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Schedule Conflict Reaction

Schedule Conflict Reaction

Off Track with Hinch and Rossi Jun 10, 2025 20 min
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About this episode

The hosts discuss the surprising clash between the 2024 Formula 1 Montreal Grand Prix and the Indy 500, highlighting how this scheduling conflict undermines what was once a celebrated motorsport weekend. They debate the possible reasons behind F1's decision, its impact on fans and viewership, and the growing rivalry between the series. The conversation also touches on F1's expanding American presence, logistical challenges for teams, and the broader implications for motorsport fans trying to follow both series simultaneously.

Topics: f1 and indycar schedule conflict montreal grand prix timing indy 500 viewership impact motorsport fan experience f1 expansion in america race weekend logistics motorsport rivalry indianapolis 500 traditions f1 calendar changes cross-series fan overlap
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This is off track. Oh, we're recording.
Yeah.
Terrific. ,
I tried to warn people. I've
Just wanted Be known.
Criticizing you guys.
It will now be every episode, at least something will be consumed as audibly as possible.
Hopefully off the top of every single episode.
Although I did see some, these are actually good, made, good little cluster granola clusters.
Wow. I just bought this at the airport last night
when I couldn't get food.
Well, we'll get into that on Thursday.
Um, last one, I promise.
Also a convenient way to burn a little bit of time.
You're either muted Tim, or for some reason I can't hear you talking.
There we go. I just heard noise. Nope. Nope.
I heard you rustle with the microphone.
How about now? Now I got you. Now
I got you man.
We're just burning time, which is a good thing because there's nothing to talk about in the racing world today, especially for somebody who works for both IndyCar and F1 tv.
This is a tough day to be me .
It's a, it's a tough day for me to have an opinion based podcast that is racing centric.
When I am currently, and my two biggest employers are F1 and Fox via IndyCar.
It's um, or IndyCar via Fox.
It'd be nice if FAF or P faf could get involved somehow.
Yeah, Let's just to really round it out, Let's just have them petition for like Petit Laman to be held on Memorial Day weekend.
So obviously Tim, you're talking about the news that came out about the F1 schedule.
Yeah. Um, which lands
the Montreal Formula One race.
Mm-hmm . The closest race geographically to the state
of Indiana on the day of the 8,500 A 2:00 PM start time.
So assuming no weather delays starting right as the 500 is coming to a conclusion No, no.
We'll be dead in the middle of the race.
Oh yeah. I guess that's true. I thought
If it was starting at the conclusion of, if, if they were at the conclusion of the race, that'd be fine.
I meant like the what? I mean they always,
you guys always say the Indy 500 is two races survive for 150 laps.
Race for 50 laps. Yes. Yes.
So, but I guess I, I was in my head, I was thinking of noon start time, but that's noon broadcast start time.
1240 ish green flag.
I mean we were on air at 10:00 AM but That was the pre-show though.
I'm talking about the actual broadcast window that's listed as the Indy 500. That
Is true.
That is true. That was right. Um, yeah.
So let's talk about this.
Not only have we cannibalized what was the coolest day in motor sports?
It was Motorsport fans Christmas day. Yes.
By having Monaco Grum pri first thing in the morning, then you watch the Indy 500 and then you'd hunker down and buckle in for the Coca-Cola 600.
We knew that Monaco was moving.
Yeah. I don't know if I ever found out exactly why
I it's, yeah, that's a good point.
I dunno if it's because they didn't want to be on the same day as the 500.
'cause I, I think next year it goes Monaco Indie and then Lamar three weekends in a row.
I think that might be spoken outta turn.
Again, this is not a fact-based show. Everybody now
We do very little research, Very and no follow up And occasionally whatsoever you guys just don't show up.
Tune in later this week for more on that .
Um, so whatever. So it's moving.
This one, this one was so surprising though because I literally had pro one in particular, example of a very prominent member of the Formula One community reach out to me being like, I'm so happy I can finally go to the Indie 500.
Where should I stay? What?
And we were, I was, you know, trying to walk him through how to do indie and then he text me like a day.
Yeah, well, Saturday night, that's where you gotta be a day or two later just get a text being like, scrap that.
Just saw the calendar for F1 and they did it on the same weekend.
