October did not start with a bang, but it is not a case that nothing happened. Cars were on track to open the month! Whether it leads to any race seats for 2026 remains a question, but we start with some news from last Friday that was released after we covered the previous week in silly season.
Mick Schumacher to Test for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Last Friday, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing announced Mick Schumacher would participate for the team in an evaluation test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on Monday October 13.
Schumacher currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship driving for Alpine in the Hypercar class. Schumacher has a pair of third-place finishes this season at Imola and Spa-Francorchamps. He and his co-drivers Jules Gounon and Frédéric Makowiecki are 16th in the championship with one round remaining from Bahrain next month. This is Schumacher’s second season with the Alpine program.
Prior to his time in WEC, Schumacher spent the 2021 and 2022 seasons in Formula One driving for Haas. His best finish was sixth in the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix.
Mid-Ohio Evaluation Test
On Wednesday October 1, five drivers competed in a private test from Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in evaluation runs.
Felipe Nasr led the testing driving for Team Penske with a lap at 65.715 seasons, ahead of fellow Brazilian Caio Collet, who was driving for A.J. Foyt Racing and ran a lap at 65.861 seconds. Dennis Hauger was third as Hauger was able to use the test to begin acclimation to his 2026 race seat with Dale Coyne Racing. Hauger’s best lap was run at 68.232 seconds.
Chip Ganassi Racing had Niels Koolen fourth (66.649 seconds) and Meyer Shank Racing had Kakunoshin Ohta in fifth (66.850 seconds).
Nasr competes for the the Porsche Penske program in IMSA while Collet and Koolen were in Indy Lights in 2025. Ohta competes full-time in the Super Formula and Super GT championships, but the Japanese driver has run for MSR’s Acura program in IMSA this season.
More Testing to Come
Along with Schumacher testing for RLLR at the IMS road course on October 13, Andretti Global is believed to be running an evaluation test for Lochie Hughes. Hughes was third in the 2025 Indy Lights season driving for the Andretti program.
It is believed Arrow McLaren will run an evaluation test at the end of the month for Enzo Fittipaldi at Sebring. Enzo, the brother of recent IndyCar driver Pietro Fittipaldi, has spent 2025 competing in the LMP2 class in the European Le Mans Series. Prior to that, he spent three seasons in Formula Two where he won two races.
It is believed Fittipaldi will be competing in Indy Lights next year with HMD Motorsports.
Though official details have yet to be finalized, tests on the oval at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and at Gateway are expected to be held this month.
How Do We Feel About This Week?
Evaluation tests are a mixed bag. Some lead to nothing. Some lead to something. You cannot take them that seriously, but they are notable.
When it comes to Schumacher at RLLR, it feels a little surreal. For starters, it is the son whose father who publicly never regarded IndyCar and oval racing highly. The words of Michael Schumacher also came almost 25 years ago when American open-wheel racing was fractured and it was not at its highest. Mick Schumacher has also expressed a longing for single-seater racing, and there are only a few top series where you compete. He did Formula One and no one is calling him back. Other than IndyCar, the other option is Super Formula in Japan, a series where almost all the drivers pair with another whether that be Super GT or another sports car division because it is only eight weekends a year.
The Schumacher family has long had property in Texas. The United States is not so foreign to Mick. There are not many options out there, and RLLR is probably the best of the remaining options. He is going to get a taste and then we will find out if he wants more, if he can afford to do more considering RLLR will likely need some funding, and we will progress from there. An IndyCar is far different from a Formula One car. Nico Hülkenberg tested for Arrow McLaren four years ago, and one of the reasons it didn’t go anywhere is because Hülkenberg found the car physically more demanding to drive while also not wanting to race on ovals.
Schumacher might feel the same way after this test. If he thinks it is not for him, it is fine if he decides to decline any further opportunity, but if he wants to take on more, he at least has a foot in the door.
Besides Hauger, the two drivers of note from the Mid-Ohio test are Collet and Ohta.
Collet is believed to be auditioning for that Foyt seat, and to put up a respectable time without getting into an accident is a good first impression. It feels like this could check the box and Foyt has its second driver set for 2026.
Ohta had been long-rumored to be set for an IndyCar test at some point this year. The more interesting thing about Ohta is how invested Honda is in this opportunity. Ohta will not be on the grid full-time in 2026, but IndyCar and Honda do not have a contract for the 2027 season. I cannot imagine Ohta is preparing for a possible 2027 seat if Honda is not involved in the series. This doesn’t mean it is all but confirmed that Honda is remaining in IndyCar for the near-future, but if it wasn’t interested, I don’t think Ohta has this test.
As for Nasr and Koolen, this wasn’t Nasr first IndyCar test nor his first test with Team Penske. Nasr has potential to run an IndyCar, but Team Penske has just signed David Malukas, Scott McLaughlin signed a contract extension ahead of last season, and while Josef Newgarden has been in a rut for the last two years, I don’t think Penske is going to move on from Newgarden after 2026. Nasr is there to keep Newgarden honest, but I don’t think we are going to see the Brazilian change categories anytime soon.
Koolen made a big improvement from 2024 to 2025 in Indy Lights, but he still has a long way to go, and Ganassi is taking advantage of testing one of its Indy Lights drivers. It doesn’t mean much at this time.
What is to Come?
Besides these tests, we wait for the same three seats at RLLR, DCR and Juncos Hollinger Racing to be filled.
I am sure something else will come up to keep us occupied.
