NASCAR Fan Reacts to F1 VS IndyCar Direct Lap Comparison At CoTA 

Just remember that most F1 design rules are made to slow them down.

A Dutch driver who had drivingtime in both (Robert Doornbos) compared the two cars. He said that if you’ve driving a F1 and then get in a Indycar is like coming from a normal roadcar getting back in to a Flintstonescar. A huge step back in technology.

Just look at how the F1 corners, it's insane, like a train on tracks, holy molly!

The fact that you can hardly tell the difference of the sounds is just sad really. I really miss the V10 era of F1.

React to Pato O'Ward (current Indycar driver) driving 1999 McLaren as well as more modern McLaren F1's. Top speed he could handle, but braking and cornering after a few laps and he admits that his neck gave up and he couldn't handle the G forces. THIS IS A CURRENT INDYCAR DRIVER!

As an F1 fan, i think that IndyCar is very impressive,due to the fact that they are operating at 1/10 of the budget of Mercedes F1. In race conditions IndyCar is around 12 seconds slower than F1 car. Track record during race in F1 is by Leclerc 1:36,and Colton Herta holds IndyCar lap record 1:48.

I’ve driven COTA several times, know the track very well. My 02’ track-prepped 550hp, AWD Porsche 996TTX50 fastest time is in the 2:30’s, a full MINUTE slower per lap than an F1 car. That should give you an idea just how incredible they are.

Official record lap times are only set during the race. The fastest ever lap on the track is 1m32s029 set by Valtteri Bottas in a Mercedes AMG F1 W10 EQ Power+ during qualifying at the 2019 United States Grand Prix. The official race lap records at the COTA are listed as: F1: 1m36s169 Indycar: 1m48s8953 (insane precise measuring) Nascar Cup: 2m13s177 Full lap time list and track info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit_of_the_Americas

Great comparison... I have always wondered and now I know... I was surprised at the 18.4+ lap difference. What's clear now is there's two different classes of racing... as you make a great closing point... one F1 team could buy out the entire Indy calendar.

Nigel Mansell is a British retired racing driver who won both the Formula One World Championship (1992) and the CART Indy Car World Series (1993).

Im a huge f1 fan and got into indycar in the last few years. The thing with indy car is their aero is a lot simpler and as a coincidence makes the racing much much better, you can follow closer and its easier to make mistakes imo. Along with it being a spec series of course makes the racing closer anyway.

So the Indy Car would get lapped every 4-5th round.

Downforce, downforce, and oh ya downforce.

I have been at both the IndyCar and F1 races at COTA. I timed some IndyCar laptimes and they confirm what you are showing - IndyCar was about 18 seconds/lap slower than F1. In fact, the World Endurance Challenge (WEC) cars that I saw racing at COTA were faster than the IndyCars, as well.

Interesting to watch the steering wheel inputs of both cars. The F1 seems a lot smoother than the Indycar.

" Like the sign says, "speed's just a question of money."How fast you wanna go?" - Grease Rat(Mad Max -1979)

there is really nothing that touches F1 cars in overall performance. You have to watch them live to appreciate the raw speed and explosive performance of F1 cars. Truly special machines

Indycars are amazing cars. They're probably close to somewhere between an F3 and F2 car. I suspect an F2 would lap faster at COTA as well.

Honestly, a kart would probably be a good start that's lots of fun for anyone interested in ever getting a rush of speed, and they're relatively common compared to coming across the opportunity to drive an actual open wheeler, so maybe you could try karting and get an idea on how it feels to drive and race :)

With F1 it's much more about downforce and cornering speed than top speed on the straights. They could of course set the car up for faster top speeds on straights or ovals. But in terms of a lap time around a road course, it's not about being the fastest in a straight line, it's about being the quickest through everything combined. Sure INDY is faster on Ovals, but F1 doesn't race on Ovals. If they did, I'm pretty sure they would figure it out.

One of the things I love about F1 is the cars just seem to defy physics. You see them take those turns at such a high rate of speed, it doesn't look like it would even be physically possible. I'm a motorsport fan in general, love Nascar, Indycar, gt racing, drag etc. But it's impossible to deny how amazing an F1 car is. Probably my favorite to watch of them all.

If you're paying close attention, you can see that the lines these two takes through corners are a bit different. The F1 uses the full potential of the downforce, making a sharp turn as late as possible, to get on the throttle as soon as possible after the turn. The Indy car takes the usual apex line, what all racers would do, except for Formula cars, the downforce difference is huge.

