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.

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.

Even F1 drivers look forward to the Indy 500 every year. (James Gilbert / Getty Images)

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.

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.

F1’s business is thriving. (Clive Rose / Getty Images)

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.

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)

There will be 37 Cup cars and 39 Xfinity cars competing in this historic event at Mexico City. The Xfinity field, which is usually capped at 38 grid spots, has been expanded to 40 for this event only. As a result, everyone on the entry list will get to compete in the big show.

The Cup field includes the usual field of 36 with all of the expected full-time drivers, and just one open entry. That will be No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet with Katherine Legge behind the wheel.

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The Xfinity field will include a handful of Cup drivers, hoping to gain more experience on the road course. NASCAR’s top Mexican-born talent — Daniel Suarez — will be driving the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.  A pair of Joe Gibbs Racing drivers have also entered the event with Ty Gibbs driving the No. 19 JGR Toyota and Christopher Bell driving the No. 24 Sam Hunt Racing Toyota.

There will be a total of three Mexican-born drivers in the NASCAR Xfinity Series field. Along with Suarez, Truck Series regular Andres Perez De Lara will make his Xfinity debut in the No. 91 DGM Racing Chevrolet. Additionally, 2020 NASCAR Mexico Series champion Rubén Rovelo will make his debut as well in the No. 35 Joey Gase Motorsports Chevrolet.

NASCAR Cup Mexico City entry list

NASCAR Xfinity Mexico City entry list

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Drivers and teams will have more than each other to contend with when the NASCAR Xfinity and Cup Series race this weekend at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City.

They’ll also have to contend with the elevation. The road course is about 7,500 feet above sea level — the next highest track in NASCAR is Las Vegas at about 2,000 feet elevation.

The higher elevation means thinner air. Air plays a key role in horsepower and cooling and those will be significant issues for teams.

Doug Yates, president and CEO of Roush Yates Engines, estimates that the thinner air could reduce horsepower as much as 20% for the 670-horsepower Cup engines.

Danny Lawrence, long time engine builder for Richard Childress Racing and its director of the Xfinity Series and vice president of alliance operations, said maximizing horsepower is challenging at such a high altitude.

“You’ve got to fool the engine to make it think that the conditions are better,” he told NBC Sports.

Daniel Suarez said the horsepower reduction will be minimal for drivers.

“I don’t think you have to drive different, but the cars are going to have more mechanical grip especially on the exit of the corners because you have less power,” he said. “We’re going to lose like 80 to 100 horsepower. That’s a lot. … But at the same time, in the high-speed corners, we’re going to lose a lot of downforce. We’re going to lose a little bit of everything.”

Racing at such elevation is new for the Cup Series. The Xfinity Series raced in Mexico City from 2005-08. The series averaged nearly seven engine failures per weekend (practice and the race) the first three years. The final year racing at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez saw no engine failures during the weekend.

“I would say we’re more concerned about the cooling and the components and the other things we have to ensure are properly set up,” Yates told NBC Sports.

NASCAR will allow each manufacturer to have two sets of hood louvers to run during practice Saturday to see which best cools the engine. Each manufacturer will select which hood louver it will use and all of its teams must use the one selected on its cars.

The only time the NASCAR Cup Series has had a podium celebration was for the Clash at the LA Memorial Coliseum exhibition races from 2022-24.

“The problem we have with the engine is the caution laps,” Trent Owens, crew chief for AJ Allmendinger, told NBC Sports. “It gets so hot under the caution laps, more so than the green laps.”

Under green flag conditions, the cars are at higher speeds and can get more air to cool. The slower speeds under caution means less air gets to the engine to cool it. As engines start to overheat, several problems can ensue.

“What happens with the engine management software is it goes into protection (mode) if you don’t get it cool enough before the restart,” Owens said. “So you’re trying to prevent that. It doesn’t shut the engine off, but it starts feeding it fuel and changing the timing and stuff like that where you lose horsepower.

“So, just having that stuff right is probably our concern that we normally don’t have to worry about at any (other) event.”

With NASCAR’s rule that engines must run two races, most of the engines that will run in Sunday’s Cup race will be that engine’s second race.

Yates said a lot of the Ford engines for the 2.42-mile road course in Mexico were run earlier this year at Martinsville, a half-mile short track.

Yates says the two courses share some similarities so that running one engine at both tracks makes sense.

“We shift at Martinsville every straightaway, every lap,” Yates said. “So the power curve actually shifted up quite a bit from years ago. As the engine group, we have the opportunity to change the intake manifold and the exhaust system today, so we can tune around the base engine and have power lower RPM range or higher RPM range with those two tuning tools.”

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