It's absolutely bonkers. It's baffling. It makes no sense.
Let's remind everybody that Montreal F1, um, is held on a track that's a park, it's like the only race they have all year.
So it's not like there's a date issue if you push it a week or something like that.
Now, if it is in fact Lama the weekend after Indy.
So you, you, I could see F1 not wanting to push Montreal to that weekend because I feel like a bunch of the reserve drivers and stuff in F1 are in fact driving at Lamont, but also they have more than one reserve driver.
So deal with that problem rather than taking on the biggest race in the world head to head.
This makes no sense. It's gonna, so
I, I saw, I saw a lot of, I'm sorry I cut you off.
No, no, no, no, please. I saw a lot
of stuff on Twitter that was pointed out.
Like they're not going to really, it's not going to be a competition in the United States.
The Indy five hundred's going to blow it out of the water.
Uh, most people expect, and I, and I think that's probably fair.
Maybe it'll cut in a little bit, but I don't think it'll be much.
But it will matter for people trying to watch the 500 in Europe.
It will matter for like international fans that wanna watch the 500 that are just not gonna have the same options or ability to Yes, certainly.
Um, but it's, but F1 obviously doesn't care about what IndyCar's audience is, so it will, it will hurt European Indie car fans.
Well not, and it won't hurt their ability to watch the race, but you just have to choose at some point.
I disagree. I don't, I think F1 does care.
I mean, I, I know that, that it's not a comparable fan base in viewing thing, but it's, it's hard to view this as anything other than trying to hurt IndyCar. It seems, it
Seems very intentional that it seems that F1 has noticed that IndyCar is on the rise.
It has noticed that with Fox, our viewership is growing exponentially and um, it does seem like a direct shot at, at our biggest race.
Now you're right Tim. Um, the,
the ratings won't even be close.
Indy Indy will win by a mile.
But it, it might take some of the fans that watched IndyCar that got into IndyCar off the back of getting into F1 off the back of Drive to Survive or whatever.
Uh, it's ignorant to think that every race fan is just gonna defacto choose the 500 over an F1 race if they're competing head to head.
I don't think that's true. I think this does hurt IndyCar.
I think this does hurt our viewership.
Um, it hurts fans opportunity to go see both races.
Like it's, it's just silly man.
It's just silly.
Nobody wins because yeah, the ratings for Montreal will be worse.
They'll be decidedly worse.
They'll have, they'll get a much bigger hit than ours will, Which is crazy to me because Liberty seems to be very focused on trying to build an American audience for F1 and they've done a lot of smart moves to do that and they've been paying off very well over the last few years.
So this just feels like such an unforced error.
And maybe there's a part of the equation I'm not seeing, but Look, there always is, right?
We don't know all the facts, but you're right.
You look at the US races and their ratings for F1, they're double, they're two and a half, sometimes three x what the average F1 race gets when they are domestic.
And in that sort of prime Sunday afternoon time slot, now you're not, and look, let's call a spade a spade, nine times outta 10 and F1 race is settled in the first five laps.
Mm-hmm . Right? So whereas Indy, you're gonna want
to stay right to the end.
I could see some people just flipping over for the first five laps in Montreal and then flipping back over to the 500 because race is usually pretty much done by then.
Yeah. Short of some safety car,
which certainly can happen in Montreal.
But like the fact that I was, I was looking forward to being able to go to Montreal for Like, I'm sure yeah.
You know, the only, the second time in almost 20 years, uh, there's just so many racing fans that would've taken that opportunity.
It's been a clash with so many races in IndyCar over the years.
Like it was a clash with Texas for like a decade and then it clashed with, I dunno something else.
So we've not been able to go, I think there was one year we were able to go, I think it was maybe 2021.
Um, and it was great and there was a lot of IndyCar fans that went that I know that were there.
I was there, it was awesome. But you're right,
it seems calculated, it seems intentional, which is a compliment to IndyCar at the end of the day.
Yeah. They wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't a threat.
I, I think, yeah, I think that's the, the only way to take that move without clarification as to what the reasoning is, which I haven't seen any.
Um, I also haven't done a lot of digging into it.
Again, not a big research show, but yeah, I think it's a loss for, um, I think it's a loss for IndyCar.
I think it's a loss for F1.
