- Some race car fans like to compare IndyCar to Formula 1.
Now I used to think those people were (beep) idiots,
but both series have been increasing in popularity.
And since they're both single-seat open real race cars,
they even look a little bit alike.
Kind of like me and the guy from the Mandalorian.
But that's a lot like comparing apples to oranges,
McLarens to Hellcat,
Gisele Bündchen into Steve Buscemi.
One does some things better than the other,
but the differences are what make them both cool.
And the best part is you don't have to choose.
You can have both of them at the same time.
A Buscemi bunching baby.
So today we're gonna dig into how IndyCar differs from F1
and why it might be better.
Let's go.
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Oh, hey James.
Apart, the windscreen an IndyCar
and a Formula 1 car look like they might be pretty similar,
but there are some huge differences
in the biggest by far is the gold-plated diamond
and crusted elephant in the room, the cost.
A competitive IndyCar it isn't cheap.
It can cost around $3 million,
that includes the cost of different parts
for various tracks, testing,
and enough engines and gearboxes to last an entire season.
But that's a bargain compared to an F1 car.
At checkout, an F1 car is gonna ring up between 14
and $20 million.
That's for one car and engine, no spares included,
and it doesn't even touch the cost to design
and develop each of Formula 1's 10 unique chassis.
See each of the Formula 1 constructors
are required to design their own car
within the FIA regulations.
That's the formula.
Every teams chassis and aerodynamics
will be a bit different from everyone else's
and a team can be penalized
for copying another car's design.
This might sound familiar.
This happened to racing point in 2020
when they were fined for having parts too similar
to the previous years Mercedes.
Unlike Formula 1,
IndyCars are supposed to be similar.
And to accomplish this, they use mini spec components.
Those are parts that teams buy from a third party
and are identical for everyone.
Since the teams don't have to do all the individual R&D
for those components,
that keeps IndyCars costs at just a fraction
of what's found in F1.
The chassis and aerodynamic parts of every IndyCar
are designed and built by Dallara,
an Italian manufacturer specializing in race cars.
They build components for Le Mans, Formula 2 and 3,
and even the upcoming next gen NASCAR.
IndyCar team simply buy a pre-made chassis
from Dallara for $349,000, nice.
The downside of spec parts
is that you don't have individual teams innovating
or developing new designs that push the sport forward
like you do in Formula 1.
But everyone having numerous identical parts
means that one team can't win simply
by out engineering or outspending their competition.
And in F1,
one of the biggest targets of engineering and spending
is in the engines.
Formula 1 has four engine manufacturers,
Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault, and Honda.
The F1 power unit is the most expensive part of the car
and a single one can cost $11 million,
but Mercedes has spent a total of 1.2 billion
over seven years to develop their current power unit
within the strict FIA regulations.
For that price,
they've got a state of the art turbo hybrid,
1.6 liter V6 capable of producing over 8,000 horsepower.
IndyCar has just two engine manufacturers.
They got Honda and they got Chevrolet.
And teams can choose which engine to buy for their cars.
Those engines cost a thrifty 125 grand
or about 99% cheaper than an F1 engine.
Does that mean you're getting 99% less power?
No, you don't.
These are state of the art twin turbo 2.2 liter V6
is capable of 750 horsepower.
Each horsepower in an IndyCar costs a measly $167.
In F1 you're paying a $11,000 per pony.
How much power and engine makes depends heavily
on how much fuel it consumes.
And one of the challenges for F1 engineers
is FIA regulations that limit fuel consumption.
The total fuel allowed for one Grand Prix
is limited to 110 kilograms around 145 liters.
There's no refueling during pit stops
and the fuel flow rate can't exceed 100 kilograms an hour.
A thousand horsepower Bugatti Veyron can drain
its hundred liter tank in just 12 minutes.
Developing an engine capable of a thousand horsepower
that can last an entire two hour race
with just 135 liters of fuel is a huge engineering challenge
that costs a lot of money to figure it out.
