NASCAR Fan Reacts to Formula 1 Speed Compared to Other Race Cars 

One of the absolute biggest advantages for F1 cars that gets overlooked a lot is not necessarily how fast they go, but how fast they stop. Braking on F1 cars is absolute insanity, they can do much better lap times on many tracks simply because they can brake much later before turns while maintaining control than most other race cars, and then get back up to pace fast.

At the Circuit of the Americas, it would take an F1 car just 7 laps to start lapping an Indy car. Indy car racing is great, but in terms of car speed on a track, they are blown away by F1. The power, tech and aero - especially aero creating downforce - it's just not as advanced, and in some ways that's good, because it's more about the driver and car setup than it is about car technology. It's a different style and they're both good and entertaining, but in terms of pace, F1 is way faster than Indy. If you look at the track records of any circuit - if an F1 car has been there, an F1 car holds the record.

Downforce, not speed. Then you’ll get a true appreciation for the power of the car

Very refreshing to listen to a true American “gear head” who respects and appreciates racing cars/bikes outside of the USA. Bravo !

Some 10 year’s ago it was pointed out that Montreal was the only track that Indy cars and Formula 1 cars both race on. The slowest F1 car was 12 seconds faster than the Indy car to do a lap.🇦🇺

Circuit of the America's lap times.... F1 1:32 Indycar 1:48 MotoGp 2:03 NASCAR 2:12

MotoGP's record speed was set about two months ago in Mugello. 225.9mph. Keep in mind this was recorded in a proper pratice session for the GP. Modifying the bike to focus merely on straight speed would of course make it higher.

IWrocker: 200 mph on two wheels? Isle of Man TT Racer: Hold my beer.

MotoGP is accurate, those guys are absolutely nuts, and IMO, by far the most interesting, closely raced and insane racing to watch.

"who would have the balls to run more than 200 mph on a motorcycle?" you'd be surprised, there's a great many people who tune their street bikes to crack that number, but if you want to watch someone who's really skilled handle it at those speeds watch people do laps of the Isle of Man TT, that shit is insanity on a whole new level.

Current MotoGP top speed record was set a week ago, and it was 363.6 km/h which is about 226 mph. And that was during the race. Who knows how fast these bikes could be if they were set up for a drag race on a longer straight line.

A friend of mine used to say......From 0 to 200km/h in six seconds is insane (like these GP Motorbikes do).....but to go from 0 to 200km/h and back to 0 in six seconds is madness, or F1.

I would really really recommend watching/reacting to the Isle Of Man TT, arguably the best race in the world and definitely the most dangerous today. The 2022 TT starts in just a few weeks.

The G-forces in F1 are something else, EVERY race driver without exception I've heard has said that nothing can prepare you for those and you just can't train your neck properly up for F1 other than driving an F1 car, it really is something quite special!

Here are real world results on COTA (lap times) : F1 (Max Verstappen) - 1:32:910 Indycar - 1:48:895 MotoGP (Jorge Martin) - 2:02:040 NASCAR (Tyler Reddick) - 2:12:911 XFinity Race (Kyle Busch) - 2:40:349 Trucks NASCAR (Kaz Grala) - 2:39:978 Bottom Line : F1 would lap NASCAR every 3 laps or so; Indycar would do similarly.

About the different setups, just like Nascar, F1 uses different aero setups for different tracks, for example at Monza where flat-out speed is key, teams run low downforce setups to reduces drag. The F1 top speed record is held by Valterri Bottas who did 372kmph/231mph down the Mexico Track straight.

I went on a work promotion a few years back and i was lucky enough to get given a ride in a two seater F1 car. It was such an adrenalin rush that couldn't be matched. Acceleration was unbelievable and the cornering was like the car was on rails but the thing that really stuck in my mind was the shear power of the brakes. Under heavy braking it felt like my internal organs were trying to burst out of my chest.

The top speed for MotoGP (my jam) is correct. The top speed record for MotoGP is around 366 kmh at Mugello in Italy. They can be geared to go even faster but they run out of road :D

you need to watch guy martin. he's a mechanic who now does tv shows, and he has broken so many bones in motorcycle crashes I thinkhe's mainly metal, he's also driven a variety of machines from tractors to couble decker buses in speed races. well worth looking him up

On an oval, if the F1 car is allowed to build a "super speedway" aero package AND have DRS (basically active rear wing that allows even less drag on the straights), the lap times could be very close to Indy cars

The scary thing with Formula 1 is that a lot of regulation have been about limiting speed and making it more competitive. If the makers of F1 cars where allowed to build an unrestricted race car it would probably be a lot faster. Unfortunately we would also have a lot more dead drivers and we would probably be watching Mercedes race against them selves.

