Gluck: Indy 500 showdown shows F1 flying too close to the motorsports sun

New York Times

a day ago

Critics have labeled Formula One as arrogant and elitist at times, which can seem unfair. Then you see decisions like the one F1 made with its 2026 calendar on Tuesday and think: 'Eh, maybe not.'
F1's 2026 schedule features a breathtakingly disrespectful move: a direct head-to-head conflict between the Indianapolis 500 and the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal — seemingly at the same time, on the same day, on the same continent.
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The Indy 500 typically has a start time of 12:45 p.m. ET and runs for about three hours. This weekend is, coincidentally, the Canadian GP in Montreal. It has a start time of 2 p.m. ET, and a typical F1 race lasts about 90 minutes to two hours. If those time slots remain next year, they'll directly overlap for the entirety of the F1 race.
F1 doesn't appear to care. In a post-'Drive to Survive' world, the series has become an international behemoth, gaining a substantial fan following in the United States. A country in which Michael Schumacher could once go completely unrecognized now hosts three grands prix and sees the drivers treated like rock stars; fans pay record-breaking ticket prices and shell out jaw-dropping amounts of money for merchandise sales just to be part of the trendiest sport on the planet.
F1 immediately becomes the biggest event at each stop around the world. At the top of the motorsports food chain, F1's actions give the impression of a lion that does not fight with hyenas.
Except in this environment, shouldn't F1 care? It's not as if F1 leaders are unaware of the Indy 500; the race is part of the Triple Crown of Motorsport, along with the 24 Hours of Le Mans (sports cars) and F1's Monaco Grand Prix. Two-time F1 world champion Fernando Alonso skipped Monaco for two years to try to win Indy — which would have been his third crown jewel.
And yet F1 — which is owned by an American company, Colorado-based Liberty Media — is now choosing to trample over what many regard as the biggest auto race in the world.
Sure, maybe it won't hurt Indy domestically. Montreal probably isn't going to pull many U.S. fans away from the 500, which had a sellout crowd of nearly 350,000 people this year and got its highest TV viewership in 17 years (more than 7 million people). Montreal had 1.8 million viewers in the U.S. last June.
Still, why would F1 even consider this? Its calendar needed to have the Miami Grand Prix and Montreal paired to reduce travel headaches, but why not move Miami one week earlier to avoid an obvious conflict between Montreal and Indy? Instead of weighing the optics, 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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Maybe F1, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, forgot the Indy 500 always runs on the last Sunday of May. Easy to do. After all, the Indy 500 has only been around for 109 years.
Motorsports fans are constantly pitted against one another by those who argue one series is superior or claim another is inferior, when the reality is that a racing fan should be a racing fan. Each series offers something unique, and the racing world isn't big enough to tear itself apart; motorsports are at their best when fans get to sit down and watch a variety of series.
That was no better illustrated than during the annual 'Motorsports Christmas' in the United States, when even NASCAR fans would get up early to watch the Monaco GP before the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 as part of their annual tripleheader tradition. In fact, when F1 announced in November that Monaco would move to June starting in 2026, there was even speculation it would clear the way for an interested F1 driver to race at Indy.
Who would have thought the actual development would be to run an F1 race at the same time?
This is the exact type of thing that happens when a racing series begins to fly too close to the sun. And F1 sure is soaring. Liberty Media reported the sport's revenue rose to $3.65 billion in 2024. The summer blockbuster F1 movie starring Brad Pitt will be released in late June. The series just struck huge deals with Disney and Pepsi. Brands and celebrities alike are falling all over themselves to be associated with F1.
It seems like there's nothing that can slow F1's speed, and maybe that's true. But it's worth reminding everyone what happened to NASCAR in the early 2000s.
Back then, NASCAR was the hottest sport in America and had designs on challenging the NFL for sports supremacy in the United States (yes, this was really a thing at the time). 'Cars' and 'Talladega Nights' were summer blockbusters in the same year. Jeff Gordon hosted 'Saturday Night Live' in 2003. Racetracks could not build enough seats for the millions who attended races each year. Fortune 500 companies flocked to have their logos on race cars in $30 million deals.
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But NASCAR overestimated the strength and longevity of its popularity, and suddenly, the general public moved on to the next thing. Almost overnight, NASCAR was no longer cool in pop culture. TV ratings tanked. Companies left. Racetracks 'right-sized' their venues by removing grandstands.
NASCAR has spent nearly the last 20 years trying to overcome some of the poor decision-making brought on by greed, ego and a belief that their run was only just beginning.
F1 isn't going to take a dive anytime soon. Even if Americans tune out at some point, it's still wildly popular around the world and will remain so for quite some time.
But the motorsports ecosystem is fragile, and every racing series is only a few poor decisions away from steering itself toward the wall at high speed. Choosing to challenge the Indy 500 seems like one of those choices for F1.
(Top photos of Josef Newgarden and Max Verstappen: Justin Casterline / Getty Images; Mark Thompson / Getty Images)