Put the brakes on comparing IndyCar-F1
Jim Ayello: Two series’ cars are so different, comparison makes no sense
Frankly, I don’t get it. I don’t understand the obsession so many fans have with comparing IndyCar racing to Formula One. Unfortunately, I fear we’re doomed for a weekend filled with fans engaging in this useless exercise.
The NTT IndyCar Series is headed to the 20-turn, 3.427-mile Circuit of the Americas road course for the first time. Formula One cars have been competing at the idyllic track since it opened in 2012, making this weekend’s race the first time IndyCar and F1 will race on the same track in the same year since 2006 at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
For many fans, this offers the ideal opportunity to compare speeds and lap times of the two top open-wheel series.
But why? Is there something useful to be gained?
“No, it’s silly,” said Sebastien Bourdais, one of few drivers with experience in both series. “I mean, what are we trying to compare?
The cars are so vastly different that a comparison makes no sense. They both accomplish the same goal, but they get there in very different ways.
In F1, Bourdais explains, you’re dealing with some of the most technologically advanced machines in racing. Formula One teams spend somewhere between $80 million and $300 million on their full-season programs.
A top-level IndyCar team might top out at about $10 million. It’s no knock on IndyCar to say with that level of spending disparity, F1 cars had darn well better be quicker.
That’s by far not the only reason F1 cars will turn quicker laps at COTA. Once you add the driver to the equation, Indy cars weigh about 100 pounds more than their F1 counterparts (minimum weight of 1,631). They have to. Indy cars are built to absorb more impact than their F1 counterparts, Bourdais said, primarily because Indy cars race on ovals.
If Bourdais had slammed into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway SAFER barrier going 227 mph and generating 114 Gs, as he did during 500 qualifying two years ago, in an F1 car, he probably would not have escaped the wreckage with only a broken pelvis and hip.
“Right now, Formula One has a lot of artificial ways to produce lap times, particularly with the DRS (drag reduction system),” Bourdais continued in his comparison of the two series. “And when you start looking at the difference in pace from race and qualifying, you see a very different picture. They lose like eight seconds at the beginning of the race. On new tires. You have all that fuel, and they’re still not at our minimum weight. That tells you how important weight is (to speed).
“They also have ridiculously big tires that produce a lot of mechanical grip and have a ton of horsepower with the hybrid systems. Of course they’re going to be a lot faster. If we added a thousand horsepower on acceleration, we’d go a lot faster, too.”
By now the point should be clear: Why waste your precious time comparing lap times when there are more important questions to ask?
What will the racing be like at COTA? Will it be entertaining? Those are really the only questions IndyCar should be concerned with, Bourdais said.
“Ultimately, we’re in the entertainment business,” he said. “Racing is about a lot more than just pure speed or lap time. It’s about how good a race you put together and how much fighting you got going on and how much action you have on track. I think the (two) disciplines are completely different, and trying to compare them, yeah, there’s just really not much point in doing it.”
I couldn’t agree more.