800kg is very light relative to other 4 wheeled motorsports, but very heavy relative to the older F1 cars because of the increased safety standards, the 2017 size increase regulation to make the car faster, and the change to much heavier but efficient power unit in 2014. The f1 cars in the early 2000s were about 600kg, but they’re much smaller and nimble

I've done over 200mph on a bike. It stops being fun when you get to 150 and at 200 it feels like the road is just thrown at you. I stopped riding after an extremely close call at high speeds because I knew I wouldn't be able to just ride it slow and enjoy it.

Crazy thing is how big F1 cars have gotten. They are about the length of a standard cab F150 pickup truck, they have almost doubled in length in the past 30 years, plus they got a little bit wider this year with the new larger but lower profile tires.

Depending on configuration and circuit, F1 will hit 370km/h quite regularly. The Baku street circuit is stupidly fast, as is Monza. Back in the mid 2000's, BAR-Honda ran an experiment on the Bonneville salt flats, trying to break the 400km/h F1 barrier. They got close at 397 (247mph) as the official speed, but in the Mojave testing, they hit 410+ (254mph).

For F1 vs Indycar on an oval, you have to understand that F1 would come to the oval with a package tailored to running on an oval. That means low drag, specialised suspension set up etc. (unless the F1 rules prohibit them) plus the extra rubber the F1 cars run would likely allow the F1 car to edge the Indycar, though it would be closer than on a road circuit. This would be due to the lack of energy recovery on the hybrid PU on an oval dropping the average power of the PU back towards the Indycar, though the F1 car might eke out ~100-150 hp more power.

I like your style: pretty chill, no cuts, no screaming - easy to watch.

I've always been a casual fan of F1 but remember being kinda shocked watching an old Top Gear episode and seeing what Hammond went through just to get to the point where he could get one around the track.

As others have said you need to review the Isle of Man TT race. Not only do they run at over 200mph they do it through small twisty roads with houses lining bit of the track and hit bumps that get them air. It’s insane.

Important to point out that the "DTM car" they used (imo sadly) isn't used anymore. After first Mercedes and then Audi leaving due to financial reasons DTM now is racing GT3s. If you (as in anybody reading this) want to see a good race involving Class 1 DTM cars (the one used for the comparison here) I'd suggest 2017 Norisring Race 2

Great video - Just a note on the motorcycle - Ducati Superleggera,(199mph - restricted to 186mph) Honda Blackbird (180), suzuki Hyabusa (194mph) and even a 1990 ZZR 1100 which I own can do 172mph - out of the show room as road bikes .

F1 car can lose a drag race, but around a circuit , it has no real competition. That is what F1 cars are designed for. And I absolutely agree about the bike. You must really have big balls to do 223 mph/ 360kph on a bike, it's insane

Brit here: we have an expression; 'that's like comparing chalk and cheese', or 'apples and oranges', it means that different cars cannot be compared except to show that Formula 1 cars do best going around a F1 circuit. Drag racers beat all on a drag down 1/4 mile, etc. I saw a group of people 'testing' assault rifles against each other. We discovered that the people who knew a particular gun best tended to perform best with it.

Talking about NASCAR doing race circuits (rather than ovals). I do recall Marcos Ambrose (from V8 supercar fame) used to do really well on the race circuits such as Watkins Glen - less so on the ovals.

362.4kph is the fastest speed recorded on a motogp race weekend by Johan Zarco aboard his Ducati in Qatar 2021. This record was equalled also in 2021 by Brad Binder aboard his KTM motogp bike during the Mugello race weekend later in the year.

I've done 200 mph on a production street bike (on a controlled course). MotoGP is absolutely capable of top speeds above 220-230 mph. You just have to be a crazy person to be able to do it.

Lol, it's wild to me that F1 has been at COTA for 10 years and people are still just now finding out about the sport even though it's been here for a while. Glad to see more people enjoying it, that's for sure.

