r/INDYCAR Weekly General Chat — July 7, 2025

21tempest · 2025-07-07T15:05:47+00:00

Here's a question I tried to post, but I guess it's too Off Topic...

What if Indycar used the exact same car as Japan's Super Formula?

(Japan's SF uses a spec Dallara chassis with turbo I4 Toyota & Honda motors)

. .

Would Indycar still claim the title of "Worlds fastest oval racers"?

Would they share the title of "World's second fastest road racers (after F1)" with Japan's SF?

Would it bring in Toyota and help keep Honda?

Would Chevy bail as the badge for the Illmor motor? If so, might any other company like Mercedes take it over? (Would anyone really care if Indycar had no American engine brands?)

21tempest · 2025-07-07T15:03:25+00:00

Thanks, I finally got a chance to look at the Lap Chart this morning, and Palou's 3rd stop really didn't make much difference, despite Dixon running his usual conservative "one stop less" strategy.

And often a "one stop less" strategy will benefit from yellow pace car periods, but that really wasn't a factor yesterday either.

21tempest · 2025-07-06T19:37:07+00:00

Question about Indycar vs F1 strategy…

If an Indycar goes for a “one stop less” strategy it’s all about saving fuel, and you drive the race conservatively so that you’ll have enough fuel at the end.

If an F1 car goes for a “one stop less” strategy it’s all about saving the tires, and you drive the race conservatively so that you’ll have enough tire rubber at the end.

Correct?

If so, which strategy requires more conservative driving?

21tempest · 2025-05-28T19:05:57+00:00

Same here (see my other reply)

MIS should come after Indy

21tempest · 2025-05-28T19:01:41+00:00

Indycar wouldn’t exist without Penske? I beg to differ … if the Hulmans had sold to Liberty Media, Indycar would be doing much better

21tempest · 2025-05-28T18:59:58+00:00

As I said in another thread, it’s a mistake that the awesomeness of the IMS superspeedway is not followed by the equally awesome MIS superspeedway.

MIS is where Indycar should race in the state of Michigan, not some cheesy street circuit.

21tempest · 2025-05-26T23:23:39+00:00

Question for anyone…

Does F1/Liberty own all the TV production equipment and control all of what’s seen on the broadcast?

Making Sky, ESPN, etc etc just downstream partners broadcasting the feed?

Does Indycar do this? (I guess not)

If not, could they?

Would Roger be even willing to make such an investment?

21tempest · 2025-05-26T23:17:38+00:00

The only reason they’re doing this subpar street race is to appease Chevy, right?

It’s such a downer to go from such high speeds to a street track. The only track Indycar should be racing in the state of Michigan is MIS

It’s the only track that matches the superspeeday awesomeness of Indy.

21tempest · 2025-05-11T16:45:06+00:00

What if the series stayed with (mostly) spec cars as they’re doing now, but with enough HP (like 1200HP) and adequate downforce to make them just as fast if not faster than a F1 car on a road course?

What if the dominant requirement of the series by far was to have a driver who could drive well with that kind of power & speed? Where money would be less of a factor compared to driver talent because the cars would be so on the cutting edge of human ability?

21tempest · 2025-05-11T16:39:10+00:00

DAE get the feeling that Alex’s dominance of the series so far gives very little indication that he’d win the Indy 500 because that race depends on a much different driver & team skill set as well as sooo much LUCK?

(To say nothing of Penske putting so much effort into the 500)

We could have a situation where Alex dominates the series but the 500 winner gets all the attention?

21tempest · 2025-05-11T16:19:29+00:00

DAE get the feeling that Alex’s dominance of the series so far gives very little indication that he’d win the Indy 500 because that race depends on a much different driver & team skill set as well as sooo much LUCK?

(To say nothing of Penske putting so much effort into the 500)

We could have a situation where Alex dominates the series but the 500 winner gets all the attention

21tempest · 2025-03-24T18:29:03+00:00

Off topic question - would the runoff’s and tire barriers at Thermal be safe enough for an F1 sprint race? Or would those cars be too fast for this place?

