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F1 could return to Indianapolis following Penske takeover

2019 F1 season

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Roger Penske has said he will consider bringing Formula 1 back to Indianapolis Motor Speedway after completing his takeover of the circuit.

F1 last raced at the circuit in 2007 before the venue was dropped. The championship was absent from the USA for five years before returning at the Circuit of the Americas, a new purpose-built venue in Texas.

The Penske Corporation is purchasing Hulman and Company which owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as well as the IndyCar series. As well as the annual Indianapolis 500 on the 110-year-old oval, IndyCar also holds a race on the 3.9-kilometre road course F1 previously raced on.

Asked about his plans for the speedway, Penske said he could consider F1 and other forms of racing at the track.

“What can we use this for?” he said. “Can we run a 24-hour race here? Can we run a Formula 1 race here? What are the things we can do?

“This is a great asset. Once the tradition had been broken in adding the NASCAR race, which obviously we’re going to get behind in a big way because for 27 years they’ve run here. So I look at all of these across the board to see what can we do.”

Formula 1 raced on the grand prix circuit at Indianapolis between 2000 and 2007. It did not have a happy tenure at the track. In 2002 Michael Schumacher attempted to co-ordinate a ‘dead heat’ with Rubens Barrichello, and inadvertently handed victory to his Ferrari team mate at the finish.

Worse followed three years later when 14 of the 20 entrants withdrew from the race on the formation lap due to concerns over tyre safety.

The track’s centrepiece race, the Indianapolis 500, also counted towards the world championship between 1950 and 1960, despite not being run to F1 rules.

F1 owners Liberty Media are keen to add a second American round to the championship. An agreement in principle is in place for a race in Miami in 2021, and they have also explored the possibility of adding a round in Las Vegas.

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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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35 comments on “F1 could return to Indianapolis following Penske takeover”

  1. 1. COTA
    2. Shopping Mall Parking-lot
    3. Indianapolis

    I think most sane Formula 1 fans will pick up number 3, if asked to choose one circuit.
    If asked to choose two circuits it will definitely be numbers 1 and 3.

    If asked to choose 3, it will be numbers 1, 3 and “Let’s find something else instead of 2”.

    But Liberty “listens to F1 fans”, and OF COURSE will go exclusively with Number 2, maybe even at the expense of number 1.

    1. @dallein, when F1 races were held at Indianapolis though, most fans didn’t really like the road course layout – quite a few thought that it was a bit rubbish, and it was fairly common to hear people complaining about what they saw as a “mickey mousey” layout.

      They weren’t alone either – certainly, in the past, MotoGP riders also thought that the Indianapolis road course layout was a bit rubbish, and quite a few felt that the circuit also felt a bit run down and not in particularly good shape either. They were a bit more positive after the layout was tweaked a bit in 2014 and the track was overhauled, but even so they didn’t hang around after 2015 and shifted to COTA after that.

      The problem is that, by its nature, a road course within an oval will have very little variation in elevation to work with, and the layout is ultimately constrained by the need to fall within the perimeter of the wider oval. That does limit the way that the designers can play with the layout, and not necessarily all of the changes might be well received for an F1 race.

      In the past, there were also the safety problems with the circuit, with Ralf Schumacher’s high profile accident in 2004 – which meant he missed a third of the season because of two fractured vertebrae – making people rather less enthusiastic about the circuit in future years.

      Due to its association with the Indy 500, Indianapolis might have considerable heritage for that particular event – but, on its own merits as a circuit, I’m not sure that it really would be all that popular. I’d even wager that, if fans didn’t recognise it and if you tricked them by labelling it as a proposed Tilkedrome in a random country other than the US, I wouldn’t be surprised if a large chunk of those fans would reply “that looks rubbish – why would you race there?”.

      1. I distinctly remember the sight of seeing F1 cars enter the infield and with the sights of empty grandstands at Turns 3 and 4 (and Turn 2, to a lesser extent) in the background- which was a depressing contrast to the Indy 500, where the grandstands were crammed full everywhere. Why were those grandstands empty, you ask? Because you couldn’t see the race from there. The cars didn’t utilize that part of the facility. If they used as much of the oval as possible (like at Daytona), those stands would have been fuller, the circuit would have been better for the drivers and the race would have been more popular.