I would highly recommend watching a few MotoGP races, they are imo, the best races of them all. Yeah, it's only two wheels and far from a car, but so are proper racecars. You can see different styles and use of the body, difference in brands but all very competitive. Try to watch a few before Susuki quits. Most of the time, the races are just better and 7/10 races are amazingly good. oh btw As it stands, Johann Zarco holds the record for the fastest speed recorded on a MotoGP bike - a 362.4klm/h (225mph

The speed differential is insane. Did a couple of f1 races on my sim last weekend, then did a gt3 race. It felt like going from a supercar to a fiat 500.

I really do love your channel. It's like listening to a friend about the same thing we both love. Great stuff.

The tracks that these cars race on need to be considered. F1 cars reach top speed on relatively short straights and slow down to low double digit speeds in just a couple hundred feet. Indy cars and nascars maintain high speeds around huge ovals.

Man I have to say you have an absolute open mind to race cars and you don't see that in many Nascar fans I really enjoyed your video man keep it up

I’m from germany, and believe me, there are guys who love NASCAR over here. Since I first saw a Plymouth Superbird slamming around the oval with 195mph, I was hooked.

I also didn't like nascar and oval racing but came to think about it and the amount of tactics go into oval racing is astonishing. Just discovered your channel and I love it. Subbed.

The fastest lap on a circuit, all races: Henri Pescarolo driving a Matra 670B prototype at the 1973 Francorchamps 1000 km, the lap speed was 262 km/h. The fastest speed measured on a portion of circuit was 415 km/h by a WM in the Hunaudieres, Le Mans.

I felt the same as you when I was younger. I didn’t think that I would be sensible on a road-going motorcycle… so I didn’t get one. When I turned 40 I had a bit of a rethink about many things, and one of those was motorcycles. I decided to get my motorcycle licence and I could not be happier. With age comes respect for the road and an appreciation of one’s mortality. I love getting out on the highway, wind in my face, carefree… (the occasional bug in the mouth or splattered over my visor) I would have missed out on much if I had not reevaluated my views on things.

I've been racing a lot on gran Turismo 7 recently and I was expecting a mention of the super formula series from Japan and how they would stack up. If I remember right they're about 650~ bhp. Which is pretty impressive from an I4 engine

Great video man! Super nice and humble sounding guy. Subscribed for sure!

The qualifying times for Moto GP and V8 Supercars at Phillip Island is about the same. 1min 28sec for Moto GP and 1min 30sec for the V8's. When the V8 Supercars raced at COTA, James Courtney and Kurt Busch (NASCAR) raced each other around the track and the lap times were very similar. NASCAR had the top end speed, and the V8's could brake a lot deeper before the corners.

During his qualifying run for the Italian Grand Prix, Brad Binder reached an incredible speed of 362.4 km/h on his KTM(MotoGP)

Would love to see you cover more f1 content!!

I saw Mick Doohan clock 306kmh (192MPH) at the end of the straight at Eastern Creek in 1994, on a 500cc GP bike, so 220 now makes a lot of sense...

I've never really understood the appeal oval racing. I'm sure it requires a lot of skill, but a pretty limited range of skills compared to "circuit" racing. Love my F1 and BTCC hooligans!

The speed from a single lap on a track with a formula 1 car comes from different aspects. It is not just based on raw power or top speed, but also how late it can brake, how fast they can hit the gas pedal, and how fast it can take the corners. The brakes from an F1 car are much more sophisticated compared to the brakes from an indycar. So it is a superior weight to power ratio combined with superior brakes and a superior aerodynamics package (down force when it is needed). F1 teams spend much more time and money on the development from all of those aspects compared to other race car classes. F2 and F3 are most certainly NOT amateur classes. Most F2 and F3 teams also have an F1 team. I would call it a junior class, but it is just as professional as F1. And very often, if not always, drivers have to bring along their own sponsors in order to get a chance to drive for a team. Sometimes indycars race on a track where they have a higher top speed compared to the top speed from F1 cars on their fastest track, but as mentioned before, indycars can't brake as late as an F1 car, and they can't take the corners at the same speed as an F1 car. For a race car most time can be won at the slower parts of a track. That is where they can make a real difference with other cars with a different setup. An F1 team can have a very powerful power train, but if the aerodynamics from the car isn't good, like we see happening with the Mercedes car, than they are not able to use all that power. So the setup from an F1 car is very important, and it varies from track to track. And an F1 car is much more sensitive to external conditions, so one moment the car can perform flawlessly, but as the track conditions change, such as track temperature, rain, wind, rubber, the car can start to perform worse.