IndyCars don't have the same limitation
even though their fuel tanks
are about half the size at 70 liters,
they do refuel during pit stops,
and there's no limitation on how much fuel
they can use in a race
or how quickly it flows to the engine.
IndyCar engineers don't have to spend
as much time thinking about fuel economy,
which means power is cheaper and easier than it is in F1.
Even though there are no restrictions on fuel consumption,
IndyCar does restrict the amount of turbo boost
for different conditions.
Depending on whether the car is qualifying or racing,
and depending on the track,
cars have between 18 and 22 PSI of boost,
which means actual power varies between 550
and 700 horsepower.
But drivers can also briefly increase boosts to 24 PSI,
producing the engines maximum power
with a push to pass button on the steering wheel.
F1's DRS system also makes passing easier by reducing drag,
but DRS only works under conditions specified by the FIA
and only at certain parts of each track.
In IndyCar driver,
it's free to push the pass button whenever they choose.
They can use the power to pass like the name says
or to defend against a pass.
But push the pass is only available
for a total of about 200 seconds per race varying by track.
When to use it and how many times that's up to the driver.
Now 750 horsepower sounds pretty good to me,
and I'm not sure the extra power of a Formula 1 engine
is worth the $10.8 million price difference.
Formula 1 gets criticized for being a series
where the deepest pockets often win
and runaway costs like these
are why the FIA instituted a budget cap
of 145 million per team in 2020.
But somehow Mercedes managed to spend 450 million last year,
three times the budget cap.
So how is that even possible?
Well, remember all that engine development they do,
that's exempt from the cap along with a ton of other costs
like driver salaries, travel costs, and even marketing.
But cash like that can buy a lot of speed.
The fastest speed ever recorded in an F1 race
was back in 2016 when Valtteri Bottas
reached 231 miles per hour at the Mexican Grand Prix.
231 miles per hour is pretty fast,
but it's also slower than 236 miles per hour
which is what most IndyCars reach during an ordinary laps
at the Indy 500.
And all that speed can be yours for an annual team budget
of just $10 million,
440 million less than Mercedes F1 budget.
To put that in perspective,
440 million is more than the annual GDP of Tonga.
Now, you guys are put back into perspective.
So with more power and a country's worth of money,
why do F1 cars have lower top speed than IndyCars?
Well, despite the superficial resemblance,
these really are two different series.
The cars are designed for different rules, different goals,
and for their own types of races.
F1 races happen on just two kinds of tracks.
You've got road courses like Silverstone,
and you got street courses like Monaco.
But in addition to road and street circuits,
IndyCar also runs on speedways,
more commonly known as ovals
even though many of them aren't oval like Indy,
which is kind of a rectangle.
Both F1 in IndyCars are developed and configured
for the types of tracks they use.
And a lot of the differences come down
to their aerodynamics.
F1 aero packages are designed for cornering speed.
Aero parts like the front ring
has small specialized elements
to fine tune the cars down downforce.
If you look closely,
you can see differences in these parts
between all of the teams
and variation for different racetracks
as engineers experiment with new designs
to maximize cornering grip.
It's hard to say how much F1 aero costs to develop,
but most teams have entire departments
of engineers dedicated to aerodynamics.
Even a conservative estimate
will be in the millions of dollars.
But that expensive aero limits F1 cars top speed.
F1 cars can produce over five Gs of downforce.
Effectively, that means the faster the car goes,
the more it weighs.
At five G's of downforce,
the engine has to move five times the car's weight.
Meaning the power to weight ratio is five times worse.
Even with a thousand horsepower,
there's a point where the engine simply can't overcome
the weight and drag and go any faster.
And that's the aerodynamically limited top speed,
but all that downforce maximizes corner and grip,
which maximizes corner and speed.
And the advanced aero and extra power of an F1 car
is why on a road course,
it will smash an IndyCar's lap time.
The only track that both of these cars have recently visited
is a circuit of Americas in Texas.
