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Welcome back to Prime Tire, where today there’s only one place to start.

RIP, Kyle Busch.

A NASCAR and motorsport legend, shockingly gone at 41 after a short battle with an illness.

I’m Alex, and Patrick Iversen and Luke Smith will be along later.

Memories Matter: Norris collabs with dementia charity 

If you’ve opened this newsletter hoping for some escapism and levity, don’t worry — Pat has that covered later.

But first, let’s stay serious for a moment. There’s an important message Lando Norris will be carrying on his head all this weekend at Formula 1’s 2026 Canadian Grand Prix. The world champion is collaborating with Jackie Stewart’s charity, Race Against Dementia, and sporting a helmet design with the aim of highlighting dementia research.

Stewart, the former F1 driver and three-time world champion, established the charity in 2016, following his wife Helen’s diagnosis with frontotemporal dementia.

Norris’ helmet for Montreal features a brain scan visualization showing the impact dementia has on the organ’s synapses. One side is colorful — “full of memories,” as Norris put in this lovely video explainer — and the other is faded — representing memory damage that dementia brings about.

“That’s not a nice way to live,” Norris added. “Because everything in life is about memories.”

I thought this was all worth highlighting for two reasons:

One, Norris is right. On the day we look back on the career of Kyle Busch (below, from his last win just a week ago), with Jeff Gluck encapsulating it perfectly here, it’s important to reflect and take in what matters.

And the Norris story sparked a personal memory I’ll always cherish: I met both Jackie and Helen at their home near Geneva, Switzerland, back in 2017. That alone was a privilege. But to see their love, care and devotion to one another was another entirely.

The second reason is that I remembered how, among certain sections of F1’s wide fan base, drivers regularly changing their helmet liveries is not popular. It became such a thing that in 2015 the drivers were even banned from making regular changes (the ban was rescinded by the FIA in 2020).

• Some people don’t like to see what can amount to a signature, or a standout flash at 200 mph, trivialized by regular changes. That’s a position to respect.
• But others enjoy seeing drivers add personality into a sport where emotion is often hard to spot during on-track sessions, because the drivers are cocooned in safety equipment for their own good.
• Plus, it’s another way of expression. And in Norris’ case here, for a very worthy cause.

Now, over to Pat for a discussion about the intriguing feedback to our recent reader survey, which asked about the controversial start of F1’s new era.

Inside the Polling with Patrick Iversen: Your responses, analyzed

A few things jumped out from our survey that didn’t fit into the story. Some of them will annoy you, depending on which version of yourself you are online, and whether you’ve had a banana or been outside this morning.

The “Drive to Survive” question first: The conventional wisdom is that newer fans are the credulous ones — the people who’ll cheer for anything because they met F1 through a Netflix docuseries and think Charles Leclerc’s dog is a main character. (To be clear: They are absolutely correct.)

The survey respectfully disagrees with the conventional wisdom. Over 42 percent of fans who came to F1 through DTS also view the 2026 cars negatively. That’s nearly identical to the F1 lifers. The generation gap people keep expecting to find isn’t there. 

I’m really sorry about that (or, alternatively, congratulations).

• The data shows that the veterans are actually the radicals. Fans who’ve been watching 15-plus years are nearly three times more likely to want a complete overhaul than fans who joined in the last three.Which tracks! The more you remember what it used to feel like, the less patient you are with what it feels like now. Nobody is angrier at the new menu than the person who used to love the old one.
• F1 TV subscribers are also measurably more pessimistic than Apple TV viewers. I genuinely cannot explain that to you, or what it means. But there it is.
• About one in four fans say neither drivers nor media shapes their view at all. (I do not believe you.) This group did not move after Miami, when the minor engine systems changes were introduced.If anything, they grew slightly more negative — entirely unmoved by the optimism that swept through the rest of the fan base. I find this group more interesting than any other in the data, partly because, if they aren’t lying, I don’t fully understand what actually reaches them, and I need them to read this newsletter so I can buy more gasoline.
• Nearly 42 percent of fans surveyed consider the 2026 cars less safe than recent seasons. Put that number next to F1’s standard boast that each new car generation is the safest in history, and let it sit there awkwardly for a moment.
• The Bearman crash at Suzuka and the closing-speed differentials produced by different battery deployment states were the two most-cited concerns in open responses. That moment stood out to more than just the drivers.
• And fans who say they tune out the paddock entirely are almost twice as likely to think the regulations reflect driver skill, compared to fans who say driver criticism shapes them heavily.In other words: The less you hear the drivers complain, the more you assume they’re fine. Which is … genuinely a completely normal and rational way to go about comprehending F1.

