I looked st this years schedule, 12 road courses, 5 ovals. The bravery decreases again. Sigh… I wish the IRL was still around.
I don’t think bravery should be a part of motorsports. I think skill should be. Ergo, I would like to see the rules set up so that even if there is a situation, the driver isn’t at risk.
I’d also like to see the rules set up so that innovation is encouraged and that faster cars (drivers) can pass.
i dont watch open wheel stuff anymore. oval is boring. F1 is sorta interesting. they dont refuel anymore during races. air jacks and 8 guys changing tires. does indy still not allow anyone over the wall before the car gets in pit lane? 3 sec is slow for F1?
IMO, there are different skills involved for oval vs road courses. Either can be boring. I’ve often heard that F1 is boring because the leader runs away and hides, and there is very little passing behind him.
The IRL IS still around, it is just called IndyCar. The sanctioning body is the same.
I hve NO idea what “bravery” you are describing… Does racing on an oval require more or less bravery? I suggest that it does not. Oval tracks are now lined with foam walls to protect the drivers and the fans from 190 mph crashes. Road courses are designed with paved or gravel runoffs to slow the car before it hits tire or foam barriers.
I don’t know if you realize it or not but most road course top speeds are similar to oval speeds. Most road courses are a bit narrower than ovals so passing is more of a challenge.
That existed in previous decades. It increased the cost of racing to unsustainable levels. A good, 2 car IndyCar program costs $15 Million. A good F1 program for 2 cars cost the US team, Haas, $120 Million but Ferrari spends over $570 Million.
Innovation is a big reason I watch F1. 21 races with only 5 winners. The competitive racing is why I watch IndyCar - 8 different winners in 17 races for 2018 on both ovals and road courses.
I don’t think any road course that Indycar races on has 235 MPH top speeds like they see at Indy.
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You are right about that but most ovals are not that fast.
There’s such a vast discrepancy in competitiveness between the teams in F1 that I find it a chore to watch., and it’s been like this for some time now. In the early 2000’s Ferrari had a stranglehold on the drivers and constructor’s championship, no other team could really compete. Then it was Red Bull showing the same dominance for another half a decade, now Mercedes the dominant team. It’s almost always you have one really dominate team and everyone else (in fairness, in the last season or two we’ve had two teams that had a decent shot a winning)…
In terms of on-track overtaking and the level of competition in the field, F1 is about the least-competitive mainstream form of auto-racing that I can think of. I also get the impression that in F1, the driver isn’t as important as the car. If you put Alonso in a Mercedes, he’d likely win a lot. If you put Hamilton in a Williams, it would take a near miracle for him to get a podium finish,
There’s more parity in Indycar, though it comes at a price of very limited innovation, everyone runs the same chassis and there are only two engines to choose from. Some of the most competive races you’ll ever see were oval Indycar races, the 2013 Indy 500 had 68 lead changes among 15 drivers , at 2015 Indycar race in Fontana, there were 80 lead changes amount 14 drivers (in a field of 23 cars), that’s more lead changes in a single race than you’ll see in three full seasons of F1.
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The IRL was created when Tony George , who inherited the Speedway split with the car owners (C.A.R.T.) with the CART teams racing at road tracks and the newly formed Indy racing League going to ovals. The split was bad for both with attendance and car counts dropping The two eventually rejoined.There are a couple of reasons oval racing is more dangerous. The average speeds of the crashes is much higher on an oval, most of the crashes on a road course happen on the slower corners and there is much,much, more passing on the ovals.
The brave part is in passing on the ovals, most of it is done by going closest to the ragged edge, not by superior equipment. You might pass a guy once on a road course but it goes on all the time on ovals. Many of the European drivers who had great success in the road courses of CART were afrais of the Ovals they had to race on after the merger and some of them even refused to drive on the ovals. The number of oval track races has been diminishing but I don’t know if that is being fueled by the sanctioning body, the car owners, the drivers or whether The track owner are not welcoming them. Auto racing attendance is declining in the us across the board and running a money making event is tricky,
To be controlled by the same management group Tony George put together as CEO of the Indy Speedway and the IRL. Tony stepped down from his role as CEO of the Indianapolis Speedway and the IRL shortly after the re-unification - some claim because the Hulman family was tired of the money he was throwing around.
