The Same Crew

By Rudy Falco | October 1, 2026

MONZA, ITALY - SEPTEMBER 06: Race winner Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy and Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team crowd surfs in celebration during the F1 Grand Prix of Italy at Autodromo Nazionale Monza on September 06, 2026 in Monza, Italy. (Photo by Dom Gibbons - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Early on the morning of Sunday, August 23, a fire broke out at our warehouse in Little Silver. The building was empty and nobody was hurt, which is the only part of the story I really care about, and we owe the Little Silver Fire Department a huge thank-you for how fast they got there. We lost a big chunk of our stock and the space we'd been packing your orders in for years. So if you've stopped by the site over the past five weeks and wondered why everything says sold out, now you know.

LITTLE SILVER, NEW JERSEY - AUGUST 23: Little Silver Fire Department crews work the fire at the CMC Motorsports warehouse in the early morning hours of August 23, 2026. (Photo courtesy of CMC Motorsports)

We've set up in a temporary space while our new warehouse gets ready, and we're about a week away from turning the store back on. To everyone who sent a note, offered space, or just asked whether we were all okay, thank you. We read every one of them. It's the same crew you've been dealing with since 2017, and we're building this back stronger than ever.

LITTLE SILVER, NEW JERSEY - AUGUST 25: The CMC Motorsports warehouse two days after the August 23 fire. (Photo by CMC Motorsports)

Now for the part where I owe you two seasons of racing, because neither F1 nor IndyCar was kind enough to wait for us. Lando Norris won the Dutch Grand Prix the same Sunday our building burned, and Kyle Kirkwood won an IndyCar race on the National Mall in Washington that afternoon. I didn't see either of them live. I've caught up since, and there's a lot to get through.

When we last talked F1, Kimi Antonelli had just won at Spa, George Russell's race had gone wrong on the first lap, and we were getting ready for Hungary. Five Grands Prix later the championship looks pretty much the way it did in July, with Antonelli on 302 points, Russell on 236, Lewis Hamilton on 199, Norris on 186 and Charles Leclerc on 179. That's a 66-point lead with eight rounds left. Mercedes has won eleven of the fifteen races this year, and Antonelli has eight of those on his own, which is a ridiculous number for a kid who's barely twenty.

Hungary was Norris's first win of the season, and he had to get past his own teammate to earn it. Oscar Piastri got by him at Turn 2 on the opening lap after Norris ran a little wide, and Norris spent a good part of the middle stint on the radio asking to pit first and being told no. He got the lead back after the second round of stops anyway. Piastri was running second with 14 laps left when his gearbox gave out, and the Virtual Safety Car that came out for him wrecked Hamilton's afternoon: Ferrari brought him in, he got caught speeding in the pit lane, and the five-second penalty dropped him from second to fifth. Verstappen took second, Antonelli third, Leclerc fourth. Russell stalled on the grid and fought back to seventh, which tells you how quick that Mercedes is even when things go sideways.

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY - JULY 26: Race winner Lando Norris of Great Britain driving the (1) McLaren MCL40 Mercedes takes the chequered flag waved by Jean Alesi during the F1 Grand Prix of Hungary at Hungaroring on July 26, 2026 in Budapest, Hungary. (Photo by Mark Sutton - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Zandvoort was Norris again, from pole, though Russell had won the sprint the day before with Leclerc and Norris behind him. Verstappen's home race was over before the first lap was. He dropped a wheel over the white line on the main straight, lost the rear and hit the wall hard enough to stop the race with a red flag (he walked away from it, thankfully). Antonelli led after the restart, Norris retook it into Turn 1 on lap 52 and pulled away to win by 11.5 seconds. Thirteen laps later Mercedes told Russell to let Antonelli through for second, and Russell did it, though you could hear on the radio he wasn't thrilled. He still finished third, with Hamilton fourth and Leclerc fifth.

ZANDVOORT, NETHERLANDS - AUGUST 23: Lando Norris of Great Britain and McLaren Mastercard F1 Team raises his trophy in celebration on the podium during the F1 Grand Prix of Netherlands at Circuit Zandvoort on August 23, 2026 in Zandvoort, Netherlands. (Photo by Kym Illman/Getty Images)

Then came Monza, and if you only watched one race this summer I hope it was this one. Antonelli started 19th after a power unit penalty. Pierre Gasly stuck the Alpine on pole, which I don't think anybody saw coming, and slid back to seventh once the race got going. Leclerc lost the car coming out of the Curva Alboreto on lap 2 and went into the barrier, so Ferrari's home race was down to one car almost immediately, and Hamilton brought that one home sixth. The whole thing turned on lap 26, when a Virtual Safety Car let Mercedes pit Antonelli for fresh mediums while Russell stayed out on used hards. Antonelli chased him down, had a scary moment through the gravel on lap 49, and made the pass stick between the second Lesmo and the Ascari chicane on lap 50. He won by 3.9 seconds. He's the first Italian to win at Monza since Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966, and I'd love to know how many people in that crowd had been waiting their whole lives for it. Verstappen was third, and spent part of the race telling his engineers the rear of the car was broken.