Look at the turn-in at turn 4, 5 and 6 on Hamilton's car - it totally flattens the corners with almost zero lift on the throttle. Then 4 seconds later the IndyCar gets there and it's like he's on a different track. Pure engineering.

I was lucky enough to be invited to the 1992 F1 race at Silverstone with a VIP pass and got to go behind the pit lane where they were making last minute tests on the cars and the noise level is deafening. Then sitting in the grandstand at the starting grid nothing prepares you for just how fast off the mark these cars are, its insane! Great memories!

Yeah. That is the biiiig diffence which just a few americans understand. It's not all about horsepower and top speed on a straight. It's all about fast speed in the corners. ;)

Thank you for this video. I have been a F1 fan since 1972 and it is a pleasure to see a NASCAR fan appreciate other types of motorsport rather than try to denigrate these other types to boost his particular preference. I appreciate certain aspects of NASCAR; the drivers' skill, the pit crews, the mechanical expertise etc. By the same token, I don't think that intentionally bumping another car to gain an advantage has any place on the race track. But hey! That's just my opinion. It's legal in NASCAR and it's apparently what makes the race even more exciting for the fans so who am I to criticize. Anyway, thank you for an interesting and educational comparison between F1 and Indy. I think that the major difference between these two types of motorsport is that while all Indy cars have the same chassis, F1 teams design and manufacture everything on the car from soup to nuts. However, engines are usually supplied by motor companies but under extremely strict specifications. But what incredible engines!!. For example, you cannot start an F1 engine cold. It has to be prepared. The tolerances are just too small. This is a design prerequisite mandated by the need for efficiency. And technology is the key word in F1. Electrical power produced by the car is used to increase the braking and acceleration. There's tons more but I digress. I am posting this comment to thank you for your unbiased evaluation of two types of motorsport other than your favorite. Please keep them coming

another thing to remember is an f1 car could probably go much faster still over a single lap, dont forget this lap is in regards to qualifying but also with a race setup in mind, if they focused on completing 1 single lap without having to worry about a race the next day they could prob slice another couple of seconds from that time

I think it was Hamilton that stated that just one of the top teams in F1 has the same budge as Indy and NASCAR combined.

The Indycar is always going to get murdered by the F1 car under braking and through the corners. It's night and day. Great comparison. And yeah 18.5s difference... Might have been better to compare Indy to F3 :)

Though I’m a diehard F1 fan, if you put two dudes in any open wheel car, stock car, Le Mans car, soap box derby, skateboards, or tricycles, and tell them to race they will push their machines as hard as they can. Racing is racing and I respect all drivers in their chosen series.

Considering the gigantic time gap this makes me wonder how close the F2 would be or even an F3 (i dont expect f3 to be faster or close to indy but wondering how far off the kids class is to it) cause if f2 wins by a few seconds & f3 is within 2 seconds then the points from the FIA would be fair.

I don’t know about Indycars, I suspect it’s the same, but you would struggle to get the thing moving, let alone do a lap. They’re designed to go flat out and the brakes just don’t work unless you get them red hot. Most people can’t brake hard enough or control the power to get them moving in the first place without stalling. But it would be awesome to try it!

Over the next 3-4 years, the rules in F1 are trying to slow the cars down considerably. The 22 rules were supposed to slow the cars by 3 seconds a lap (but by the end of the year it was around 1 second slower than the previous year) As it is, I've love to have seen the W11in anger on this circuit of the Americas compared to Hamilton's W09. As it is - watch the W11 at Monza or Spa for just how good it was before the FIA crippled it for 2021.

F1 cars are faster than indy cars, it's a fact but in this video, we can see ultra soft tires on the Fomula 1 vs hard tires on the indycar. That's unfair ^^.

From standing trackside during F1 qualifying, I think the biggest shock was the acceleration. It is no so apparent on TV but they are like bluebottles. You watch them come out of the previous hairpin at 60 then suddenly they are passing you at 150 and a few seconds later are down to 60 for the next tight turn 😮 I think this is what we were seeing in the video, both cars reached the first corner at about the same time but the F1 opened up a big gap just in that short stretch to corner 2 because it could accelerate and decelerate so fast (and did not need to delerate as much to take the corner)

Man, racing and beer on this channel and a very likable host, this is exactly what I want 👌

Worth remembering that only 1 season ago a team like Merc or Ferrari had a budget on their own which was higher than the entire Indycar field.

