IndyCar Sebring check: Alex Palou tops the pace charts on Day 1

Virtually all IndyCar groups are visiting Sebring Worldwide Raceway in Florida this week. The standard concrete monitor with its quite a few bumps has been utilized by groups within the high US open-wheel division for many years to organize for the street and avenue races of the upcoming season.

This can be a two-day check, with the sector divided into two teams on each days. Group 1 drove on Monday morning and also will drive on Tuesday afternoon. Group 2 took to the monitor on Monday afternoon and also will drive on Tuesday morning, with a complete of 23 vehicles recording a lap.

Palou nonetheless leads the pack

One of many causes for dividing the sector into two teams is that your complete Sebring format is not going to be used, however moderately the quick 2.7-kilometer circuit, as is customary for IndyCar winter testing. This model of the monitor solely contains turns 4 to 13 of the entire format (6.0 kilometers with 17 turns) and has a short lived, divided pit lane.

The quickest time of the day was set in Group 1 by four-time and reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou (Ganassi-Honda) with a lap time of 52.626 seconds.

Second quickest on Monday was Felix Rosenqvist (Shank-Honda), adopted by Rinus VeeKay, who was getting used to his new journey at Juncos Hollinger Racing. Fourth quickest was two-time IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden (Penske-Chevrolet).

Marcus Armstrong, who was the quickest in Group 2, accomplished the highest 5 on the primary day. When Group 2 took to the monitor within the afternoon, it was considerably hotter than within the morning, with an air temperature of as much as 24 levels Celsius.

Mick Schumacher working in direction of season-opener

Among the many three rookies – Caio Collet, Dennis Hauger, and Mick Schumacher – reigning Indy NXT champion Hauger was the quickest for Dale Coyne Racing. The Norwegian went out in Group 2 and completed the day in P18 with a time of 53.413 seconds, simply forward of Collett, who drives for A.J. Foyt Racing.

Mick Schumacher takes to the monitor at Sebring for the primary time

Picture: Michael L. Levitt / Lumen by way of Getty Pictures

Schumacher, who drove in Group 1 like Collet, completed twenty third within the day’s outcomes with a time of 54.269 seconds. Nonetheless, his lap time just isn’t the primary focus of this check. “The primary purpose we’re doing this check is to organize for St. Pete,” Schumacher mentioned in an interview with Motorsport-Complete.com on the monitor.

“St. Pete is what we’re all about,” mentioned the IndyCar rookie, who drives for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL), referring to the season opener on March 1 on the road circuit in St. Petersburg, Florida. In keeping with Schumacher, the “quick course” in Sebring that’s being pushed this week has “just a few corners which are similar to these in St. Pete.”

“That is why,” mentioned Schumacher, “this can be a good place to work on precisely that. And that is precisely what we’re specializing in. For us, it is merely a matter of ticking just a few issues off our guidelines earlier than the primary race,” mentioned the German.

The Sebring check is Schumacher’s second circuit check after his IndyCar check debut on October 13, 2025, on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Aside from that , he accomplished his first oval check final week at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

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Romain Grosjean exams for Dale Coyne Racing

Whereas Schumacher, Hauger, and Collet drove their first IndyCar laps on the Sebring circuit on Monday, Romain Grosjean made his comeback. The Swiss-born Frenchman was again in an IndyCar for the primary time because the 2024 season finale, driving his former employer Dale Coyne Racing’s automotive with the quantity 18.

Romain Grosjean

Romain Grosjean exams for Dale Coyne Racing – will he additionally race?

Picture: Michael L. Levitt / Lumen by way of Getty Pictures

The truth that Grosjean is within the cockpit on the Sebring check might imply we may see him on the grid this yr, however he isn’t the one driver hoping to race as Hauger’s teammate in 2026. A call on whether or not Grosjean will race for DCR and, in that case, which races, remains to be pending.

Grosjean drove his final IndyCar race in 2024, then for Juncos Hollinger Racing. Final yr, he was signed as a reserve driver at Prema, however didn’t get to check or race there. As a attainable driver for Dale Coyne Racing in 2026, Grosjean would return to the crew he raced for as an IndyCar rookie within the 2021 season.

Ed Carpenter Racing was on web site on Monday however didn’t take to the monitor. Prema is the one crew not current on the Sebring check. The racing crew, which entered the IndyCar collection a yr in the past, has been combating for its future for months. The chance of Prema competing within the season opener in St. Petersburg, Florida, in three weeks’ time is turning into much less and fewer seemingly with every passing week. Callum Ilott and Robert Shwartzman drove for Prema within the 2025 season, with Shwartzman sensationally taking pole place on the Indy 500 as a rookie.

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IndyCar check ends in Sebring (Monday):

1. Alex Palou (Ganassi-Honda) – 52.626 seconds (Group 1)

2. Felix Rosenqvist (Shank-Honda) – 52.650 (Group 1)

3. Rinus VeeKay (Juncos-Chevrolet) – 52.756 (Group 1)

4. Josef Newgarden (Penske-Chevrolet) – 52.846 (Group 1)

5. Marcus Armstrong (Shank-Honda) – 52.847 (Group 2)

6. Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti-Honda) – 52.918 (Group 1)

7. Patricio O’Ward (McLaren-Chevrolet) – 53.018 (Group 1)

8. Scott McLaughlin (Penske-Chevrolet) – 53.039 (Group 2)

9. Sting Ray Robb (Juncos-Chevrolet) – 53.050 (Group 2)

10. Kyffin Simpson (Ganassi-Honda) – 53.135 (Group 2)