        1. Yes, Daytona is a much better layout around an oval than the Indy road course, whose only highlights are entering the oval, and braking for turn one before leaving the oval.

        2. I went to the 500 in 2017 and sat at turn 2 – viewing at Indy is pretty compromised, unlike most ovals you simply can’t see all of the track thanks to the infield being as built up as it is. Compared to the 2014 Indycar race at Fontana, you’re at best limited to about half of the oval (at Fontana, you can see the entire track). You’re also expecting soldout grandstands regardless – not a viable business model anymore, especially with the race at COTA and would be more of a problem if Miami goes ahead but diluting the already small F1 US fanbase between 3 tracks.

          That said, the double hairpin of the old F1 track has gone and the Indycar GP race bypasses the oval T1 and part of the early infield (I think T4-7). It’s a short track but the quality of racing is far better than it was – not amazing but significantly better. F1 could work at Indy.

    2. I far prefer COTA. Then maybe I’m neither sane nor a real F1 fan :o)

    3. COTA will remain as the premier USA F1 racing facility for a long time. There isn’t an oval infield, “no passing” street course or parking lot course that can come close.

    4. Who in their right mind would choose the Indy road course over COTA??

    5. Anthony Blears
      5th November 2019, 0:06

      I must not be sane then. COTA any day over the crappy Indy road course.

    6. I wouod choose 3 over 1. Indy is unique, cota is a tilkedrome, copy paste with some decent parts, austin has been great but looks pernicious(avo1dc3nsorsboat) over the tv. Fom did filmed the enthusiastic crowd, I guess it felt warmer when the mexicans used to attend the GP.

      1. @peartree, it is difficult to understand what on earth you are saying, as it is garbled and I think that you are using a number of words there where you don’t actually understand what they mean. Also, what exactly do you mean by your strange remark about Mexican spectators at Austin – what exactly are you trying to get at with that remark?

    7. Quite presumptuous to elevate your view to that of ‘most sane Formula 1 fans’.
      COTA for me. I don’t claim to represent more than 1 fan, nor will I discuss my state of mind when reading some comments.

    8. Obviously wrong. COTA is far superior. I think sweeping statements best to be avoided

    9. Was it not in a car park at Caesars palace??

  2. Everything Roger Penske does is first class. His purchase of the speedway has unlimited potential. I just wish he was thirty years younger. God speed Roger Penske!

  3. The track layout is awful, I hope it will not happen.

  4. Please no.

  5. Let them do it!

    Can’t be worse than Monaco…

  6. I prefer CotA as a track for F1, and surely hope that the primary US Grand Prix continues to be held in Austin.

    However, if a second US Grand Prix is to be added, I’d much rather it were at the Indianapolis road course than in Miami. It’s not the best road course out there, but it’s better than yet another street circuit, and geographically speaking Indianapolis is a much more reasonable location for a second US GP than Miami, which just adds another location in the far south, whereas Indy is at least more central. (I still think a northwest location such as Portland or Seattle would make the most sense, since Austin is far south in the middle of the country and Montreal is already fairly close to the north middle and north east portions of the country, but I don’t see that happening any time soon.)

  7. Unless F1 runs the whole oval, no thanks.
    Daytona’s road course is far better.
    In fact, I’d pass any USGP if not at Road Atlanta or Daytona, tbh.

    1. @niefer Not even Laguna Seca or Road America?

      1. Although I love elevation changes, I don’t like the flow of Road America apart from the Carousel (T9-10) to the Kink (T11).
        As for Laguna Seca, I’d be keen to see F1 in the original layout only, since I’m not fond of the current one.

        1. Absolutely. Daytona’s road course is good because they use as much of the oval as possible. It was way better than the Indy road course.

