Last among the full-time drivers in the standings and a best finish of 16th, Mick Schumacher‘s rookie season in IndyCar has been far from easy. For his former Haas Formula 1 team boss Guenther Steiner, this situation comes as no surprise whatsoever, because he considers the expectations for his former driver – including from Schumacher himself – to be completely exaggerated.
“Anyone who said Mick would go there and win is a dreamer,” Steiner said in an interview to Motorsport.com. “The bar is set high with the top drivers over there. And they’ve been doing this for years. You can’t just walk in there. Nobody can just walk in and sweep the board. The best have tried.”
In the view of the former Haas team boss, switching between the major motorsport categories is often trivialized by outsiders. He compares the move from Formula 1 to IndyCars with track and field disciplines: “They are motorsports, but different disciplines. It’s like the 400-meter hurdles versus the 400-meter dash. That’s just how it is. We have to see how he develops.”
High expectations and pressure
Mick Schumacher, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda
Photo by: Geoff Miller / Lumen via Getty Images
According to Steiner, a core problem behind the lack of top results in Schumacher’s debut season with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing also lies in the mental component. The public attention back home creates additional pressure for the driver himself.
“I think he’s putting too much pressure on himself right now because expectations are just so high,” added Steiner. Before the season began, Schumacher had still said he did not want to be treated like a rookie because he was not one.
The current season is “quite laborious and difficult” for the newcomer, but that lies absolutely within the expected range.
The era of Mansell and Andretti is over
Steiner elaborates: even experienced drivers do not find it exactly easy in the USA. As an example, he cites Schumacher’s Haas predecessor Romain Grosjean, who brought far more Formula 1 experience to the IndyCar Series and still has not taken a victory even in his fifth IndyCar year.
According to Steiner, a switch being crowned with absolute success right away belongs to the distant past. Although Nigel Mansell managed a little over 30 years ago, as the reigning Formula 1 world champion, to win the IndyCar title directly in his first season, those times are no longer comparable with the present. “That was a completely different era,” Steiner brushes it off.
Back then, exceptional talents like Mario Andretti were still able to win equally in sprint cars, IndyCars and Formula 1. Today, even the very best of the modern era fail because of this extreme specialization.
Fernando Alonso, Andretti Autosport Honda
Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images
“Just look at Fernando Alonso,” Steiner points to the two-time Formula 1 world champion’s attempts at the Indianapolis 500, where he sensationally failed to qualify for the race in 2019. “It’s simply difficult. The world was different 30 years ago. These are simply disciplines you have to concentrate on.”
IndyCar stars also have a hard time in Europe
Colton Herta, Cadillac Racing
Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
According to Steiner, it’s the same for American drivers trying to make the move to Europe. Even top drivers from the US scene could not just step into European formula racing and dominate there.
As an example, he names the multiple IndyCar race winner Colton Herta, who, in the course of his Formula 1 ambitions, was confronted with the hurdles of the European system and is currently stuck in 13th in Formula 2 points.
Steiner draws the comparison to the top junior class below Formula 1: “Colton Herta is struggling in Formula 2. He’s won IndyCar races. You can’t blame him for that either.” The level in the European feeder series is also simply enormously high. “The guys in Formula 2 are not bad. They’re no pushovers.”
Mick Schumacher now has the chance in the race at Elkhart Lake, on a spacious track like the ones he knows from Formula 1, to improve his record.
Translated from German
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