MONZA, ITALY - SEPTEMBER 06: Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy driving the (12) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team W17 runs through the gravel during the F1 Grand Prix of Italy at Autodromo Nazionale Monza on September 06, 2026 in Monza, Italy. (Photo by Andy Hone/LAT Images)

A week later the Madring in Madrid held its first Grand Prix, and Norris put it on pole. His race came apart on lap 15. Lance Stroll crashed at Turn 20, the Virtual Safety Car was called just after Norris had gone past the pit entry, and then he lost more time when his stop had a slow front-right. Antonelli won by 4.3 seconds over Verstappen, Norris climbed back to third, and Leclerc and Russell finished fourth and fifth. Hamilton's brakes failed early on and he had to park it.

MADRID, SPAIN - SEPTEMBER 13: Race winner Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy and Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team celebrates on the podium during the F1 Grand Prix of Spain at Madring on September 13, 2026 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Simon Galloway/LAT Images)

Baku ran on a Saturday, September 26, and it was chaos. Russell took pole and held off Verstappen at the line by 0.196 seconds for his third win of the year. Isack Hadjar, who'd missed Zandvoort, Monza and the Madring with a wrist injury he picked up training over the summer, came back and finished third, so Red Bull had both cars on the podium for once. Alex Albon put his Williams into the barrier at Turn 6 to bring out the first safety car. On the restart Franco Colapinto locked up into Turn 1 and hit his own teammate, Gasly, who had nowhere to go but into Norris, and all three were out on the spot. Antonelli had crashed at Turn 1 in qualifying and started 16th, and he drove all the way up to fifth, so Russell only took fifteen points out of the gap. Piastri was in the fight for the podium until he locked up at Turn 1 on a restart, had to spin the car around to rejoin, and finished 14th. Leclerc was fourth and Hamilton sixth.

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN - SEPTEMBER 26: Race winner George Russell of Great Britain and Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team, Second placed Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing, Third placed Isack Hadjar of France and Oracle Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team trophy delegate celebrate on the podium during the F1 Grand Prix of Azerbaijan at Baku City Circuit on September 26, 2026 in Baku, Azerbaijan. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

I want to spend a minute on Verstappen, because his summer has been strange. His last five races read second, out on lap one, third, second and second, and he still hasn't won a race this year. On August 20 he extended his Red Bull contract through 2030, two years longer than his old deal, with Laurent Mekies running the team now. We spent a good part of the spring on this blog wondering whether he'd walk away after this season. He's staying, and the car looks like it's getting closer to the Mercedes every weekend.

Ferrari's season is harder to sum up. They have two wins (Hamilton's in Barcelona and Leclerc's at Silverstone) and 378 constructors' points to Mercedes' 538, and Hamilton is twenty points ahead of Leclerc in the standings, which isn't where most of you had them back in March. Further down the grid it gets ugly. Aston Martin has three points all season, all of them Fernando Alonso's, and Cadillac, the first new team in F1 since Haas came in a decade ago, still hasn't scored after fifteen rounds.

The driver market moved too. Alonso and Stroll were confirmed at Aston Martin for 2027 on September 29, and a day later Haas announced that Esteban Ocon is leaving at the end of the year, with no word yet on where he's going or who replaces him. Racing Bulls hasn't confirmed its 2027 pair either, and while nobody expects Mercedes to change anything, it hasn't formally announced Russell and Antonelli for next year.

This weekend's race is the Bahrain Grand Prix, and it's in Malaysia. The April races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were called off because of the conflict in the Middle East, and in July F1 moved the Bahrain round to Sepang for October 2 through 4, with Bahrain paying for the event and keeping its name on it. It's the first time F1 has raced in Malaysia since 2017. Singapore is the week after.

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - OCTOBER 01: Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Italy and Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team arrives in the Paddock during previews ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain in Malaysia at Sepang Circuit on October 01, 2026 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Photo by Joe Portlock/LAT Images)

IndyCar, meanwhile, finished its whole season while we were moving boxes. When I last wrote about it, Álex Palou had just won Portland for his sixth win of the year and led by 110 points with five races to go. He didn't win any of the five, and it didn't make a bit of difference.