Back in the 90's, Indycar teams had much higher budgets, and were closer to F1 cars in a variety of situations. I've seen s a similar comparison done several years ago, but they used the Montreal circuit for the comparison at that time. For a brief period of time the Montreal circuit hosted both series (at different times of the year, obviously).

In the old cart and F1 turbo days they were much closer

What’s crazy is a 2004 f1 car on full slicks would be faster than the current f1 car, regulations are in place to slow them down

I think what surprised me more was the delta showing +1 second just at turn one! I was sure it would be closer to start with but then you see how COTA is made for F1 through all the twisty fast speed corners where the aero of an F1 car makes all the difference, which is also why Hamilton can stay on the throttle. The Indycar looks very unstable in corners thus why the gap increases so much, I'm sure there's other tracks where you'd probably see a smaller gap in laptimes.

Indycar is retirement series for a F1 driver, not the opposite. Think about that...

I always come back to your channel for balance.... But I've got to say... WRC and TT are the raw form

Heres a few things f1 car 6 cylinder one turbo. Indy car 6 cylinder twin turbo and just about half the downforce. I would imagine the indy car on a speedway indy car will probably take it. A track with turns f1 car is unstoppable. There is way more downforce meaning less breaking faster corner speeds. But I'm like you it's racing however you look at it

Add the 18 seconds per lap up to a full race of around 40 laps. That means the F1 car would see the checkered flag 12 minutes earlier, and with a lap time of around 1.40 it would pass the Indycar around 7 times. 😄

Add to that modern F1 cars are slower today than their V10 counterparts due to the insane 1000+ HP at 20,000+ rpm engines in that era. We have better aerodynamics today but lots of extra weight from the batteries, energy recovery systems, electric motor(s), all fuel is also onboard so actually there's a lot of time that be recovered. The WEC hypercars can actually beat modern F1 cars on some tracks now as that class is far less restricted.

Hi, just reported another "telegrammed" spam message, stating I have won something.

F1 is really about bringing forward new technological ideas that ultimately end up making their way into production cars. They spend millions each year to shave off a tenth of a second and each car is set up totally different for each race - because each track is so different. I think if memory serves me right, that F1 cars have a slower straight line speed, but crammed full of high tech everything, they can brake later, they can accelerate earlier out of corners and they can corner much quicker. I'm an F1 fan btw, but comparing the two is a bit of a stacked deck. I feel that Indycar is all about straight line speed with little cornering. That's before we even mention that a poor tyre-change pit-stop is around 3 seconds, but a good one is about 2.2. As mentioned by someone earlier, all the new rules brought in are to do with slowing down the cars and making more overtaking opportunities in a race, but the teams try everything to claw back this added lap time by tweaking parts. Imagine an Indycar entering into a normal F1 race - and then being lapped after 7 laps by a Williams and that being repeated every 7 laps. There used to be a rule about qualifying cars - ( something like ) - the slower cars in qualifying could not take part in the race, if their race pace was more than 105% of the pole-sitter. I think there is something there, still in the rules to stop these uncompetitive cars from taking part.

Not bad for a 1.6 litre V6 and yes it may be a turbo hybrid but still not bad the downforce has got a lot too do with it and that's why the F1 drivers do so much neck strengthening exercises because of the g force's that apparently are more than what a fighter pilot gets

F1 is more tech while Indy has more racing in it overall. (don't even - I'm F1 fan for 25 years but I do love Indy for reasons. Indy500 is "must see" race of year)

This is why Indycar counts for so little when it comes to Super-license points.

Montoya said swapping from F1 to Indy car was like going backwards in everything and if you put the indy car on any F1 circuit, the F1 would be 25 to 30 sec a lap in front.

Hey you should watch the stunning pole lap of Lewis Hamilton 2018 Singapore go on board

all F1 drivers that really want to see how good they themselves are need to try IndyCar. in F1 having a superior car often makes the "best" drivers look better than they would be against a field of balanced cars like IndyCar.

Acceleration is great in the IndyCar, very similar to F1, but at TopSpeed, electric power from the hybrid powertrain gives F1 massive superiority on straights when drag increases with speed.

Be fair, a Indy cost 400.000 a F1 car 15.000.000

I like both of these series. ASAIK the difference is Indy cars in general have a higher top speed. The F1 cars change direction quicker. So on a long high speed oval I'd bet on the Indy car but on a road course F1 would be the quicker car. Of course I'm backing this up from my sofa with absolutely no data.

Ah, indycar and F1. The budget difference is probably what makes them the most different though lol.