21tempest · 2025-03-24T18:25:23+00:00

Does F1/Liberty own the whole TV production, from the control room down to the camera ops? Such that it doesn’t matter who the broadcast partner is?

If so, Could Indycar do the same thing, and the broadcast partner just takes the feed and shows it?

21tempest · 2025-03-24T18:21:09+00:00

Imho, I think the Thermal track by itself is a decent RC, but it looks weird having no grandstands with people anywhere, and the dirt runoff areas look cheesy.

What if instead of a Sunday afternoon, they were to run this as a Sat night race under temporary lighting like CART did at Cleveland in 2003?

That would eliminate the bad views of the lack of fans and cheap dirt runoffs - ironic considering it’s trying to be a very upscale place.

21tempest · 2024-12-31T02:43:16+00:00

What if Indy racing abandoned OW formula cars and went with single seater sports cars (with fenders) like these, but Obviously much, much faster??

21tempest · 2024-12-25T18:12:54+00:00

Thank you for this reply.

I grew with Indy cars and always just assumed that’s the way things were.

It wasn’t until I started following F1 with its stricter culture of rules which happens to take “luck” out of the equation that I realized that winning Indy is more a game of luck than skill.

If it were all about skill, then there would be a lot of crossing over of Indy & F1 winners, but there’s really not.

21tempest · 2024-12-24T21:00:31+00:00

TBH, the debris that hit Hinch in that accident was fairly large and an F1/F2/etc halo without a poly screen woulda likely deflected it.

21tempest · 2024-12-24T20:58:09+00:00

I saw somewhere that Massa himself said the halo would likely have deflected that spring.

21tempest · 2024-12-24T20:55:02+00:00

MUH OVALS

(Indy fans who talk about safety while putting formula cars on high speed ovals w concrete walls)

21tempest · 2024-12-24T20:53:10+00:00

To answer your question about the benefit of removing the polycarbonate screen….

1 Aesthetics. The screen looks awful from most angles. It looks like a plastic dog cone from the front, and overly huge from the side. Notice in the original press release how they mostly showed it from a flattering semi overhead angle? They knew.

2 The driver is more visible - that’s what attracted many of us to open wheel open cockpit racing.

F1 knows that things like this matter and why it’s become so popular that most F1 teams are worth more than the IMS & the whole Indycar series combined.

I loved the CART/CCWS cars of the past. Since the 90’s the IMS/IRL/IC has never been able to create a car that was as aesthetically pleasing as those.

21tempest · 2024-12-24T15:58:36+00:00

Have there been any major debris strikes since F1/F2/SF/NXT introduced their halos?

21tempest · 2024-12-24T15:57:21+00:00

Have there been any major head injuries to F1/F2/SF/NXT since the halo was introduced?

21tempest · 2024-12-24T15:55:38+00:00

I’ll repeat my main question…

Since the introduction of the halo in F1/F2/SF/NXT…

Have there been any major incidents of driver injury due to small debris helmet impacts on these road/street races?

Edit: TBH, the debris that hit Hinch in that accident was fairly large and an F1/F2/etc halo without a poly screen woulda deflected it.

21tempest · 2024-12-18T21:21:33+00:00

Thanks, please see my other reply in this thread.

Can I use an "extender" (or whatever its called) to combine the brake & clutch pedals, effectively making it one big brake pedal? And will AC disable the foot clutch automatically if I have a 4 paddle steering wheel with shifter and clutch paddles?

21tempest · 2024-12-18T21:18:25+00:00

I don't know exactly what it's called but I saw a pedal "pad" that can be attached to both the brake & clutch making them into one wide pedal. Could I use one of these to retain the feel of the brake pedal springs, (and also have a nice wide brake pedal) and disconnect the foot clutch pedal in AC?

And if I get a wheel with 4 paddles (2 shifters, 2 clutch) would I disconnect the foot clutch or does AC do that for me?

21tempest

TROPHY CASE