Steiner: Mick is putting himself under too much pressure.

      Half of Mick Schumacher's debut season in IndyCar is behind him, but his performance has been frankly poor: he currently ranks 25th in the series standings – the last among drivers who have participated in all stages of the overseas championship. There was hope that he could stand out this weekend at the Road America track in Wisconsin, especially since Mick was quite positive before the start of the practice sessions, but he only managed to qualify 23rd. The fact that he moved up one position higher than Louis Foster, his teammate at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, is hardly a consolation. However, the race is still ahead.

      According to Guenther Steiner, the former team principal of Haas, for which Mick raced in Formula 1, such results should not be surprising. "Anyone who said Mick would come into this series and start winning right away is just a dreamer," Steiner said in an interview with Motorsport.com. "The bar in IndyCar is set high; it features top-class drivers who have been doing this for many years. No one can just debut in IndyCar and achieve success immediately. Some have tried, and they were good professionals.

      Formula 1 and IndyCar are different types of motorsport, different disciplines. It's like comparing a 400-meter hurdle race with a regular sprint at that distance. That's how it is, but let's see how Mick progresses. In my opinion, he is currently putting himself under too much pressure simply because the expectations are very high."

      Steiner reminded that another former Formula 1 driver, Romain Grosjean, also had a tough time, even though he had much more experience (179 Grand Prix starts compared to Schumacher's 43). The French driver debuted in IndyCar in 2022 and is now in his fourth full season (last year he was a reserve driver for Prema), but he has yet to win a race.

      Of course, history has other examples: in 1992, Nigel Mansell won the title in Formula 1, and the following year became the champion of Champ Car (the series was called that at the time), but Steiner noted that these were different eras and should not be compared: "It was a completely different era. 30 years ago, the world was different. Right now, you just need to focus on one specific discipline... For example, Colton Herta has difficulties in Formula 2, even though he has won races in IndyCar. But it would be wrong to blame him for that, as there are very good drivers in F2, and one cannot expect easy success."