If you go to 1:44 and watch the F1 and then the Indy go through the Left-Right-Left combination you can see the difference, the superior agility of the F1.

I think it was Hamilton who said that the hardest part is fighting against your brain that refuses to believe that you can take that corner, that fast.

F1 car is 28 seconds a lap quicker than a motogp bike. Amazing.

What a great display of British technology and engineering genius!!

Carbon brakes on the F1 car VS steel brakes on the indycar. Makes a huge difference in the braking zones.

A really interesting comparison! Indy Car use a 2.2 litre V6 twin turbo with between 550 to 700bhp (depending on the circuit). F1 uses a 1.6 litre V6 single turbo. With the added 'Hybrid' technology they run at about 1000bhp but the F1 is about 30kg (66 lbs) heavier. The aerodynamics for the downforce can make a huge difference. The Indy car looked like it was running a simpler front wing compared to the F1 car. I also think the fact Lewis Hamilton was driving might have given F1 a slight advantage. 🤔 It has also been rumoured that from the 2024 season IndyCar will be swapping to a 2.4 litre engine and the addition of features like KERS so another comparison like this would be interesting to see.

Its called F1 for a reason

Just watched a couple of vids on RU-vid before seeing yours Ian that are relevant to this one. The first is by a channel called Autosport and the title of the video is (3 reasons why formula 1's 2022 engines are still turbo-hybrid v6s). There was some awesome sounding cars from different years on there that would make a good reaction video mate. And the other video that I watched is The dash cam Aus. December/week 4. That's a good one a lot of different stuff on it anyway just a couple of things for you to have a look at if you get the time 😀👍

hey bro, im from Brazil and my my cousin raced in the indy formula his name was ayrton dare thank you very much for making videos like these in brazil we love this type of sport. I don't know if you've heard of Tony Kanaan and Airton Senna hugs from Brazil!

Very similar but also very different. I think the main difference is this: Indy is a driver competition, F1 is an driver AND engineering competition. Indy cars are faster on straights and fast corners, F1 is faster in mid and low speed corners, i.e. much more agile due to more downforce. There's no right or wrong, just personal preference. I, for one, prefer F1, even though they can be significantly slower on the straights. But seeing an F1 car going through Turns 13, 14, 15 and 16 (the pool section) in Monaco is simply another level. Having said that, an F1 car has no chance against an Indy car on an oval speedway. Just different 'mentalities'.

United Motors of Benetton In 1986 they dropped a BMW-powered-1400hp-bomb that became motorsport legend as the most powerful F1 car ever. In 2020 the car Engines produced between 750 and 1,000bhp (brake horsepower).

It's kinda not fair to judge both cars. It should be indycar vs F2 vs super formula

Lets remember the price differential here lol. Indy car is around 3 million dollars per year (including staff).. car itself is only 2 million or so while F1 cars are over 50-75million dollars not including the staff considering budgets are 150mil+

I don't understand this comparison. F1 is in another league. Even F2 is faster than a Indycar on a road corse.

You got seriously good video suggestions mate

MotoGP runs 2:03 at COTA. Much slower but I like watching the bikes slipping and sliding and being able to pass easier because they don’t take up as much width.

When there were 1.5 turbos in F1 with 1200+ bhp and literally stuck to the track something had to be done. Loads of incarnations later and we now have this one..

some say : to win 1 second in F1 you must invest 10 millions

Haas spent 10x the budget of an average indy budget and they are the "cheapest" F1 team. So those 18s are good results.

F1 teams had a 145 million dollar budget in 2022

Remembering when you watch this F1 cars are actually tuned down, everything from no active suspension, no ABS, limited fuel, engine capacity, aerodynamics ect ect ect.. just proves how adaptive F1 teams are!

There is Nothing on the road that would lap a circuit as quick as an Indycar . Loved the video.

Although the F1 car only has a 4 cylinder 1.5 liter engine, it is backed up by an incredibly powerful electric motor and battery pack. This is what gives it phenomenal acceleration and the weight is carried as low as possible. For this reason there are titanium 'skid' plates underneath the F1 car and you often see sparks flying from it on the track. An F1 car requires a complete 'computer team' back at the manufacturers HQ where technicians are constantly adjusting engine and handling parameters 'live' during a race via radio linked sensors on the car. Many modern F1 cars, once they are retired from racing, can't even be started because the original software is no longer linked to the factory computers.

Adrian Newey said once that if they could build a fast F1, they could shave up to 10sec per lap. That was crazy!!!

