News

Once again, the dorky PR-speak in which the news is delivered masks the fact that NASCAR is figuring out a way to be funny and chill in this very un-funny and un-chill century.

I love shit like this, they used to always to this type of stuff when I was watching this sport growing up so it's neat to still see it being done these days!

— Shoogy Racing 🏁 (@shoogyracing.bsky.social) Feb 13, 2026 at 2:44 PM

Last year, the International GT Challenge races — Bathurst 12 Hour, Spa 24 Hour, the newly revived Suzuka 1000km, and the Indianapolis 8 Hour — felt like standalone race events with some things in common (including attracting the cream of the crop to drive). This year, it feels like it’s gelling into one big thing. Ford has committed at least one Mustang to the full season, JMR Johor has staked out two grid spots for its Corvettes at Indy, and Chevrolet is marking its Bathurst 12 Hour debut with a special Bathurst 12-Hour edition Corvette you can own and drive, of which I would like two, please.

I always have to check myself when I get into a new motorsport because I can easily mistake the epicness of watching something for the first time with universal epicness, however I feel like the 2026 WRC season has been one for the ages so far. I feel safe saying that about Monaco because everyone is, but Sweden is also very cold and very snowy, and it’s leading to moments like this:

I may have hoped for an instant vibe shift in NASCAR after the trial and the end of the Playoffs, but the energy at Daytona is still rather weird. Nothing horrible happened in the Duels (unless you’re Corey LaJoie or Anthony Alfredo), but the people who raced in did so under pretty weird conditions.

Anthony Alfredo pulled it off in duel 2 but was disqualified in tech, handing his starting spot to B.J. McLeod, which we love because a significant prize money take for him could lead to more Katherine Legge drives during the season. As for Casey Mears, he was very much out until he was in, thanks to an incident that seemed dumb to me at first, but the more times I watch it, the more impressive I find Mears’ maneuvers:

Pretty good race. I think the pit stop thing is working; there’s still a little bit of a strategic lull at first, but it eases you into it, and then the complexity of the minute strategic differences leads to a pretty snappy racing section midway through the race. Porsche and Wehrlein really schooled everybody strategically this time, though. It looked like he was out of it for a little while, and he ended up winning with a big gap.

What this partnership looks like is not at all clear, but it is at least interesting that NASCAR is making decarbonization noises. The messaging says NASCAR will use the “zero-carbon bioethanol” fuel, but it will be “in combination” with Sunoco gasoline, whatever the hell that means. It probably means the pace cars or the jet dryers or something will use it. So far, I take this to be just another hand-wavey sponsorship, but it will insert itself all over NASCAR in places fuel is mentioned, so let’s keep an eye on it (and the fan reaction to it, which might be funny).

Sébastien Bourdais’ replacement at Tower Motorsports for the rest of the IMSA season will be Tristan Vautier, which may be an upgrade. He also has LMDh experience, and probably in tougher jobs than Bourdais’ seats have been.

Surprising absolutely no one, Dale Coyne has beaten the whatever-holiday-is-next (right now it’s Valentine’s Day) by one day, announcing that Romain Grosjean will return to full-time competition in the other DCR car alongside Dennis Hauger, who I predict is going to kick his ass. This, of course, deprives Conor Daly of a ride, but I’m sure we’ll see him at the 500. I am also sure that the unbelievable delay — and the choice of Grosjean itself — has everything to do with the sketchy Todd Ault crypto stuff that’s backing it financially.

Pretty ominous start to his home rally, given his powerful statement in round 1. This is my first year watching WRC or rally of any kind, but I’m hooked.

This sounds incredible. Formula E is in need of a signature event like any enduring racing series has. Sometimes I joke that it should be Monaco because Formula E is so much better there than Formula 1 lately, but that can’t be it. A doubleheader on the streets of Tokyo at night, though, now we’re cooking without gas.

I’m a little sad about the departure of Neil Crompton and Mark Skaife because I enjoyed feeling like the era in which I became a fan of Supercars was contiguous with the classic era because the voices in the booth were the same. There are a lot of talented folks on the team, and I’m sure it’ll be great. I am pretty worried about that graphics package, though.

A couple days ago, I thought the TF Sport Corvettes were going to be the hottest sports cars of the year, but I may have been wrong.

(And they’re quick, too)

Livery of the year contest gets an exceptionally strong early contender

[image or embed]

— Luke (@luke.turningfortune.com) Feb 11, 2026 at 6:05 PM

As expected, Alpine is ending its Hypercar program after this year, although it is still making noises about staying in Formula 1 and not closing the Viry-Châtillon facility. I do not rule out the likelihood that they’re just sprucing it up to sell, though.

I would be sad about this, but Renault just seems to suck too much at management of motorsports programs, so I’ll get over their absence.

