F1 vs A1 vs Champ Car

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Watching the Indy Racing League from Watkins Glen, where Formula One raced until 1980, got me wondering how three of the top international single seater series compared with one another when using the same circuits. I compared best lap times from the 2005 F1 and Champ Car seasons, and 2005-06 A1 Grand Prix season.

No surprise that F1 was way ahead – 7.3s quicker than Champ Cars over a lap of Montreal, and around 20s per lap quicker than A1 at the longer circuits of Shanghai and Sepang. What surprised me was how much slower A1 is than Champ Car, which is surely the kind of performance standard it should be aiming for?

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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2 comments on “F1 vs A1 vs Champ Car”

  1. Vitesh Patel
    27th July 2006, 10:06

    Hi there, that is a very interesting topic of research. I was very surprised to see how far the A1GP cars were off the pace, (off the Champ Cars.) You would have thought that the closest premier European based single seater series to Formula One would be cars a lot closer in terms of performance. I wonder how A1GP would compare to GP2, the feeder series to Formula One.

    I a currently writing a thesis, comparing Formula One to A1GP and was wondering whether I could use this data you have provided as a reference. My thesis is looking at how F1 is becoming homogenised, with the single tyre rule. I intend to compare F1 to A1GP, (a series which is already homogenised) to see how it would affect the public’s perception of the sport.

    I know you’ve posted this up a long time ago, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

    cheers

  2. Sherwyn Maistry
    10th July 2008, 3:55

    Hi there, yes most interesting indeed. Can anyone with serious info on this topic contact me at torquemag@gmail.com, thanks! ;)

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