Love this video dude lo e how you deliver your commentary is great!!!!

Haha I literally live a few kilometers away from Francorchamps, had the chance to drive it a few time on my bike it's beautiful,... Nice to see you talk about it. Cheers from Beerland , have a nice day.

8:03 wins in acceleration the LMP1 for one reason: traction. All the cars (except the LMP2, the difference is the torque) are rear-wheel drive when that are all-wheel drive at the start, then there is the weight/power factor that changes the result between the cars. p.s. I basically wrote what he would have said, if we wait a couple of years or less we will see what a motorcycle can do in Spa

I've seen most of these pretty close up trackside. All very fast and i'm sure F1 and Indycar are ahead of most things on speed. But nothing was more impressive than the LMP1s, especially at Le Mans, from a few years back, they were so crazy first time you saw them all you could do was laugh, then 15 hours later they're still hammering it and you'd start laughing all over again.

Ahhh Spa Francorchamp, my home race! I wish we could have a channel dedicated to racing only. I want to watch more Nascar and Indy500. Grew up with F1, big fan. In the end as long as it moves and can be raced it’s up to the pilots to show what they can do on track.

I was at the British Grand Prix a couple of weeks ago and was sat at Copse corner and throughout the day we saw the F1, F2, F3 and Porsche Supercup and it’s absolutely insane how much faster through the corners the F1 cars are in comparison. The other cars were still fast and would beat pretty much any road car easily but the cornering speeds in F1 are unbelievable

Its not about the straight line speed and acceleration in F1 That is "easy" to achieve. The technology lies in the cornering-speed and braking points ;)

I recently read an article where they compared lap times of different racing categories on the same track. It was a US track and included F1, and Indycar along with several others. F1 was the fastest per lap by 14 seconds, followed by Indycar, other categories filtered away progressively from there. I was expecting it, but not by THAT much.

This was the first video I've seen and I had to subscribe. Fun video.

So awesome to see a gear head expanding their motorsport enthusiasm! Enjoy the added knowledge & added fun of international motorsport!

"who has the balls to drive a motorcycle at 200mph" every TT Challenge rider laughing 😋

You need to check out the “world time attack challenge”.. take a street car, and do pretty much anything you want to it, send it flat out for 2 laps to set your time. There is almost no modification restrictions, tires (spelt tyres here) are about the regulated component.

Hi Ian, it's funny that you said effectively 'horses for courses' as far as race cars go. NASCAR may not be driven the same as other forms, but when I watched a race years ago - they were in formation, 3 abreast, and travelling at 200mph, inches apart - that is still impressive shit! As for MOTOGP, Aussie Wayne Gardner, our first World Champion riding for Honda, was talking about testing in Germany to his Crew Chief, and he was explaining how he was travelling down the back straight at Hockenheim in the rain - he was doing 320kph and he was mono-ing, fish-tailing and spinning the rear wheel - SICK!

This is a very interesting comparison and shows how all car designs are about compromise. I wonder if it would even be possible to build a car that would win top speed, acceleration, and lap times on different track types. It would be an interesting project for someone!

12:00 I get what you're saying! The F1 car is shown here at a top speed of 360 kph, while it's been recorded over 370 during the Mexico GP last year.

F1 car is set-up differently for every track, so it would be set-up for oval too. They are balancing between the air drag and downforce. Either they are fast on straight or they are fast at corners depends on set-up. But ultimately, they are fast. (I think)

A guy I know used to do road racing with motorcycles 20 years ago. He had one of his bikes up to 330kmh / 205mph once on a test run. He was very happy to say that the numbers in the speedometer was not just for show. My parents also knew a guy that used to run top fuel bikes. That is an absolutely insane sport.

Dont believe the motogp bike at 12:41 but Jorge Martin holds the record for the top recorded speed for MotoGP in an official session, reaching 363.6km/h at Mugello in 2022 during the Italian Grand Prix on a Pramac Ducati. He beat the previous fastest speed of 362.4km/h, set by Johann Zarco at the Losail International Circuit in FP4 for the Qatar GP in 2021

Well, the Formula 1 is soooo heavily regulated that not nearly a tenth of what would be technically possible is allowed to be used on the cars. Considering that even during the late 1970's the F1 cars would have been technically able to produce lateral G-forces greater than 5G's, this would have snapped the necks of any drivers in the cars if they went through corners at the top speed possible for that corner and those cars. Yeah, yeah, I know, fighter jet pilots withstand greater than 11G's for very short times, but they can't throw their jets around a tight turn while retaining their orientation. They tilt and roll the plane to accomodate those G-forces by changing them from purely lateral to both lateral and downwards G-forces. An F1 car would experience much greater sideways G-forces than any jet could ever handle due to friction between ground and tires if ALL technical possibilities were used. Heck, even jets could change a pilot from living to squished chunky soup in flight suit if everything technically possible were used in jets.