There’s a similar controversy about the so-called halo device used on F1 cars. I haven’t much expertise on F1, don’t even know which channel F1 races are broadcast on, my only knowledge of F1 is from the 60’s when it was shown on wide world of sports, delayed broadcast. And the Ron Howard movie “Rush”. Anyway I believe the halo’s purpose is to prevent road debris and pieces of crashed cars kicked up from cars ahead from hitting the driver following behind; but it also obstructs the view the spectators want from seeing the driver. Niki Lauda (former F1 driver) is opposed to that halo device I think, saying it is too much of a compromise to the fun of watching the sport, in order to provide just a little more safety to the driver. Me, I’d prefer all F1 races end with the same number of drivers walking away at the end of the race as when the race started, and if that meant I couldn’t see the drivers as well, so be it.
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Alex Palou can clinch his fourth INDYCAR title this Sunday at Portland International Raceway. Do you think he will do it?
I think the core problem is that F1, Indy Car and Stock Car racing has become increasingly divorced from anything the common owner could see, buy or drive.
In the “old days” of “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday”, the cars and technology at least had a passing resemblance to what was available at the dealership and created a Brand Loyalty but today it’s like watching spaceships whizzing around a parking lot. The speed and skill is amazing but after an hour…..boring.
Maybe Dodge didn’t sell many 1969 Daytona Superbirds or 1974 426 Hemi Richard Patty Chargers but I’ll bet that Dodge sold a lot of the “Family Car” versions.
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F1 and IndyCar have never been associated with cars you could buy. They are associated with the manufacturer. Mostly the engines, except for Ferrari that builds the engines and the cars.
NASCAR used to be that way but long ago gave that up. And NASCAR races have become increasingly boring. Let’s race a (not really) Camaro that we no longer make! Or a RWD Camry with a V8 that has never existed.
As for IndyCar, I think Alex Palou will clinch is 4th title. He is driving on a different level altogether. Don’t bet against him to with a 5th title next season…. unless GM’s F1 program convinces him to sign on.
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The problem with car racing is cheating.
In the old days, the technology limited what could be done. Nowadays, the limit is the pocketbook. The F1 teams are spending hundreds of millions - and they still cheat!
NASCAR’s approach has been to specify the components and make it illegal to change ANYTHING!! IndyCar is similar.
But the racing is as close as it has ever been. At the recent Hungarian GP, the top 10 cars qualified with 1/2 second!! On any Sunday, there are a dozen NASCAR teams that could win.
So it is very remarkable that Alex Palou is soooo much better than the rest of the field.
The current problem is the tires. With the racing so close, the races have turned into contests about who can save their tires for the end of the race. It takes a long time to get to the point where the tires start to fall off - and that makes drivers reluctant to pass - which is what fans want to see.
I don’t have the answer, and apparently no one else does either.
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I prefer NHRA racing. Fry the tires and rebuild the engine between runs.
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I find drag racing boring but, to each his own,We don’t have to all enjoy the same things. The reason I think bravery is most rewarded on oval tracks is because thee is no pl,ace to relax and if you can go faster in the turns you can beat a car with more speed. Passing is always possinle. F1 cars are able to lessen their downforce on the straights if they are within on second of the car ahead of them otherwise passing would be nigh impossible. Indy cars on road street cars can get so many seconds of more horsepower so they can pass.
Nascar has almost all qualifiying spots locked up for “legacy” teams to assure the sponsers that their cars will make the race and the free pass for the first car one lap down helps assure them that their car will still have a chance to win the race. I hate all those gimmicks. If you can\t out qualify an independent that is faster than you.he should make the race not you.
NHRA racing requires some really big stones. Propelling a 10,000+ horsepower engine and four wheels down the strip as quickly as possible is life threatening no matter how many seconds it lasts. Loss of control early can lead to disintegration of the car. Engine explosions can and do lead to fires and crashes that can severely injure the driver. John Force was involved in at least two life threatening crashes. The last one finished his driving career. I’m not minimizing danger in oval track racing, only pointing out that drag racing requires some pretty special people too.
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Alex Palou deserved to be the champion and it won’t be a surprise if he wins next year too to win his 5th championship.
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He’s allegedly on the short list for the 2026 Cadillac F1 team