Marshall Pruett was all over this story, and I’d say it’s the biggest story in IndyCar since Roger Penske bought the series. It’s the first development that really seems like it augurs growth and success, like a much bigger version of the news last year that FOX would buy a stake in the series. Incentives rule everything around us. It is very important to have mission-critical partners like broadcasters and engine manufacturers with skin in the game, so IndyCar’s success is their success.

The push for the first new IndyCar since 2012 has been excruciating, but clearly satisfying the engine manufacturers was the central issue. They’ve finally done it. The new formula is good, but giving them charters to field factory-backed cars is even better. That will let Honda and GM (and hopefully some more, eventually??) have their own engineers work directly on race cars. Honda is already talking to Meyer Shank about entering the factory car with them, which is a beautiful parallel to how the MSR Acura GTP program is run in IMSA. I love this. It’s all upside.

Early in the Bahrain test, journalists noticed Max Verstappen shifting all the way down to first gear when rolling through corners, evidently to charge his battery with the extra revs. This is exactly the sort of thing pundits imagined people doing under these new electric-heavy regulations, and Max is the best at doing weird stuff with race cars, so clearly he tried it. The back of the car squirmed around a lot, but, again, Max is the best. He can handle it. The other drivers started to copy him, but I have no doubt Max will dominate this year if that sort of trickery is necessary.

The problem is, he absolutely hated doing it. He was miserable. He called it “anti-racing.” He also called it “Formula E on steroids,” which sounds amazing, but clearly he meant it disparagingly. He doesn’t think driving a Formula 1 car should involve this much systems management. Lando Norris, who is the reigning Formula 1 world champion, later gave a rather champion-ly rebuttal, saying he’s perfectly willing to deal with the new car given that he gets to be a Formula 1 driver for a living.

Look, I want Max to quit and go sports car racing — and I’m sure Lando does, too — so we’re obviously biased, but I’m actually glad Max is unhappy. There tends to be an inverse correlation between how much fun drivers are having and how much fun it is to watch them.

Look, I like hybrids, and I like hybrid racing. I like energy management and regeneration as competitive and strategic elements. But it’s starting to sound like the 2026 Formula 1 regs have created a bit of a procedural clusterfuck with standing starts, and that’s not exactly a minor problem. First of all, the outcome of like half of F1 races are decided by the start. But more importantly, even one car having a bad launch can cause a huge wreck.

The problem is that drivers now have to rev for around 10 seconds in order to spool up the turbo to prevent lag on the getaway, since they no longer have an MGU-H to spin it up. But they also have to avoid over-charging their batteries while doing that, in addition to managing heat, dropping the clutch cleanly, and all the other usual difficulties of standing starts. Drivers are reportedly messing up one in 20 of their practice starts, which means that statistically someone will do it in a race every time. That’s not just a competitive problem; that’s a safety issue.

The thing is, there are rules changes that could mitigate the problem. I think the most promising would be allowing some battery energy deployment on the start to compensate for turbo lag, which is currently not allowed, but what the heck are electric car motors for if not accelerating!? A less invasive change would be increasing the time between the cars parking in formation and the start lights coming on. Ferrari, mysteriously, is blocking the rules changes, which suggests they’ve got a good PU solution to the turbo lag issue, and that’s fair enough, but we can’t be having crashes on the start in every race.

Far be it from me to doubt Adrian Newey knows what he’s doing, but I did have a feeling people were going a little gaga about the possibility that the Great Wizard would be able to pull a perfect Formula 1 car out of his hat that he designed by hand with a pencil after reading the most complex motor racing regulations ever devised.

As it turns out, the 2026 Aston Martin has been an absolute handful in testing, and a slow one at that. Sure, I half-believe the kinds of things the team says about starting off behind but having a powerful development pipeline in place. I believe Adrian Newey knows how to do those kinds of things. But I think this team might just be fundamentally dysfunctional.

I will not tolerate hipsterism regarding F1, the movie. Here’s why: I enjoyed the movie. My wife — who hates motorsports — watched the movie on a plane and enjoyed it. And, most importantly, I am sure there are millions of such cases. If you don’t think a worldwide blockbuster movie about racing is good for racing, I don’t know what to tell you.

The tides are turning against Mercedes as the various powers that be in Formula 1 begin to game out the consequences of the possible scenarios. Frankly, while I am in favor of teams who figured out how to do it exploiting the loophole, it’s also obvious that the FIA has to figure out how to measure compression ratio at racing temperature if they’re going to set a mandatory limit to it that must be met at all times.

And you know what? If Mercedes didn’t figure out what it was going to do in case it got caught, that’s their own fault, much as the other PU manufacturers not figuring out how to do this was their own fault. And the regulatory mess is the FIA’s own fault! This is automobile racing in its purest form.

Stewart Friesen getting hurt was a tough one last year, but not only is he back, he won. Also he was on pole. Guess he’s doing okay!