Welcome to Sunday’s edition of the RaceFans round-up.
Comment of the day
Marcus Ericsson reckons Colton Herta deserves a shot at Formula 1 but Marcel questions how much potential he has shown:
He would be quick enough to be in F1, but I doubt he would be top tier in F1. Lets not forget that IndyCar is very close, pace wise, to F2 and if he is the extreme talent they say he is, why hasn’t he been more successful in IndyCar than is is up to this point? He has been in a top team for some years now.
Also the past has shown that top tier F1 drivers are very capable of winning the Indy title, vice-versa has never been successful. No doubt that any of the real top F1 drivers, like Verstappen, Leclerc, Hamilton, Alonso would win the Indy title with ease.
Marcel
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Alesici
9th February 2025, 9:12
What is the COTD talking about? It’s been over 30 years since an F1 driver has gone to Indycar and won the championship.
Also, Herta’s Andretti team is only a ‘top team’ because Herta is driving for them. Over his 5 years with them, of all his team mates, only Kyle Kirkwood has got near him, coming 7th (with Herta 2nd) in last year’s championship. The next best Andretti teammate results have been ex-F1 drivers Romain Grosjean and Marcus Ericsson, who finished the championship 13th (twice) and 15th respectively. Which does rather hammer home my earlier point…
anon
9th February 2025, 11:23
Alesici, you’re right that the most recent driver who went from Formula 1 to IndyCar and won the IndyCar championship would be Nigel Mansell in 1993.
As for the reverse scenario, Jacques Villeneuve would count on that front, having won the IndyCar title in 1995 and then the WDC in 1997 – which does mean that we have seen a driver go from IndyCar champion to Formula 1 champion more recently than we’ve seen a Formula 1 driver win the IndyCar championship (even if that example was several decades ago). In terms of drivers who were top tier in IndyCar that competed for a Formula 1 title, Montoya would probably be the most high profile example, given he was a contender for the 2003 WDC.
The more limited cross over between Formula 1 and IndyCar since then does mean that, in practice, the idea of how competitive Formula 1 drivers may be in IndyCar, and vice verse, is largely untested. As you note, the former F1 drivers who have gone across to IndyCar haven’t been spectacularly successful (Ericsson probably the most successful, having won a few races and finished in 6th in the championship three times), although the drivers that have made that switch were generally looked upon as middle to lower quality drivers in F1, and haven’t always necessarily driven with the best teams in IndyCar either. The last top tier CART driver to try coming the other way was Bourdais, but he did have some questionable treatment at Toro Rosso at a time when Vettel was Marko’s favourite driver in his driver programme.
An Sionnach
9th February 2025, 12:22
It’s difficult to know what would happen. At least Alonso has tried the Indy 500, initially with a lot of promise. Max doesn’t have an interest in racing at the ovals.
Mansell, while not being one of the true F1 greats, was a special kind of driver. He had what it took to win in IndyCar. There were better F1 drivers who (I would speculate) would not do as well. Mansell was roundly beaten by Prost in F1, but I suspect Prost might not do as well in IndyCar. Mansell and Senna had more of a swashbuckling, do-or-die approach to racing. I think a degree of abandon when it comes to your own safety is required. It may sound like a strange thing to say, but I don’t think Max has this. The difference in safety would either put him off and make him less effective or, he might end up in hospital. As we’ve seen, he’s been at the limits of the rules pulling off (or almost pulling off) incredible moves in F1. Nobody would have any business trying those in IndyCar.
MacLeod (@macleod)
10th February 2025, 8:09
@Alesici the COTD is talking about the F1 great (like Max, Lewis, Charles Alonso) if you see how the drivers who went to Indycars just average drivers who did great. But the champions (long time ago) went and won the series too He is talking about that.
Sam
9th February 2025, 10:03
Surely marko can’t be satisfied with Linblad’s NZ trip. Won the the title but was upstaged by touring car drivers at times, one with zero open wheel experience.
Gerrit
9th February 2025, 18:58
To be fair to Linbad, he was driving a spare car, build from a bare boned chassis in a massive rush, after his original car was damaged in the first race, beyond immediate repair.
This is not the first time Supercar drivers have shown up the worlds best single seat youngsters had on offer. Shane Van Gisbergen has won the GP starting from the pit lane in one of his very few single seater appearances.
What I think it shows is that drivers that race a wide variety of cars at any one time (sprint cars on dirt, or endurance cars in other categories, or in Will Browns case S5000 single seaters) are better able to handle challenging types of racing cars.
Maybe a lesson here for European based drivers, race every type of car you can, even go carts to build experience.
There is a reason Kyle Larson can jump in any car and go fast. He races at least 200 days a year from Sprint, Late Model and Midgets on dirt to Nascar and Indycars on tarmac.
Maybe Europe could build some 1/2 mile dirt tracks and expose European drivers to alternative racing leagues. Be much cheaper as well. Big in the USA and here down under are outlaw go carts on indoor dirt ovals. Get the kids hooked early.
Rhys Lloyd (@justrhysism)
10th February 2025, 1:59
SVG isn’t an average driver though. He is top-tier. But also participates in many different categories which is your broader point.