What's so fascinating about F1 is the shear speed as it leaves a corner and goes to the next corner. At CoTA, for instance, in the "Stadium" section, watch the F1 car live is just awesome to see it move from corner to corner. Your eyes and mind cannot believe that the car can accelerate that fast AND slow down that fast.

There is a motorcycle called the Kawasaki Ninja H2R that goes 0-400kph (248mph) in 26 seconds

I like your videos. You try your best to immerse yourself in stuff unfamiliar to you. That deserves respect. Good stuff, keep it up.

motogp is more entertaining than F1 they do ~350kmph regularly on the straight they show the stats live for top speed every race

One problem with comparing the speed of race cars from different series is that they are *designed* to be slow and/or cheaper. The entire history of F1 is engineers doing something to make the cars faster, they win a few races, and then that thing is banned. Every few years more limitations are placed on the aero, minimum weight is increased, and engines are made smaller. From 1989-1994 engines were limited to 3.5 litres. In 1995-2005 they were 2.0 litres. From 2006-2013 2.4 litre 90º V8, with some engines doing over 20,000 RPM until regulations limited them to first 19,000 then 18,000. And now we have 1600cc V6 with a 15000 RPM limit -- but with a turbo and a hybrid system. Peak fuel flow is now also limited to 100 kg/h -- and 110 kg total for the whole ~300 km race.

Good for you for wanting to learn about different types of racing. If you're a fan of racing there's so much out there to check out! If you like GT cars, you might want to check out the Bathurst 12 hour endurance race. The track is mad and with Lambos, Audi R8s, Mercedes, etc...it's a fantastic race from start to finish. Also a way to see lots of different cars is the Goodwood Festival of Speed Hillclimb competition, there's a good mix of cars from retired F1 cars, to modern Supercars. It's a timed race which is cool.

As a newly renewed racing fan, specifically F1, I was surprised to see the top speeds of the Indy cars when I watched their new Netflix series. Their top speeds on an oval were downright shocking. But another thing I noticed, they had different rear wings for an oval than they did a street circuit. F1 cars don't change their rear wings that much throughout the season as all of their tracks are twisty/curvy. It would be interesting to see an F1 car optimized for an oval and what their top speeds would be. Another thing is their hybrid setup, using the battery as a booster for more speed when needed/applicable. From what I understand, Indy is still straight ICE only. The battery boost gives the F1 car an on-demand speed boost in a straight or when needed to defend, but has to be charged while braking in a turn (they start the race with little to no charge). If they're racing an oval, they wouldn't get as much braking, thus less battery charge, and subsequently less on-demand power. A strange give and take for the car on an oval. That 1000hp+ is with the battery boost engaged. An interesting take away though, there is less homogenization in F1 than in NasCar or Indy. The teams must develop their cars within the given specs, but engine output and chassis design can vary. This current season sees Alpine at a 8-15hp disadvantage (IIRC), and they have advocated for stricter homogenization with little support from the FIA. The teams are allowed independence in their development, and even Redbull which owns two F1 teams, cannot share data or specs between the two teams. This really puts the impetus on the teams technical developers to produce a car that can outperform the rest, and directly reflects in how one or two teams can be so dominant for multiple seasons (i.e. Mercedes seven championships in a row, and now Redbull's utter dominance winning all but three races in the last 12+ months).

I think it would be very similar in the oval. We have to take into account that Indy car changes the setup from the rear wing to oval and the same would be applied to F1 cars, which just opening the DRS system on the rear wing gains 20km/h.

Watching those Spa lap times, the LMP1H nerfs were bigger than I thought just so they could match the lap times of the hybrid version to the ICE-only versions of the class. They used to be 10 seconds than an F1 car and they're now slower than an F2. It's such a shame. Those cars were so much fun to watch, man. I can understand teams dropping the class due to costs, but they could have just retired the hybrid class instead of butchering it entirely just to match the pace and have a championship of 4 cars. I'll never forget the fights Audi, Porsche and Toyota had back in 2012-2016 in the WEC. I haven't seen any sort of racing like that ever since and it genuinely makes me mildly depressed. There's no fucking way anyone who watches those replays even thinks they were doing 6-12-24h races because they duked it out like they were 10 lap sprints for the entire duration of the race.

