Indy 500 2026 with Mick Schumacher live: The race now live!

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There is a crash for the first time! Katherine Legge and Ryan Hunter-Reay are involved. Both drivers are okay, but there is a caution, meaning a safety car.

The whole field is hanging together like a string of pearls. There are no crashes yet. Things have calmed down a bit. Every driver now has to see how their car behaves in different situations. No one wants to lead for too long because it affects fuel consumption. Therefore, Rossi and Palou continue to swap the lead. It would not be wise to reveal all cards now. Until lap 100, it will be slow, then aggression will increase.

Mick Schumacher is still 32nd behind Sting Ray Robb and ahead of Jacob Abel.

Mick Schumacher drops back to P32. Jack Harvey and Sting Ray Robb have passed him. Only Jacob Abel is still behind him. Cautious start.

At the front, Palou and Rossi continue, but Felix Rosenqvist has moved up to P3. As mentioned below: Many say he has the fastest car in the field.

Another driver on the rise: Josef Newgarden: The Penske man has already gained seven places.

Alex Palou and Alexander Rossi swap places several times, behind them Santino Ferrucci moves up to third place, having quickly driven forward.

Mick Schumacher initially lost three places and is in P30.

The 110th edition of the Indianapolis 500 has started!

There are now several warm-up laps. In the last one, the field spreads out a lot, the starting rows are far apart. This is for safety reasons. Three cars start side by side. 33 cars start the race.

Who would be better suited to say the “most famous words in motorsports” than the captain himself? Roger Penske, owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the IndyCar series, and Team Penske, gives the command at 89 years old. He still works every day from morning till night.

This year, the honorary starter of the race is American-Canadian actor Brendan Fraser, known among others from the “Mummy” films. He will wave the green flag this year and thus start the race.

Now more than 50 years old but still feared: The F-16 Fighting Falcon. Here from the 175th Fighter Brigade of the US Air Force.

Now it’s getting serious. Soon the command will be given for the drivers to get into their cars.

Two drivers in the field have the chance to set a new age record: Takuma Sato at 49 years and 116 days and Helio Castroneves at 51 years and 14 days. The current record is held by Al Unser Sr. at 47 years and 360 days when he won the race in 1987.

Castroneves is also the oldest driver in the field. The youngest is McLaren driver Nolan Siegel at 21 years and 196 days. He wasn’t even born when Castroneves won the first of his four victories in 2001. The oldest driver ever to participate in the 500 is A.J. Foyt at 57 years and 128 days in 1992.

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For some especially outside the USA hard to endure, for others a fascinating spectacle that simply belongs: anthem, military parade, praying for God’s blessing and then three flyovers by the Air Force with F-16 fighter jets and the National Guard with Black Hawk helicopters. The Indy 500 is a show. A special mention in the prayer is for Kyle Busch.

As mentioned below, the Indy 500 is mainly about the right aerodynamic setup. There are Gurney flaps (“Wicker”) on the front and rear wings. The number of screws on the rear wing indicates the width of the wicker.

The majority of the field runs with:
Small wicker on the front wing, 3-screw wicker on the rear wing.

Exceptions:
Entire first row (Palou, Rossi, Malukas): Larger wicker on the front wing
Collet: Larger wicker on the left front wing
Dixon, Armstrong, Ericsson, Lundgaard, Power, Hunter-Reay, Kirkwood, Legge: Smaller wicker on the right front wing
Abel: Larger wicker on the rear wing (5 screws, more downforce)
Rossi, VeeKay: No wicker on the rear wing, so less downforce

What a bizarre scene: Alexander Rossi has to use crutches for the presentation after his accident on Monday. He gets help from David Malukas and Alex Palou and an extra round of applause from the audience. But that won’t slow him down in the cockpit today.

Interesting: Mick Schumacher was announced as “from Switzerland.” That is technically correct as he officially lives in Gland. The presentation proceeds relatively quickly. Each starting row is given only about a minute. The schedule is tight.

Surprisingly, Katherine Legge, who starts next to Mick Schumacher, was missing from the presentation.

Update: Looks like Katherine Legge simply missed her appearance. She has now arrived at the starting grid, as our US colleagues inform us.

The gladiators are getting ready to march in. But who is it? Former Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo makes an appearance. It would be something to see him in this race, wouldn’t it?

The pre-race show is still running, mostly parade laps at the moment. It currently looks like the heaviest rain will pass southeast of Indianapolis. There remains the risk that showers could form out of nowhere. For now, we can be cautiously optimistic.

A weather radar is available here.

For the first time since 2005, the name Andretti is not on the entry list. Marco Andretti announced his retirement from racing in October 2025. This ends the dynasty after three generations for now.

For the first time since 1957, there is no Andretti, Unser, or Foyt in the field. But for the first time, a Schumacher.

By the way, the Norwegians had to wait even longer than the Germans: Dennis Hauger is only the second Norwegian in history to start the race. The only previous Viking was Gil Anderson, who participated in the first six editions from 1911 to 1916.

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