IndyCar will return to European soil for the first time in over a decade with a race scheduled at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on July 18, 2027. The announcement comes as the series signs a 10-year deal to hold the event, marking its first race outside North America on the current calendar.
Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya has a long history with top-level motorsport, hosting the Spanish Grand Prix from 1991 until 2025. That race moved to the new Madring circuit this year, but Catalunya remains part of Formula 1’s calendar on a rotating basis, now called the Grand Prix of Barcelona-Catalunya. The rotation alternates with Spa-Francorchamps hosting the Belgian Grand Prix in odd-numbered years. With no F1 race scheduled at Catalunya in 2027, the IndyCar event will be the track’s biggest motorsport occasion that year.
The 10-year contract means Catalunya will host both IndyCar and Formula 1 races in the same calendar year at least four times during the deal. This would be the first time since IndyCar’s only appearance at Circuit of the Americas in 2019 that a venue has staged both series in one year.
IndyCar’s international footprint once extended across Asia, Europe, and South America through the 1990s and 2000s, but that ended after the final Brazilian round in 2013. The Barcelona race marks a clear return to Europe and an expansion outside the US and Canada after more than a decade.
The location carries personal significance for Alex Palou, the five-time and reigning IndyCar champion, who is from the Barcelona area. Palou is expected to treat the round as his home race. For other drivers across North America, the Catalunya event offers the nearest equivalent to a home race until further international rounds are added.
The race date is set for July 18, 2027. This will be the first time IndyCar has held a race at Catalunya, adding a new chapter to the track’s history beyond Formula 1. The return to Europe signals a new phase in IndyCar’s calendar strategy.
According to Yahoo Sports.
