What will Mick Schumacher choose in 2025: WEC or IndyCar?

The German press writes that Audi missed the opportunity to attract extra attention to its Formula 1 project in Germany when it chose not to sign a contract for 2025 with Mick Schumacher, but with Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto.

We have already mentioned Ralf Schumacher’s opinion that his nephew has virtually no chance of returning to Formula 1. What the son of the seven-time world champion himself thinks about this is still unclear, but the publication Auto Bild listed possible options to to continue his career. in motorsport.

There are no more vacancies at the F1 teams – perhaps with the exception of Visa RB, and then only if Red Bull Racing refuses to continue the partnership with Sergio Perez and takes over Liam Lawson or Yuki Tsunoda. But Red Bull is unlikely to turn to Mick as they are interested in promoting drivers from their youth programme.

In particular, Helmut Marko has already said that Isaac Hajjar, a 20-year-old driver from France fighting for the F2 title, is already ready for Formula 1, and that he was “faster than Franco Colapinto in all the youth series. ”

However, as Auto Bild writes, Jack Duane’s contract with Alpine F1 is only for the first five races of next season, after which Flavio Briatore will have to decide whether he wants to continue working with the Australian or replace him with another driver.

At the same time, Mick Schumacher can work as a reserve driver next year, although it is not a fact that he will remain at Mercedes, where, it seems, they are ready to entrust these responsibilities to Valtteri Bottas, who fought for this. team from 2017 to 2021. This is explained by the fact that Toto Wolff is related to the company involved in the Finn’s career – therefore, the head of Mercedes F1 is directly interested in cooperation with Bottas.

Mick Schumacher has several managers and it is therefore unlikely that Briatore will bet on him, who also prefers to deal with drivers from whom he makes money himself.

But the Alpine endurance racing team is prepared to extend Mick’s contract. It is led by Bruno Famen, who is very satisfied with his drivers, who have given the Alpine Endurance Team 4th place in the WEC team rankings in the Hypercar category.

However, it is not yet a fact that Mick considers this scenario a priority, as in the WEC he has to share the cockpit of the Alpine sports prototype with two other riders, and that does not suit him entirely. According to the German publication, he is too ambitious and that is why he will choose this option at Alpine if there is nothing else.

A more likely scenario is a switch to IndyCar, where successful drivers receive the same attention as in Formula 1. Moreover, the American series is effectively a mono-class, with everyone competing in the same Dallara-built cars, which differ only in engines: most American series teams in 2025 prefer Chevrolet engines, the rest – Honda.

The result therefore depends more on the skill of the driver than in Formula 1, where teams develop and build their cars themselves. Moreover, the IndyCar paddock is less sensitive to political games because Roger Penske, the owner of the series, does not want to distract from the sporting side of things, which of course must remain the most important thing.

But there is another argument in favor of the American scenario: the Schumacher family has a ranch in Texas and Gina Maria, Mick’s older sister, is in charge of all this farming. During the season he could well have chosen this ranch as the site of his overseas deployment.

The trouble, however, is that there are no more vacancies at the leading IndyCar teams. Although at the same time they have the opportunity to act more flexibly, and they are even ready to put an additional car on the starting line if the opportunity arises to invite a promising racer from Europe.

The text on Auto Bild ends with the following sentence: “Our publication understands that the people responsible for making decisions at IndyCar would like to invite Mick Schumacher.”