Mick Schumacher has his target for the 2027 IndyCar season, and Mike Shank isn’t setting the bar particularly low.
Speaking to Joey Barnes about his expectations for Schumacher following his rookie campaign, Shank made it clear that the grace period is over.
“You had your freshman year. It needs to be in the top 10 going forward now, and that’s what we’re targeting.”
It’s a straightforward expectation. The bigger question is whether a top-10 championship finish is a reasonable target for a Meyer Shank Racing driver. Because there is an important distinction between expecting Schumacher to regularly finish races inside the top 10 and expecting him to finish the season inside the top 10.
The former feels like a perfectly reasonable progression. The latter could be considerably more difficult.
MSR’s Own Results Show How High That Bar Is
Felix Rosenqvist finished ninth in the championship, proving that an MSR car can get into that territory.
But Marcus Armstrong finished only 14th. That makes Rosenqvist’s ninth-place season an interesting benchmark rather than necessarily the baseline Schumacher should immediately be expected to match. Rosenqvist is also a particularly difficult driver to use as a measuring stick because of how dramatically his weekends can fluctuate. At his best, he can fight near the front. At his worst, he can disappear down the order or undermine a strong weekend with a mistake.
His oval performances have historically illustrated that perfectly: qualify exceptionally well, begin slipping backward and sometimes end the day with an incident. Even beyond the ovals, there have been plenty of weekends where the underlying speed was there before a spin or another mistake erased the result. That isn’t necessarily the profile of an elite championship contender in the same category as Álex Palou, Pato O’Ward, Kyle Kirkwood or Christian Lundgaard. But Rosenqvist is still a very good IndyCar driver, and getting MSR’s car to ninth in the championship shouldn’t automatically mean a second-year Schumacher ought to do the same.
If anything, Rosenqvist showed what is possible when enough of those weekends come together.
The Math of a Top 10 Gets Difficult Very Quickly
There is another problem with simply saying Schumacher needs to finish inside the top 10: there are only 10 positions available.
Look around the expected contenders. There should be two competitive Ganassi cars, three Penske cars, three Andretti cars and at least two, potentially three, competitive McLaren cars. That’s already 10 or 11 seats before MSR even enters the conversation.
And those cars are occupied by drivers with considerably more IndyCar experience while generally sitting in equipment expected to be better than MSR’s. For Schumacher to finish inside the championship top 10, he isn’t merely being asked to improve upon his rookie season. He would potentially need to displace at least one driver from that established group. That’s possible. It shouldn’t be treated as easy.
Will Power improving, Alexander Rossi showing pace toward the end of the year and the rest of the field continuing to develop only make that battle more crowded. There is nothing wrong with MSR establishing an ambitious internal target. Teams aren’t supposed to enter a season aspiring to finish 14th. But there is a difference between setting a goal and deciding anything short of that goal represents failure.
A season containing regular top-10 finishes and increasingly frequent podium contention could demonstrate substantial progress even if Schumacher ultimately finishes 11th or 12th in the championship.
What About Marcus Armstrong?
Shank’s comments also inevitably raise another question: what exactly is expected from Marcus Armstrong?
Armstrong finished 14th while Rosenqvist finished ninth. If Schumacher’s rookie season is now behind him and a top-10 championship position becomes the expectation in Year 2, there should presumably be significant pressure on Armstrong as well. Some might set Armstrong’s target even higher and say he needs to win a race. But that might be another case of getting ahead of the more important intermediate step.
Before making victory the requirement, regularly putting the car into podium contention would be meaningful progress. Armstrong had an opportunity at Road America, although circumstances involving Rosenqvist and Palou helped put him into that position. He also suffered some genuine bad luck, including the timing of his engine failure there. Speed hasn’t necessarily been the entire problem. Turning that speed into repeated results has been.
Armstrong has two podiums to show for his opportunities so far. At some point, potential has to become production. That makes 2027 potentially revealing for both sides of the MSR garage.
If Schumacher beats Armstrong and neither driver finishes inside the top 10, it would be difficult to argue that Schumacher alone failed to meet expectations. The questions would instead shift toward Armstrong and MSR itself.
Schumacher Can’t Be Asked to Fix Everything Himself
That is perhaps the most important part of Shank’s target.
Schumacher absolutely should be expected to improve. His rookie year is over. He’ll have experience at the tracks, experience with the car and a much better understanding of what IndyCar demands. The expectations naturally have to rise with that. But MSR has to improve with him.
A top-10 championship expectation can’t simply be placed on Schumacher’s shoulders when the team’s other car just finished 14th. If MSR provides a car consistently capable of fighting in that range, then Schumacher should increasingly be expected to put it there. If the team’s overall performance remains closer to Armstrong’s 14th-place season than Rosenqvist’s ninth, evaluating Schumacher solely against a top-10 championship target becomes much more complicated. There is also reason for some optimism about Schumacher’s oval potential. Strong qualifying performances can provide a foundation, but qualifying speed isn’t enough. The next challenge is becoming comfortable enough in traffic to turn starting position into race results.
And ultimately, that’s probably the fairest way to judge his second IndyCar season. Not simply by drawing a line underneath 10th place in the standings, but by asking whether the flashes of speed become consistent top-10 finishes, whether those top 10s become podium opportunities, and whether Schumacher starts maximizing the weekends when MSR gives him the machinery to do it. Shank has established the destination.
Now 2027 will tell us whether Schumacher — and MSR — are actually ready to get there.