From a causal open wheel fan Indy vs. F1

DanicaFreak

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on a oval, F1 faster than an Indycar?
Does being a pack improve F1 or Indycar's speed more?
 

aunty dive

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You’re welcome and your spelling remains abysmal.
 

FLRacingFan

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Indy. F1 would stand a better chance at Gateway. They have too much drag to come close in top speed at a place like IMS. I’m not sure they’d last 500 consecutive miles at speed either.
 

kkfan91

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We'll never know F1 guys are too scared to run ovals.
 

donthaveanickname

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Indy. F1 would stand a better chance at Gateway. They have too much drag to come close in top speed at a place like IMS. I’m not sure they’d last 500 consecutive miles at speed either.
Perez once reached 370 kph at Mexico in 2016 so I guess it could be doable with current F1 cars. And since they're only allowed 3 engines a year I'd guess at least some of them would last 500 consecutive miles at speed.
 

FLRacingFan

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Perez once reached 370 kph at Mexico in 2016 so I guess it could be doable with current F1 cars. And since they're only allowed 3 engines a year I'd guess at least some of them would last 500 consecutive miles at speed.
Top speeds are a little shy of 350 kph now that the cars have gotten a bit draggier over the last couple of regs cycles, and that’s with DRS enabled. You could be right about the engines but they also don’t have to run sustained revs/speeds for anywhere close to 500 miles (305 km) in any one outing so I think it could be a challenge in a way.
 

Charlie Spencer

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they also don’t have to run sustained revs/speeds for anywhere close to 500 miles (305 km) in any one outing
Excellent point, assuming this theoretical race was 500 miles. No reason it has to be. Actually, it would have to be relatively short, since the F1's don't refuel. To be fair, each side would have to make changes to their pit crews. Maybe give more people to the IRL teams and the F1ers would have to adjust to having less fancy pit stalls and garages. Or run a minimal distance with no pitting at all.
 

Charlie Spencer

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Two heats, one with ten Indy cars, one with ten F1. Top five from each refuel, change tires, advance to the main. Main is twice the distance of the heats, one 5-minute caution, single-file restart in the order you came in. Taking the pit crews out returns the focus to a straight-up comparison between the technologies.

Somebody get Roger on the phone.
 

Mispeedway15

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F1 may be the top of auto racing tech but the racing isn't as good as Indycar.
It is quite amazing regardless to hold on to a car going 14 seconds a lap quicker than an IndyCar. Still you're 100% right, IndyCar is a much better product but I think a lot of that as well are the tracks they run. America has a lot of cool road courses
 

Charlie Spencer

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I remember when Billy Joel and Elton John were touring together. I came away thinking Elton was a passably better musician and that Billy was a better entertainer.
 

Marcingak

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Formula 1 is really boring. One driver wins 90% of the races. You're lucky if there is more than one lead change per race. I guess the main reason I watch is that it's cool to see them race in different countries and the announcers do a good job of somehow making a boring race seem interesting. The announcers are great, and zero commercials is a big plus.
 

FLRacingFan

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It is quite amazing regardless to hold on to a car going 14 seconds a lap quicker than an IndyCar. Still you're 100% right, IndyCar is a much better product but I think a lot of that as well are the tracks they run. America has a lot of cool road courses
America has many more raw/unrefined road courses but an Indy car is also just a much less refined car than a Formula 1 car. Power steering versus no power steering, spec chassis and aero, worse brakes. Guys like Grosjean and Ericsson who can make direct comparisons note they’re very wildly different cars to drive.

Several years back when IndyCar was first testing OEM aero kits Chevy did a test at COTA where their times reportedly would’ve been good enough to qualify midfield at the US GP, but they had to take some downforce off for the final kit since the Dallara may not have been able to sustain the loads going through the chassis. Anyways, the IndyCar spec aero with less downforce came back a few years later in 2018, and F1 cars got much quicker beginning with 2017 aero changes while hybrid power units have also gotten much better since the first couple of seasons.

What will be interesting is come 2026 when F1 hybrid power units will depend much more upon electric energy than they do now. The IndyCar 2024 ICE (~ 800 HP) will be much more powerful than the F1 2026 ICE (~535 HP) and F1 manufacturers will seemingly have a big task ahead to generate and deploy ~ 470 HP from the MGU-K throughout a whole lap, let alone a full Grand Prix.
 

FLRacingFan

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Formula 1 is really boring. One driver wins 90% of the races. You're lucky if there is more than one lead change per race. I guess the main reason I watch is that it's cool to see them race in different countries and the announcers do a good job of somehow making a boring race seem interesting. The announcers are great, and zero commercials is a big plus.
The way I see it, F1 races typically have a higher ceiling and a much lower floor as far as entertainment than an IndyCar road race. You just don't reach that ceiling very often, but when you do it’s incredible.

It’s a shame this season petered out because it had so much intrigue at the beginning before Ferrari started bottling races left and right and Red Bull pulled ahead in the development war.
 

Doc Austin

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The problem with the cars in both series is that they are too heavy. It's going to get even worse for Indycar because they will be adding a hybrid unit.
 

DanicaFreak

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The problem with the cars in both series is that they are too heavy. It's going to get even worse for Indycar because they will be adding a hybrid unit.
as long as Indy doesnt do DHS ...they kinda already have it with push to pass
 

Doc Austin

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as long as Indy doesnt do DHS ...they kinda already have it with push to pass

DRS and the whole tire game with mandatory "option" tires is fake and phony and more like WWE that racing. They finally have the cars to where they can actually race them wheel to wheel so we don't need any gimmicks. Kill the DRS and let them run whatever tires Pirelli brings, whenever they want to run them.
 

shark77

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Get rid of DRS and have a cumulative minimum allowable weight for the season. So, teams can run whatever weight they want in a given race, but their total weight of all finishes must be above a certain amount by the end of the season. If the car doesn’t finish a race, they’re given the highest weight of those that finish a race.
 

donthaveanickname

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DRS and P2P are both necessary evils at this point. There's no realistic way to completely get rid of all aero-dependency in open wheel racing and I'd prefer passing with help to no passing at all.
What will be interesting is come 2026 when F1 hybrid power units will depend much more upon electric energy than they do now. The IndyCar 2024 ICE (~ 800 HP) will be much more powerful than the F1 2026 ICE (~535 HP) and F1 manufacturers will seemingly have a big task ahead to generate and deploy ~ 470 HP from the MGU-K throughout a whole lap, let alone a full Grand Prix.
Motorsport aktuell had an interesting piece on the new F1 engine regulations weeks ago. If they actually want to use 500 electric hp the cars will have to "go sailing" before they reach the middle of the straightaway. That could necessitate the re-introduction of the active suspension and also an adjustable front wing.
 

DanicaFreak

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Personally, I feel that NASCAR is watching F1 delve into eletricifying their vehicles.
 
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