Markham, Ontario held its first race on August 16, and Marcus Ericsson won it for Andretti, his first win since St. Petersburg in 2023 and the end of a 63-race drought. He stayed out longer than the cars around him at his stops, then passed Romain Grosjean in the closing laps. Grosjean held on for second, his best finish since Barber in 2023, and Will Power was third. Palou started outside the top ten for the first time in 30 races and still finished fourth, and his lead grew to 133.

MARKHAM, CANADA - AUGUST 16: Winner #28: Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global Honda celebrates in Victory Lane during the NTT INDYCAR Series NTT INDYCAR Series Ontario Honda Dealers INDY at Markham on August 16, 2026 in Markham, Ontario. (Photo by Michael L. Levitt/Lumen via Getty Images)

The next Sunday was the Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C., on a temporary street circuit around the National Mall. Kirkwood started second, led 128 of the 147 laps, and had more than sixteen seconds in hand before a late caution bunched everyone up, and he still won by 3.09 seconds over Christian Lundgaard. Palou had the worst day of his season. He got a drive-through penalty for hitting a tire on his first stop, lost more time to a loose wheel on another, and crashed at Turn 4 on lap 123 when a toe link that had been damaged against the wall earlier finally broke. He finished 20th and the lead dropped to 91.

WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 23: Kyle Kirkwood, driver of the #27 Sam's Club Honda celebrates after winning the NTT INDYCAR Series Freedom 250 on August 23, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

Milwaukee was supposed to be a Saturday and Sunday doubleheader, but rain red-flagged Race 1 on Saturday after 90 laps. On Sunday they ran Race 2 at noon, then went back and finished Race 1, and Pato O'Ward won both of them, which gave him two IndyCar wins in a single day. Palou finished fifth and tenth, and when Race 1 was done he had the championship locked up with a round to spare. That's five titles (2021, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026), four of them in a row, and it puts him third on the all-time list behind A.J. Foyt's seven and Scott Dixon's six.

WEST ALLIS, WISCONSIN - AUGUST 30: #5: Pato O'Ward, Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, winner, victory lane, celebration during the NTT INDYCAR Series Milwaukee Mile on August 30, 2026 at the Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wisconsin (Photo by Gavin Baker/Lumen via Getty Images)

Laguna Seca closed things out on September 6. Scott McLaughlin took pole, led 87 of 95 laps and beat Kirkwood by 1.37 seconds to end a 35-race winless run, and Kirkwood's second place was enough to lock up second in the championship. Alexander Rossi finished third and Palou eighth. The final standings read Palou 631, Kirkwood 545, Lundgaard 535, O'Ward 522 and David Malukas 514, so Palou won it by 86. Dennis Hauger took Rookie of the Year with 228 points to Mick Schumacher's 213, and he clinched it in the finale even after getting spun on the opening lap.

SALINAS, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 6: #10: Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda celebrates winning his fifth IndyCar Championship with the Astor Cup during the NTT INDYCAR Series WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on September 6, 2026 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Salinas, California (Photo by Michael L. Levitt/Lumen via Getty Images)

It was also Dixon's last race in a Chip Ganassi car. He's heading to Arrow McLaren for 2027 alongside Felix Rosenqvist, who won this year's Indy 500 by 0.0233 seconds, the closest finish the race has ever had. On September 29 Ganassi named his replacement, and it's Lundgaard, who finished third in points with two wins this year and will drive the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda. So Dixon and Lundgaard basically swap places.

So here's how I see Sepang going.

Mercedes has had the best car for most of the year, and I don't expect Malaysia to change that. Both of Sepang's long straights end in heavy braking, into Turn 1 at one end and the final hairpin at the other, and these cars are only as quick as the energy they can pull back under braking and put down coming out of slow corners. Nobody on this grid has raced a 2026 car there, so Friday practice will carry more weight than it usually does. I've got Antonelli on pole by about a tenth over Russell. Afternoon storms are common at Sepang, and the threat of rain alone will have every pit wall second-guessing itself.

Russell pits early, gets the undercut around lap 20, and for a stretch it looks like Baku all over again. Then somebody stops on track near half distance, out comes the safety car, and Antonelli ends up on the newer set of tires for the restart and takes the lead back into Turn 1. Verstappen has been sitting third all afternoon waiting for exactly that kind of restart, and he gets past Russell at the hairpin with a few laps left to take second, his fourth runner-up finish in six races. Russell holds on for third. One of the Aston Martins won't see the checkered flag, and that's about the safest prediction I'll make all year.

Antonelli, Verstappen and Russell, in that order.

We'll be watching from the temporary space, probably on a laptop balanced on a pallet, and by the time Singapore rolls around you should be able to order from us again.