The off-season ends this week as two major racing series fire back to life.
The new IndyCar season will begin once again on the streets of St Petersburg in Florida. Qualifying takes place on Saturday and the race is on Sunday. The American series has moved to a different television network in its home country.Ganassi driver Alex Palou heads into the new season aiming to continue asserting his authority on the highly competitive series. He is seeking his third championship in a row and fourth in the last five years.
Among those out to stop him are Penske’s Josef Newgarden, who claimed his second Indianapolis 500 victory last year. He was first to the chequered flag in the season-opener 12 months ago but did not keep the win. Newgarden and team mate Scott McLaughlin were disqualified six weeks later for using their push-to-pass systems at times when it should have been deactivated.
By the time the IndyCar drivers head out to qualify, the new World Endurance Championship will already have completed its first race, which is the second-longest on its calendar. The Qatar 1,812km, which took almost 10 hours to complete last year, will take place on Friday.
The main change among the Hypercar runners this year is the arrival of the new, two-car entry for Aston Martin. Its two Valkyries are run by Heart of Racing.
Here’s when to catch the key action in both series.
| Event | Date | Start Time | End Time | Time Zone | Channels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World Endurance Championship: Qatar 1812km qualifying | Thursday 27th February | 2:00pm | Europe: London | UK: FIAWEC TV, US: FIAWEC TV | |
| World Endurance Championship: Qatar 1812km | Friday 28th February | 11:00am | Europe: London | UK: FIAWEC TV, US: FIAWEC TV | |
| IndyCar: Grand Prix of St Petersburg qualifying | Saturday 1st March | 7:30pm | 9:00pm | Europe: London | UK: Sky Sports F1, US: FS1 |
| IndyCar: Grand Prix of St Petersburg | Sunday 2nd March | 5:29pm | Europe: London | UK: Sky Sports F1, US: Fox |
Having problems using the time zone converter? Please give feedback here
IndyCar
- “No doubt” Herta is quick enough for Formula 1 – Ericsson
- Andretti confirms he’s stepping down in charge of racing team
- Ilott gets first seat in Prema’s new IndyCar team
- Palou clinches third IndyCar title as Herta passes O’Ward to win finale
- Kirkwood takes pole for finale, Palou only 24th after penalty
Alesici
24th February 2025, 21:50
I’m really excited to see that the third party PC software Multiviewer has added (albeit beta) functionality for Indycar Live – their equivalent of F1 TV which Multiviewer was originally developed for. This software enables you to custom arrange multiple windows spread over multiple screens, and save that state to be easily re-loaded at the start of each race or session. Each of those windows can show a different in-car camera, live timing, etc. The software is free, and Indycar’s streaming service is £24 for the season, or £1.50 per race. Note Indycar only fits about half of the grid with cameras, but heck, it has a much bigger grid than F1 – typically 26 vs 20.
Note that in the UK, the service doesn’t include the main live TV production feed of the race – it only shows the live in-car camera footage etc. For the main production, you need the Sky F1 channel.
In other countries not suffering e.g. Sky’s exclusive deal, the Indycar Live service can be upgraded to fill that gap. That increases the price to about £42 for the season. As with F1 TV, this is hideously cheap compared to Sky F1…
Alternatively, AFAIK, it should still be free to apply my previous solution of using a phone and tablet to show 1 in-car view each via the Indycar app.
Unicron (@unicron2002)
24th February 2025, 22:31
Very interesting indeed, good to know. I live in the UK and I ditched Sky F1 2 or 3 seasons ago to save costs. I had grown very weary of the Sky presenters and found that the Channel 4 highlights programme was sooo much better all round.
Sadly, this meant that I lost out on the Indycar races live so I have been having to settle for watching the 30 mins highlights video that Indycar put on YouTube 24 hours after the race. It just about does the job and it’such better than nothing.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
24th February 2025, 23:26
Interesting use of the word “weekend”. I wonder if the WEC Free Practice 3 will live up to its name and be free on Youtube again this year (5 hours before qualifying, 9am Thursday GMT)