        2. Road America would be very interesting – it’s was always one of the Indycar highlights in the CART days and that’s continued since it returned to the schedule in 2016. Not sure the crowd is what Liberty would be after targeting but it’s a great track and one that F1 could thrive at. Also turns 1&2 have seen some great passes these last few years – why is that a problem?

          Laguna Seca – if you’re talking about the pre-1988 layout (the only previous layout I’m aware of), it’s too short for F1. It was specifically extended in an attempt to land the F1 race from 1989 – except that Phoenix won that battle. You’re also talking about removing the Andretti hairpin at turn 2, one of the best passing points on the track.

    2. Indy oval would be great for variety. One oval per asason would be mega, though f1 would bring shame to the 500.

      1. “f1 would bring shame to the 500.” Get real. The Indy 500 is the worlds oldest, biggest race.

        F1 cars couldn’t withstand the super high G impacts on the oval either. They were never built for the task.

        1. The tub would, it’s all the peripherals that’d scatter all about the place

  8. I loved the banking and the main straight but not the awful infield, which is little more than a car park track. And no matter who owns it, there isn’t much that can be done to make reasonable changes to something cramped into a flat little space like that.

    The name is nice and the banking’s nice, but if F1 does add races in the USA I’d rather they didn’t return to Indy.

  9. The 2 biggest issues of the Indianapolis road course were 1. The circuit itself, which quite honestly sucked. Not just in driver’s challenge, but 2. The under-utilization of the facility itself. I distinctly remember the sight of seeing F1 cars enter the infield and with the sights of empty grandstands at Turns 3 and 4 (and Turn 2, to a lesser extent) in the background- which was a depressing contrast to the Indy 500, where the grandstands were crammed full everywhere. Why were those grandstands empty, you ask? Because you couldn’t see the race from there. The cars didn’t utilize that part of the facility. If they used as much of the oval as possible (like at Daytona), those stands would have been fuller, the circuit would have been better for the drivers and the race would have been more popular.

    But also, Indianapolis is not exactly the most cosmopolitan of cities- a better, more international area, like New York, Los Angeles (Long Beach is too short and would need to be lengthened and would need new facilites), San Francisco (Laguna Seca has the same issue as LB, possibly Sonoma as well) or Miami would be good cities to have an F1 race. Road America would need huge facility without its superb layout being modified, as would VIR, Daytona, Sebring, Homestead-Miami, Watkins Glen (that circuit would probably be butchered), Barber (would also need to be lengthened), Mid-Ohio, the Utah Motorsports Campus, Fontana, the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Lime Rock, Portland- the list goes on. They would all need facility upgrades and/or lengthening of their current layouts.

    1. *Road Atlanta as well

  10. Back to the carpark infield? Please no. It had all the features of classic tracks, such as the chicane made of two hairpins, and dozen slow corners. At least the recent version used by IndyCar (and the one by MotoGP) was slightly better, but not good enough.

    If they return to Indy, I would like to see something outlandish in terms of track design, maybe running half of the oval (bit like Daytona road course).

  11. I think what we can also infer is that Penske won’t be returning to F1 in the near(or far) future. Not that it is been discussed in public recently anyway but Penske is one of the few US racing organisations to have the real resources to have a proper go.

  12. i want watkins gken

  13. An OVAL race track? That would be mind-numbingly boring! No long straights? No hairpin tuns? No left – right – left chicanes? I know this is about money; this will be a disaster.

  14. No matter how much I, and a few others it seems, would want to see F1 at Watkins Glen or any other existing (character laden) North American race course, it will NOT happen.
    With 20+ other venues throughout the world, all (all but one) willing or able to put up the hosting fee, any existing track would have to match or better the same terms. Ouch….
    On top of that, none of the tracks currently meet the F1 Safety Standards and the cost of conformance would likely dwarf the hosting fee.
    To make it work without a really deep pocketed sponsor (and we all know how many of those are kicking around) or a willing government, you would need an enormous number of paying spectators. Around 300,000 at $200 a head with an expectation of doing same for 2 or 3 years. You may not like the Miami idea, I certainly don’t, but like F-E, it is about bringing the racing to the people. Large numbers of people who can and will pay out the $200.

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