At one minute 37 seconds per race lap,
the F1 car is 11 1/2 seconds faster than the IndyCar.
Even with IndyCar taking a pretty liberal stance
on track limits,
IndyCars at Austin can't match the F1 car speed.
Like the engine and chassis,
IndyCar aero is made up of spec parts.
Each team gets the same aerodynamic package
to keep costs down and keep the field competitive.
That aero kit cost just 70 grand.
And since it's also made by Dallara,
they'll give you a discount if you buy it at the same time
as the chassis.
It's like Little Caesars of IndyCar parts.
You buy a pizza chassis
and you get crazy bread aero at a discount.
You guys eat Little Caesars don't act like you're special.
That IndyCar aero package isn't as sophisticated
as what you'd find on an F1 car.
The front ring has just three,
relatively basic aerodynamic elements
whereas F1 cars have five with numerous winglets
in vortex generators.
The IndyCar rear wing also includes three elements.
F1, they just have to get by with just two, so trombone.
But it has DRS vortex generators
and a bunch of other little bits and pieces.
And that's all due to the biggest cost difference.
F1 aero comes with a team of engineers
who are constantly testing and fiddling to optimize
for the precise conditions of one specific race.
The IndyCar aero has just three pre-made configurations
and only very small amounts of adjustments.
It's enough to keep like one engineer busy
for an entire afternoon.
But that discount aero turns out
to be the key to IndyCar's top speed.
And its highest downforce configuration,
the kit can make just four G's
or about 2,500 kilograms of downforce.
That's about 500 kilograms less than an F1 car.
So even if an IndyCar had a thousand horsepower,
it still couldn't out corner an F1 car.
However, on a Speedway like one in Indianapolis,
an F1 car would be fighting against its own downforce.
The IndyCar can just switch
to its low downforce aero configuration.
That removes all but a single element
from the front and rear wings
and only produces 2.5 G's of downforce.
That's just 1/3 of what the F1 car has,
and it's why the IndyCar can reach a higher top speed
with just 700 hoses.
Formula 1 tries to institute cost cutting measures
but that's difficult because it still wants to be a showcase
for new technology in engineering battles.
IndyCar is different.
Instead of making individual team's innovations
into part of the show,
they make it cheaper for teams to compete
and on a more even playing field.
And because of that,
it's attracted racers from all over.
In this year's past Indy 500,
eight of the drivers on the grid had F1 experience.
That includes Romain Grosjean,
Kevin Magnussen from the Haas F1 Team,
and Marcus Ericsson from Alfa Romeo.
And he even said,
"I wouldn't be surprised
to see more F1 drivers looking to come here.
I prefer racing in IndyCar."
The diversity of tracks and drivers makes IndyCar
a fan series too.
And it's cost cutting measures have kept ticket prices low.
You can go watch an IndyCar race for under 50 bucks
and even get a pit and paddock pass
for around a hundred bones.
Paddock access in the F1 that costs thousands of dollars.
Those different philosophies
end up producing lots of differences between the two series
including lots of stuff we don't have time to talk about.
Kind of like Steve Buscemi and Gisele Bundchen.
Who else has called Steve Buschemi, Steve Buscemi
and not Steve Booshemi?
If you've been calling Steve Buscemi,
Steve Booschemi for a while,
leave a comment down below.
Because apparently I'm an idiot
and I've been calling him that,
and I'm gonna keep calling him that.
Thank you guys so much for watching this episode of B2B.
We've always wanted our own F1 car here at Donut,
but it's pretty pricey,
so maybe we get an IndyCar.
Well, who do you think our main sponsors should be?
What should we put on the car?
Leave your comments down below.
Follow us here on Instagram at Donut Media.
Follow me on Instagram at Jeremiah Burton.
I have a TikTok but they banned me.
So you can't find me on there
unless suck my science apparently just shows up
and they allow people to search for it.
But until next week, bye for now.