal. “His test with us on the IMS road course was exceptional – he impressed every single team member. Everyone walked away from that event determined to do what we could to bring Mick into our program. We’re thrilled he’s chosen to join us, and we can’t wait to get to work.”

As the son of seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher, the Swiss-born German driver arrived in that series in 2021 with extremely high expectations, thanks to both his family name and his F2 championship the year prior. However, that didn’t convert to a lot in terms of results in two years at backmarker team Haas, with his best result being 6th place at the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix. Endurance racing proved a more fruitful endeavor, as Schumacher scored three podiums in two seasons at Alpine and finished 9th place overall in this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

While ex-F1 drivers’ track record in modern IndyCar is all over the place, Schumacher will be an automatic improvement over Devlin DeFrancesco, who frankly spent 2025 driving like trash. The big goal for the year will be to become the second straight Rookie of the Year at RLL, but even if he doesn’t, Schumacher should make the Leaders’ Circle and will significantly raise the series’ profile in Germany.