Great video! As others say, everything that makes F1 cars awesome is being outlawed in an attempt to slow them down year on year, so the teams have to be creative to find faster lap speeds. I love both Indy and F1 racing, but the difference in respective lap times is interesting but academic. What we want is the whole field to be as close as possible to the competition, if they are racing F1, Indy, Nascar or lawnmowers)

Thank you for a fair and balanced comparison. F1 has crazy budgets - as it should I guess. If the IndyCar was quicker than the F1 car then you'd possibly find an F1 grid full of IndyCars (I don't know the detail regs differences). IndyCars are great (generally) - and so are F1 cars (generally). It's great to have both of these Championships and racing series. Long may that continue.

Formula 1 teams have people to find loopholes in the rules and exploit them. the Turbo at F1 cars are linked to a generator, they have battery's and a e-motor connected to the engine to give a boost on the push of a button. When they cross the finish line the "counter" resets, like the battery is instantly full and giving them access to use that boost, it's like 120HP extra for period of time, it depends on how clever you're and know when to use it. it's like 10 seconds of boost or so. Tires also look wider on F1 car.

the speed difference is obvious. But its also the look, the F1 looks flawlessly advanced, down to the clothing of the drivers. Its like a 30 years offset in time, aesthetically

I counted 18 seconds too, just the bridge before. That's why you say "Indycar driver" and "Formula one pilot"☺

This is nuts .. i don't even see the road far enough ahead to drive even close that fast 😲

Fascinating, I love F3, F2, F1, IndyCar, and La Monz and never really noticed that IndyCar's are that much slower than the F1 cars. I should caveat that I like NASCAR when I'm at the track with friends.

I have to say your opening statement here is the primary reason I came back. Real racing fans appreciate all of the forms. I'd watch 2 snails race and get excited. I've had countless discussions with people that profess to be race fans and which ever discipline I may be commenting on you get the inevitable "It sucks" from some idiots! They simply have no idea or appreciation for racing. They're just fanboys! Then come the pinnacle fanboys. Supporting one driver and everybody else sucks! Sure, I've disliked some drivers but I'll always have unwavering respect for anybody that straps into any of these machines! P.S You mentioned Road America in one of your vids and I used to have season tickets there. Stunning location for a track! I might have read that they've since renamed this race meeting but it was "The Brian Redman Challenge Weekend" I think. Most people just call it the vintage weekend. Almost every historical race car you can think of shows up! Then the parades in Elkhart Lake in the evening are just heaven to a car guy! If you haven't been on that weekend, make it a priority. Ihave some great pics and videos somewhere. Plus I've had lengthy chats with Peter Egan, David Hobbs etc. A lot of the cars there are owned by gazillionaires but they are all excited to talk about their cars. It's a bucket list thing for sure! Oh! One more thing. Make sure you're there for the CanAm cars! The sound they make is biblical!!!! Canada Corner is always a good spot, and turn 5. The Mclaren cars are a personal favourite, some with Bruce's name on the side as he raced them.

It's really sad that they dont switch audios between the too sides per corner. So you can hear that F1 too do some lift through the corner. But only to not accelerate more in some corners while the Indycars really got off speed and going slower. Just look at the Esses turn 2-7 on COTA.

2:37... Wouldn't u have to thave the same driver in both cars on the same track to get an honest comparison? What if the two drivers set different times in the same car?

Yes the has about 10mph more top speed.. but 15% less acceleration… so even there on the straight the f1 will probably be faster

Anyone remember Nigel Mansell's "rookie" season in Indycar?!

Explains why any good F1 driver doesn't drop down into Indie cars, too slow & just go in circles = no challenge! 🙈

Ever get stuck behind grandma's on the highway, that's now Nascar feels.

Great video and merry Christmas from Italy and Belgium. 🎄🇮🇹🇧🇪

I remember seeing one where F1, rally and nascar rode same track and f1 was lapping so fast

One of the reasons Indy is cheaper that they use same engines and chassis for several years. That keeps the cost down . In F1 they design new engines and chassis every year. The designing, building, wind tunnel test all adds up. The smaller low budget F1 teams can not compete with the bigger teams.

I was thinking about subscribing, but the "moving effects" of the camera during the comparison, around 3.30 mark, is making me hesitate. I cant watch because of the effects.. i know not everyone has this problem but unfortunately i do. Are effects like these an experiment/try-out or is this his style? I love the content so far so my hopes are that in future videos these effects are less intrusive, so i can subscribe and enjoy like all of you . Greetings Richard.