I watched the Artemis moon mission. I didn’t wonder if they should slow down if they didn’t say they needed to. I just hoped they would, because what if they missed the moon?

Anyway … the full survey is here. Back to my off day.

Inside the Paddock with Luke Smith: The greatest spectacle in motor racing

Having been to Spa for the six-hour World Endurance Championship race at the start of May, I’m again reporting to you from not the F1 paddock this week.

I’m at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to cover my first Indy 500.

This race has been top of my bucket list for the best part of a decade. I’ve covered the Monaco GP and Le Mans 24 Hours, meaning this will “complete” my personal Triple Crown of Motorsport slate (winning all three races is generally considered the Triple Crown for drivers, with the late Graham Hill the only driver to have done so).

Already, I can see what makes the Indy 500 so special.

History and tradition lie at every turn. Once we arrived, Jeff immediately took me to the yard of bricks start/finish line on the track’s main straight. The enormity of the place has bowled me over, and the banking is much steeper than it looks on TV or in pictures.

There’s also a degree of familiarity from the F1 world. There are plenty of drivers I’ve covered, ranging from Alexander Rossi — whom I first interviewed 13 years ago, when he was a reserve driver at the now-defunct Caterham squad — to ex-Haas driver Mick Schumacher, a debutant this year.

Funnily enough, the news conference sofa at yesterday’s Indy 500 media day even looked like the one used in F1!

But when the cars are on the track, this race is a completely different beast. It’s 230mph speeds, tight pack racing and nothing but bravery. I’ve been blown away. And I must admit, it’s been nice not to hear the words “super clipping” or “harvesting” once …

Back to you, Alex.

Montreal Leaderboard: Antonelli tops FP1, Albon crashes

After a three-week gap from Miami to Montreal, F1 track action returned today. Here’s what happened:

• Kimi Antonelli led FP1 for Mercedes ahead of, you guessed it, his teammate George Russell.
• This was the only practice session of what is the third of six sprint weekends in 2026.
• The Mercedes drivers were sporting the team’s first major aerodynamic upgrade package of the year. This is centered on a new front wing and floor.
• The session was supposed to only last one hour, but it was extended by 20 minutes due to early red flags, caused by Liam Lawson stopping on-track, a technical issue and Alex Albon crashing (below). Esteban Ocon caused another red flag near FP1’s end.
• As you can see (or not, if you’d rather not, this is your warning), Albon crashed after striking one of the groundhogs that lives at this island venue in the middle of the St. Lawrence river.Unfortunately, it’s a regular feature of this track, as Pat explained in this interview with Dr. Christine Maher, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Southern Maine and “one of the few scientists to study groundhog behavior” (Pat’s words, in 2024).

Outside the Points

🐄  Schumacher milked a cow, and Luke wrote a feature about it. Yes, you read those words correctly.

✌ Max Verstappen suggested he might stay in F1 after all, thanks to the proposed changes to the engines for 2027.

‼️ BUT WAIT, there may not be enough support for those changes among the five F1 engine builders for them to be implemented. There’s a crunch meeting (sounds tasty) in Canada this weekend to decide the issue.

🐎 Lewis Hamilton implied he’s going to carry on racing for Ferrari in 2027.

🤬 And Ocon had a very sweary response to social media rumors that he might lose his Haas drive mid-season (both the driver and team say these are completely without merit).

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