Formula 1 Declares War On IndyCar

Formula 1 is determined to conquer North America. In order to reach its goal, it apparently needs to squash any regional open wheel series that may stand in its way. On Tuesday the FIA announced Formula 1's grueling 24-race globe-trotting calendar with one massive glaring conflict that will force a(nother) schism in the North American open-wheel fandom. F1 has moved the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal from its traditional late-June date to mid-May with a start time of 2 p.m., which will conflict with the 2026 Indianapolis 500, which has a 12:45 p.m. kick off. What the heck? 

With IndyCar riding a surging wave of momentum after heavy investment from series owner Roger Penske, shifting its broadcast partnership to Fox, and seeing a sell-out 350,000-plus crowd in attendance at the 109th Indianapolis 500 last month, apparently F1 sees viewership as a zero-sum game and IndyCar as a heavy hitter. It isn't immediately clear why F1 wants to try to take the behemoth Indy 500 down instead of collaborating and growing together. Throwing an F1 star in a guest Indy 500 or Indy GP seat for the month of May would be great publicity for both series, if you ask me. 

There is a lot of good in the 2026 F1 calendar, revealed during a recent FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in Macau. The globe-trotting F1 calendar has been significantly regionalized to reduce the carbon footprint of the series and its transport. By shifting the Monaco Grand Prix away from its traditional Memorial Day weekend slot (where it was typically over and done with by the time the Indy 500 began), F1 can stay on the European continent for the entire summer run from June to September, visiting Monaco, Catalunya, the Red Bull Ring, Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps, the Hungaroring, Zandvoort, Monza, Madrid, and Baku by truck instead of air freight. 

Considering that the F1 calendar runs from March through December, while the IndyCar typically packs 17 races between March and August, there's plenty of time in the year for F1 to avoid this ridiculous scheduling clash. The May 24 Canadian Grand Prix move pairs it with the May 3 Miami Grand Prix, though with a lengthy three week gap between them. The series then returns to North America in late October for the race in Austin, jumps down south to Mexico and Brazil before returning to the States for the Las Vegas GP on its typical cold-as-ice Saturday evening in late November. 

In order to be taken seriously, IndyCar needs to view this as what it is, a direct and credible threat to its title as the single most important open wheel event on the racing calendar anywhere in the world. The powers that be in IndyCar should expect a full-court press from F1 and fight back with everything they've got. Canada typically puts on an above-average-but-only-just show when F1 visits, and it's got nothing on the incredible spectacle that is the Brickyard in May. This will unfortunately be the first F1 race I've missed in over a decade because there's no way I'm skipping the Indy 500 to watch the Canadian Grand Prix, and I'm sure hundreds of thousands of fans in the stands and millions of viewers at home will agree with me. I hope that F1 sees the decreased ticket sales and viewership coming its way next year as a sign and corrects action in rapid fashion. This is an absurdity that simply does not need to exist. 

Here is F1's 2026 calendar in full. 

Australian Grand Prix – March 8 – Albert Park Circuit

Chinese Grand Prix – March 15 – Shanghai International Circuit

Japanese Grand Prix – March 29 – Suzuka International Racing Course

Bahrain Grand Prix – April 12 – Bahrain International Circuit

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – April 19 – Jeddah Street Circuit

Miami Grand Prix – May 3 – Miami International Autodrome

Canadian Grand Prix – May 24 – Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

Monaco Grand Prix – June 7 – Circuit de Monaco

Spanish Grand Prix – June 14 – Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

Austrian Grand Prix – June 28 – Red Bull Ring

Great Britain Grand Prix – July 5 – Silverstone Circuit

Belgian Grand Prix – July 19 – Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

Hungarian Grand Prix – July 26 – Hungaroring

Dutch Grand Prix – Aug. 23 – Circuit Zandvoort

Italian Grand Prix – Sep. 6 – Autodromo Nazionale Monza

European Grand Prix – Sep. 13 – Madring (Madrid, Spain)

Azerbaijan Grand Prix – Sep. 27 – Baku City Circuit

Singapore Grand Prix – Oct. 11 – Marina Bay Street Circuit

United States Grand Prix – Oct. 25 – Circuit of the Americas

Mexico City Grand Prix – Nov. 1 – Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez

São Paulo Grand Prix – Nov. 8 – Interlagos (Autódromo José Carlos Pace)

Las Vegas Grand Prix – Nov. 21 – Las Vegas Street Circuit

Qatar Grand Prix – Nov. 29 – Lusail International Circuit

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Dec. 6 – Yas Marina Circuit