I think it's a loss for the fans of both series.
And the only positive in it is that it's, I, again, I see it as a compliment from the IndyCar side that that F1 wants to try to slow down the momentum of the 500.
It ain't gonna work, you know, it's not gonna work.
But, um, even if it affects the rating a tiny bit, it's not gonna work for what the overall momentum of, of the sport is at the moment.
So, um, it's a bummer, Tim. It's a bummer.
So the, the one thing that was said about why this might be the case is to keep Miami and Montreal back to back for I guess quote unquote sustainability reasons or something, which makes sense.
If they were back to back weeks, they're back to back races, but there's like two weeks between them.
Mm-hmm. So everybody's gonna leave North America
and then they're gonna come back to North America. I,
It's also weird to me because you're at a point now where McLaren has an F1 and IndyCar team by this point, Andretti will have, or Cadillac will have, you know, Andrea have Cadillac and F1 and, and, and, and IndyCar team Prema will have what?
F two in, in IndyCar.
Like there's enough overlap now Myers on the board of of Liberty has Meyer Shank racing.
Like it just, it's odd.
It just like, I understood when Monaco was on the same day because they had that date for however many years.
Not nearly as many as the Indy 500 as that Memorial Day weekend.
I, I got that right.
There was history there, but I I, it's just, it didn't make sense.
Okay. You, you, there's so much overlap now.
Why would you move Monaco only to put something else on that date?
It makes no sense. It makes
No sense.
I mean, I know we're not ever gonna go back to the days of F1 drivers coming over and doing the 500, um, as much fun as I think that would be, but I don't know, was there anything else on the calendar that surprised you?
Again, I, I just, I'm looking at it and just, I'm getting increasingly more annoyed because if the whole point is to have Miami and Canada on the same stretch, right?
Mm-hmm . You can move Canada a week sooner
and if anything it makes more sense from a sustainability point and not maybe people would actually stay in North America. It just, you know, it's just,
And still you're still kind of messing with IndyCar then 'cause you're hitting qualifying where you will actually probably pull some of the viewers.
Yeah, that's, that's true. Like that's if you're trying
to choose between an F1 race and indie qualifying, I'm, I'll take qualifying 10 days outta 10. But I was,
I was gonna say if you're, if you're trying to choose between that you've never watched any 500 qualifying because that's arguably more exciting and stressful and cool than a race than any other race and actually the most tense weekend of the entire year.
But yes, look, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna ask F1 to like build their calendar around our one hallmark event here, but at the same time, yeah, put it on qualifying weekend finite.
At least that's somewhat defendable.
You know, I can tell you what day the 85 hundred's gonna be on in 2047.
Mm-hmm . That's, that's how this works.
You have a gap to put a race not on the biggest race of the year in the world.
Yeah. And you chose not to do it.
So again, if, if their argument is to be back to back with Miami wrong, you did it wrong.
That's not, that's not good enough.
If there's another reason, cool.
Again, there's always more to do with this story, but I don't like that they're not sharing what that is unless it is just a middle fingered IndyCar, which would be unfortunate.
And you know, I think it's, I think it's gonna hurt them more than it's gonna hurt us.
So vie um, You mean it's gonna hurt us more than it's gonna hurt us since you're split allegiance Stop it.
Um, obviously F one's got a new track coming on the calendar in Madrid.
So the second race in Spain, um, which is in September, which should be pretty cool.
I always like seeing new venues come on.
Uh, Z v's back on a rotational basis, which is good.
I like that event. And
otherwise what's, there's two triple headers next year and they both, they're the last six races of the year, which was the case two years ago or last year, sorry, not this year.
Um, which is a bummer because I usually work all those in triple headers.
We top this year of them broken up.
Yeah, I remember after your first triple header you'd be like, oh that was, that was a thing that was, yeah, , which is a real thing, which is crazy to me.
It kind of speaks to uh, what like Buxton's point about like he can commute from England and this is still less difficult than Considerably less travel.
Yeah. Speaking of which we gotta have,
we gotta have the Fox booth back on.
I think that'd be fun. Yeah. Yeah.
We're gonna do that.
We're definitely gonna make that happen.
I don't know, it's, it's hard 'cause it just sucks.