I like this channel. You are very good with cars and give good commentary, very relaxed way of spending my Saturday morning 👍

A comparison of the LMP1 class next to the LMH class would've been pretty interesting too

I don't mind NASCAR first and foremost, I love all motorsports individually, saying one is better than the other is ridiculous when they just aren't doing the same thing, and with totally different machines. Having said that, gotta say F1 would have my vote on the oval track. Higher top speed and more aero, so better on the corners, seems like its a foregone conclusion

For those interested in the conversion from metric to americaneze, 1 kilogram is equivalent to 2.2 pounds. So 800 kg is 1760 lb.

In terms of bike racing,you need to check out Isle of Man TT. IOM is a small island between England and Ireland and every year for 2 weeks in May they race a circuit on closed roads, going around most of the island.

If you want a quick intro (relatively quick that is) to MotoGP, there are three documentaries called Faster, Faster & Faster and Fastest. The first one is the final days of two-stroke bikes, light-switch beasts. The second leads into the four-stroke era. Super entertaining.

Its the pinnacle of motor racing when you look at the insane amount of engineering that has be taken from the aerospace industry. Also F1 cars are designed by each team which is geared towards achieving extreme downforce. A formula car is not actually a car. But more of an aeroplane flying on wheels.

They could go a lot quicker in F1, they keep a lid on it so people don't die. You think Moto GP is crazy, check out The Isle of Man TT

Great video Ian love your passion for motorsports

Jeff Gordon currently holds the track qualifying record at MIS, being recorded at 206.558 mph in 2014.

Where f1 beats all other forms of racing is their cornering speeds.

I recently discovered your channel and I love your react videos, and I like that you like racing in general :D Being from Belgium, for us Spa is nothing but the best track in the world, but COTA is awesome too ! It seems that you not really aware of what LMP cars are, LMP stands for Le Mans Prototypes and they are for me the pinnacle of road racing as they're made to race for Endurance racing. May I them recommand this particular video if you haven't seen it already ? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KsLi7HgSuhI.html It's about the lap on the Nordschleife onboard the Porsche 919 LMP1 being unrestricted to the maximum as a farewell to the LMP1 category (now replaced with the Hypercar class) And if ya wanna see more about LMP races, there's this cool videos that shows great battles between LMP1 cars, this shows why it's the "queen" caterogy in the Endurance race, especially when the cars made in one race almost more than the entire F1 calendar: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mzULPaHGIFs.html Peace man

You should watch Race of Champions (ROC). Covid scrambled the schedules a bit but it's usually at the end of the year. Current and previous champions of the various motorsport world series drive one to one on a short circuit with different types of cars.

They put Nascar and MotoGP with same SPA times while the coparison was done with Austin, where Nascar laps in 2min12sec and MotoGP laps it in 2min00sec

The Moto GP bike speeds are pretty quick, but you should look into just how fast some bikes go on Isle Of Mann TT. Which although it's a street circuit, they go beyond those speeds at times.

It is surprising how little knowledge the comentator has

F1 has been on TV for a long time in America - I watched it live on ESPN all the way back to 1988. Over the years it has been on a few channels (FOX/Speed Channel, etc.) but is now back on ESPN. They really don't do a ton to promote it, and when live the races are usually on early Sundays on the east coast (like 7:30-9 am) so the further west you go it gets even earlier. That explains why people in the US could just be discovering it now

With the 2022-spec F1 cars, with their aerodynamics moving much more towards ground effect and less complicated wings, I think it would be very close to IndyCar on pace on an oval, particularly if the track was smooth. The disadvatage creeps in if the cars would require refueling at any point, since current F1 regulations don't allow refueling during races and all cars must run to a specific maximum fuel consumption rate, which obviously doesn't affect IndyCar. The advantage comes back for the F1 car with its hybrid power unit, so it has some electricity to use too, very helpful in getting speedily out of corners, particularly lower speed corners - this is probably the major factor in the F1 car being faster around a circuit like Spa than the IndyCar. 2022-spec F1 cars also have much larger brakes than previous years, which means the stopping distances would be further reduced compared to pre-2022 cars.