F1 takes on the Indy 500? Yikes. Plus, meet Red Bull's top prospect
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Welcome back to Prime Tire, where we're ready to watch some groundhogs not play chicken with Formula One cars. Seriously, little fellas. Just stay inside this year.
I'm Patrick, and Madeline Coleman will be along shortly. Let's dive in.
F1 revealed its 2026 schedule today! So much is different. Just kidding. Only a few things are. But they're meaningful things! We'll get to those in a second. (Here's our story on the schedule release to get you started.)
The sport's social-media accounts have a glossy version of the calendar, but I prefer this one from @Manny_JKim on X, because it shows off the real breadth of the diary.
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So, we have some takeaways on the site.
Here's one: The 2026 F1 season will last 273 days.
2026 F1 Season Calender – spacing visualized pic.twitter.com/1gt6G1xYRR
— Manny ⁸¹ (@Manny_JKim) June 10, 2025
More? More:
Eep. Of course, I love F1. I write a newsletter about it. But eep. Some storylines from the schedule:
Madrid's debut. Will the new semi-street track stand out from the pack of street circuits, and what will the growing pains be like? Remember that both Miami and Las Vegas didn't enjoy smooth debuts.
Imola's absence and Zandvoort's farewell. Imola exits the calendar, in part to make room for Madrid. And we already know Zandvoort is on its way out, too. The inertia from traditional European circuits to street circuits will be a big storyline next year.
Fatigue. That second half is just brutal. The stretch from September to December looks like one of the most intense closing runs in recent memory: 10 races in 13 weeks, with two tripleheaders to finish the season.
For more takeaways from our experts, head here! And now to Madeline in the paddock…
The 2026 F1 calendar was released today with some changes we knew were coming for months, like Monaco moving to June. This meant Canada shifting to May, and it would have been logical to assume Montreal and Miami would be close to each other for logistical reasons (though there are weather concerns when it comes to how early in the year the Canadian GP can be). Instead, two weekends separate those races, and now, Montreal will clash with the Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day weekend in the U.S.
While some have taken issue with this, a more glaring change to the schedule caught my eye: it ends on a double tripleheader — six grands prix in seven weeks. That run, which includes Austin, Mexico, Brazil, Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, features the only tripleheaders of the season, which is an improvement. The 2025 schedule features three: Japan, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia; Emilia-Romagna, Monaco and Spain; and Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
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It is great for racing fans, particularly if a championship battle unfolds under the new regulations, but those stretches are brutal on those working inside the sport and the paddock. While Austin, in Texas, and Mexico City are relatively close (around 750 miles by air), Mexico City and Sao Paulo, Brazil, are separated by 7,433 kilometers (4,614.79 miles) by air. Then there's the case of switching from Las Vegas hours and flying out to Qatar — both of which are night races with time differences of 10 hours. While teams do rotate crew members to help with sustainability and well-being during different portions of the calendar, it doesn't make the stretch any less difficult.
While efforts are being made to regionalize the calendar, it is getting busier. The demands on race weekends are also increasing as the sport's popularity continues to grow, and it's a tricky balance to land. As healthy as F1 is right now, it can't come at the cost of the people of the sport's well-being.
We'll have to wait and see how this goes, and hopefully, the conversations about F1's future will continue. — Madeline Coleman
I'm burying the lede here a bit: The biggest news out of the F1 2026 calendar is that the Canadian GP is running on May 24. In the United States, that's Memorial Day.
What runs on Memorial Day in the United States, every year? The Indy 500. Whoops. Yes, the times will probably overlap: This weekend's Canadian GP starts at 2 p.m. ET. The Indy 500 usually starts at 12:45 p.m. ET. Again, whoops.
I knew my colleague, Jeff Gluck, would have some strong thoughts about this, so I asked him to write a column. He didn't hold back, calling it 'a breathtakingly disrespectful move' for F1 to schedule a North American race at the same time as the Indy 500, arguably the most important North American race:
'Instead of weighing the optics, too, F1 never hit the brakes on its quest for motorsports domination and plowed right into a head-to-head battle with one of the most cherished traditions on the international racing calendar.'
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I appreciated Jeff's viewpoint here, as someone who watched NASCAR grow to great heights and suddenly fall out of the cultural discussion in the span of 10 years in the 2000s. 'This is the exact type of thing that happens when a racing series begins to fly too close to the sun,' Jeff writes about F1's Indy 500 clash. Read the rest of his column here. 🔥
Oh, and FWIW: IndyCar driver Scott McLaughlin weighed in today.
Congrats to @f1 who single handedly ruined Motorsport Xmas. Indy 500 will be a scene next year. As well as the Coke 600. Good luck pic.twitter.com/9WOj79eomE
— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin93) June 10, 2025
Look. I want to be fair to F1's decision-makers. It's quite possible this overlap with the Indy 500 wasn't deeply considered, considering the other constraints and priorities — take a long look at that stretch of the calendar, factor in ease of travel and weather, and it becomes a difficult puzzle to solve if you want to make everyone happy.
But as an American racing fan? Yeah, I'd feel a little stepped-on here. There's nothing like the Indy 500 in motorsports — certainly not the Canadian GP, which, while one of my favorite F1 circuits, is probably mid-tier in terms of prestige at best. It's never a big draw for American audiences anyway and will likely be lapped by Indy's viewership that weekend.
So: The disrespected feelings? I get it. F1's scheduling knot? I get it. Where I land, though, is a line from Jeff's column: 'Each series offers something unique, and the racing world isn't big enough to tear itself apart.' Motorsports fans shouldn't have to choose.
Stop me if you've heard this before: A 17-year-old up-and-comer just got his super license (qualification to compete in F1) after his team asked for it to be approved early.
That happened last year with Mercedes and Kimi Antonelli. (He didn't get his driver's license until this year. Motorsports are strange). It just happened again with Red Bull prospect Arvid Lindblad.
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So it's time for a proper introduction.
Lindblad is Red Bull's latest fast-track project. The Brit/Swede is in his debut FIA F2 season with Campos Racing, sitting third in the standings and just eight points off the lead. He's already notched two race wins (including becoming the youngest-ever F2 race winner in Saudi Arabia) and claimed feature-race pole (and win) in Barcelona just over a week ago.
Before that, he dominated the 2025 Formula Regional Oceania series —six wins en route to the title. Back in 2024, he was fourth in F3.
With the super license acquired, Lindblad is available for F1 reserve duties, FP1 outings or even a seat call-up — even though he'll only turn 18 on August 8.
Red Bull doesn't do this for everybody. But Lindblad isn't just another name in the junior ladder — his is one the paddock has had circled for a while.
And now you know who Arvid Lindblad is.
The Austrian Grand Prix (June 29) will have some fun with the upcoming F1 movie: One of the APXGP cars that Brad Pitt drives in the film will join the legends parade that race weekend. Other cars from films including 'Rush' (a personal favorite of mine) will also be involved — check out the list.
Finally, Haas is running a special livery in Canada for its 200th grand prix. You'll never believe what red, white and black colors it i… oh no, I've given it away.
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