Like it's, you know, everything in Motorsport has seemed to be going really well for IndyCar and F1, like obviously F one's had this massive jump from drive to survive, but IndyCar with the Fox, the momentum and just like, uh, you know what, what, what are we doing?
What happened to rising tide lifts all ships.
I'm trying really hard to not just be like the grumpy old guy in this and, and only look at the negatives.
But the problem is, is I just, I I don't see the other side of it, right?
Like what I positive to do see positive. Yeah.
What I try to do in these situations, like I have my emotional response, right, which is usually whatever and then I try to like sit back and be like, okay, let's look at this from the other side.
Why, why did, how did, could we have got here thinking with the shoe on the other foot?
And I just don't, I don't see it, I don't see why this makes sense for, for anybody, but uh, it is what it is. Um,
Obviously I I'll be going to Montreal next year.
Thank God . I did tired.
It's actually alright look, I'm gonna admit it.
You found it, you found the bond there. I pushed, yeah.
I pushed for it to be this weekend just so that way we could force Tim to go somewhere else.
You know, for editorial purposes we need you to go get some stories.
Alex is gonna be busy. I'm gonna be busy on the 500 stuff.
We need you to cover the F1 stuff 'cause we're not gonna be able to watch it.
Okay. I, let me know if we're not allowed
to talk about this, but this just popped up in my head now.
I'm curious, I know that with Toronto there are issues with some members of teams not being allowed in Canada because . Yeah.
Are we allowed to talk about That?
Yeah, it's, yeah it's fine Because you know, Canada's pretty strict.
Uh, if you have anything on your record, particularly DUIs and things like that, um, does F1 have a similar issue?
That is a great question, man. That is a great question.
because they go to some places where considerably more strict than Canada.
Yeah, so that's a very good question.
I'm not sure, I'll have to, lemme do some digging , lemme do some digging on that.
Or do they just have like some kind of diplomatic community thing because it's F1 and they can just, that One they can Wave the wand and everyone just goes in, in isolation in a little pocket.
I feel like if there was a wand that could be waived for Canadian immigration, John Green would've figured it out and we know that he hasn't .
Yeah, that's true. I feel like we still need
to make a call to somebody in Canada about that .
Um, you are, you are the Guy I would call you are the call I would make.
Yeah. When I said we that was like the race car driver. We
Got it. Got it. Yeah.
We just we're bad at saying I so we just always default to we.
Um, no, I've definitely heard of a story where a member of the F1 paddock was not allowed to go to a certain country.
Um, it was for a much more dramatic offense than a DUI love it and Gonna have to tell me about this offline.
Yeah, I super am not gonna say this, say this on, on the air, but like for, for the more sort of casual misdemeanors and mild felonies, is there anywhere that Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know because the thing about F1 two though, remember is like a lot of the positions on teams have multiple people and they rotate through, right?
It's like your core group of staff.
Like, I mean obviously the driver race engineer strategist, like the key engineering people.
Um, but I feel like even on the mechanic side, there's probably a few people that rotate that can, and you might do like 20 of the 24 races, but you have a couple off or something like that.
So there might be some strategery around who goes to which races and, and who skips certain ones for issues like that.
I don't know. Um, yeah,
Well let us know what you think online, you know, tweet us, uh, Instagram us don't DM us.
I'm so bad at reading those. James can attest.
I have like 200 unread texts.
I'm not gonna check the, it gets me so Upset, man. It gets me so
Upset.
Um, but you know, tweet us, that kind of thing And uh, just make sure you tune into the Indy 500 next year, Memorial Day weekend on Fox.
When is it's Memorial Day weekend?
Is that new? No, no.
It's actually something that's fairly well established, Tim.
And it's gonna continue being then until the dawn of time end of time. But yeah, sure.
Sorry to the dusk of time. It's
Gonna go all the way back .
Let me, yes, we're gonna go a full cycle.
We go through time and then through the dark ages and then back to the start of time again and we'll still be running 8,500 on Memorial Day.
It's the Futurama style of of time passage.
If you're familiar with that episode, Nobody is familiar with that episode.
That wasn't for you. That's where like the two people
who are gonna be like, holy Futurama reference.
I like how you just swore on an episode where we said, I noticed it.
No swearing for your own editing. I noticed
it . Good luck with that
one. .
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