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Kia ora, motorsport fans.
Updated late October 2026: five Formula 1 rounds are left. The IndyCar season is over and the NASCAR playoffs are running, so this guide covers what's happened for our drivers and when to watch the rest.
Liam Lawson is at Racing Bulls in F1, Shane van Gisbergen (SVG) is in the NASCAR Cup Series, and Scott Dixon and Marcus Armstrong are in IndyCar. Add the Christchurch Supercars round at Ruapuna in April, and it's been a big year for Kiwi fans.
1. Liam Lawson (Formula 1, Racing Bulls)
Lawson is in his first full season at Racing Bulls, Red Bull's second team, alongside British rookie Arvid Lindblad. It's a comeback after 2025, when he was dropped from the senior Red Bull team after two races.
His season: after 16 rounds he was 9th in the championship on 24 points. His best results were 7th in China, where he also scored sprint points, and 6th in Monaco. He also stepped up to the senior Red Bull car mid-season while Isack Hadjar was injured, and scored points there before going back to Racing Bulls.
The F1 races still to come (NZ time)
- Mexico City: Monday 2 November, about 9am.
- São Paulo: Monday 9 November, about 6am.
- Las Vegas: Sunday 22 November, about 5pm. The only one of the run you can watch in the evening.
- Qatar: Monday 30 November, about 5am.
- Abu Dhabi: Monday 7 December, about 2am. The season finale.
The evening races earlier in the year
- Australia (8 March, about 5pm NZT): Lawson qualified 8th and finished 13th in difficult conditions.
- China (15 March, about 8pm NZT): his best weekend of the early season, 7th in both the sprint and the race.
- Japan (29 March, about 6pm NZT): qualified 14th, finished 9th.
2. Shane van Gisbergen (NASCAR Cup Series, Trackhouse Racing No. 97)
SVG is in his second full Cup season, driving the No. 97 Chevrolet for Trackhouse Racing. For us, NASCAR races are on Monday mornings.
His season: two Cup wins. At Watkins Glen on 10 May he came back from 29 seconds down with 18 laps to go, and at Sonoma on 28 June he led from start to finish. He also won the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Sonoma the day before. That's 8 Cup wins in his career, equal second all-time on road courses with Tony Stewart and one behind Jeff Gordon.
Playoffs: the two wins put him in the playoffs. Ovals are still his weak spot. On road courses he's the benchmark.
His road course results this year
- COTA (9 March NZT): 2nd, on his Cup debut at the track.
- Watkins Glen (11 May NZT): won.
- Sonoma (29 June NZT): won, and swept the weekend with the O'Reilly race.
3. Scott Dixon and Marcus Armstrong (IndyCar)
The 2026 IndyCar season is finished.
The Indy 500 (25 May NZT): Armstrong, in the No. 66 Honda for Meyer Shank Racing, came from 16th on the grid to fight for the lead late on and finished 5th in the closest Indy 500 ever, decided by 0.023 seconds. His teammate Felix Rosenqvist won it. Armstrong has since extended with the team through 2027. Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing, No. 9) had a competitive middle of the season.
Dixon and Armstrong are on different teams, Ganassi and Meyer Shank, but both are racing at the top of American open-wheel racing.
4. The big weekends earlier in the year
- 25 and 26 May NZT:
- F1: Canadian Grand Prix
- IndyCar: Indianapolis 500, with Armstrong 5th
- NASCAR: Coca-Cola 600
- 19 and 20 April NZT:
- F1: Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
- IndyCar: Grand Prix of Long Beach
- NASCAR: Kansas Speedway
5. How to watch in NZ
- Formula 1: live on Sky Sport and Sky Sport Now. F1 TV Pro is available for onboard cameras and live data.
- IndyCar: Sky Sport has the NZ rights.
- NASCAR: ThreeNow has some free coverage, and Sky Sport shows full races.
Five F1 races to go. Set the alarms.
