Quote:
Originally Posted by JacobP
I have been a Formula 1 fan since 2010, I think I haven't missed a race, and I honestly don't know why anyone _must_ watch IndyCar in addition to F1. There are weekends in between those two week or three week long breaks between F1 races when there isn't much else to watch, and then I guess I can watch an IndyCar race, although I personally would advise the bored, but nonetheless time limited, people to catch a MotoGP race instead. Now, _that_ is really exciting.
The quality of IndyCar racing nowadays is of course subpar to F1. Notice how IndyCar dropped standing race starts? That's because Indy drivers can't start a race from stand without at least one of them stalling on the track. They just can't do it. It was a disaster when they tried it.
There used to be a time, 20-40 years ago, when IndyCar had lots of quality drivers, and top Formula 1 teams could hire a young IndyCar driver straight into a top F1 car seat. There were too many to mention. F1 champions without any feeling of embarrassment switched between F1 and IndyCar at will. But today, do you see any F1 teams hiring an IndyCar driver? No. Do you see even a mid-level F1 driver switching to IndyCar? No of course. They used to go to DTM, WEC, and the like. These days, many of F1 dropouts end up in Formula E. Almost no one comes to IndyCar (and please don't mention Alonso, the guy tried to race ONLY in Indy 500, not the whole season).
What are the other reasons IndyCar sucks? How about up to seven full course cautions on a road track? Guys, please. If somebody was foolish enough to lose his car to kitty litter, then just continue the race. Don't stop the whole f-ing race for ten minutes just so the sob's car can be rescued back to the race track, restarted, and joined back into the race two laps down. Ridiculous.
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There's a lot of generalising and conjecture, coupled with very little knowledge about IndyCar and to a certain extent F1, which is a little surprising as you say you've been following F1 for 10 years.
I think most people who follow both F1 and IndyCar will fundamentally disagree with IndyCar racing being sub par to F1, for a variety of reasons. The fact IndyCar also races on ovals and F1 doesn't, makes it difficult to compare.
Using standing starts is not a good example as IndyCar doesn't used them. Iirc the last time IndyCar tried a standing start was in 2014, at the inaugural IndyCar GP on the Indy road coarse, when pole sitter Saavedra stalled as the lights went out and his car was hit by Munoz and Aleshin, showering the track with carbon-fibre and forcing a restart. I've seen some disastrous starts in F1, with drivers stalling on the grid. I remember the 1982 Canadian GP, in which Riccardo Paletti was killed on the starting grid. Therefore to say, Indy drivers can't start a race from stand without at least one of them stalling on the track, is a sweeping generalisation and is no more true of IndyCar drivers as it is of F1 drivers. They tried standing starts in Champ Car, without any problem. I think to dismiss rolling starts out of hand, without understanding why IndyCar uses the rolling start in the first place, seems very narrow minded.
IndyCar has quality drivers. Within the last 25 years, the only top CART/IndyCar drivers to go to a top F1 team were Jacques Villeneuve and J-P Montoya and they both went to Williams. I don't know where you get the idea there were too many to mention? Today things have changed, with regards to hiring drivers as sponsors and teams, like Mercedes and Red Bull have their own driver programmes and as they are based in Europe, those driver programmes will be Eurocentric, what with the various junior formulas racing in Europe. Drivers are coming to IndyCar. There are four rookie drivers this season and F1 refugees Ericsson and Rosenqvist, came over last season; Alonso never had any intention of competing in a full season.
With regards to FCYs, F1 has it's share of unnecessary caution periods and overly long stints by the SC and if they do have to stop the race because someone's car is stuck, which is a rare thing, then I think erring on the side of caution is preferable to another car ploughing into the one stuck in the gravel trap.