"See the F-1 race yesterday?" Topic

Hamilton won. Hate him, but I digress.

I admit you gotta have skills, but that road racing is just foreign to me. 100mph, one or two lead changes per race, it's just not cricket.

Give me 220 mph on a banked oval four lanes wide any day!

Question: Do F-1 guys change their cars when they race Indy style ovals? They must, right?

Formula 1 doesn't race on ovals, so there is no need to change cars.

Many drivers have raced in both series over the years. A few examples that spring to mind are Mario and Michael Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi, Nigel Mansell, Jacques Villeneuve, Juan Pablo Montoya, and Sebastian Bourdais.

Usually they only drive in one series during the year. This year you have the unusual situation of Fernando Alonso making a one-off appearance at the Indy 500.

The tachnical regulations of the two series are very different. So if a driver is competing in Formula 1 he has to drive an F1 car, and he has to drive an Indycar if he is racing in the Indycar Series.

100mph? Don't be silly. An F1 car's top speed is well over 200mph. Going around corners slows them down but then it takes skill to go around a 90 degree corner at 140mph.

Ain't cared about F1 since Juan (Fangio) and Sterling
(Moss) retired…yes, I'm an old f-rt…

Desert Rat, that race Saturday never saw a car break 120. Might as well have had stoplights.

So, F-1 NEVER has oval races? Interesting.

Indy does do road races in addition to ovals.

OK, talked to my cousin. He says Indy cars have completely different set ups for oval and road, and that F-1 cars are entirely different than Indy cars (looked the same to me)_Indy cars have more powerful engines and a more robust but simpler drive train, F-1s have more complioated electronics and suspensions.

He said its very complicated and expensive to trick an Indy car from oval to road, only the engine and frame remain, everything else is switched out.

I went to a Indy, right after college. The one where Allsion? Rahal (no wasnt him) well, someone did a complete 360 spin out near the final lap, and righted the car, and won.

Was exciting. Massive amount of people. Could have been a million. When you are close and in person, those cars whip by you, not like on TV.

Back then, they also didnt have all the safety stuff to protect the crowd. A spectator got killed by a tire that went right through a chain link fence. I approve. let the fans take their chances like the drivers. :)

Ever hear my story about the Memphis Ultimate Frisbee Championships at Memphis Motor Speedway? In Law School, I was playing for Fayetteville UTP-Monet. We camped at the speedway, and did all sorts of racing on their tracks. They all ended badly. Even a high end BMW at 100mph cant hang on a oval, dude went right into the wall on a turn. One race, a Dominoes pizza delivery guy in a 1970's Datsun B210 won a race, because all the other cars, including the Hummer I road up there in, crashed.

Alcohol, LSD, and other performance inhibiting substances, (ie the breakfast of Ultimate player champions), street cars, and access to racing tracks dont mix.

I drove an Indy car once. Did not like it. One, I'm too big, it was like a Go Cart to me. Two, they have a lot of torque, and shifting is difficult without racing the engine to Hell and grinding. I LOVED the steering, however. Damn things had steering!

The top speed of F1 cars in Spain last weekend was pushing 210mph. Of course, the AVERAGE speed over a lap was less than that because of all the corners!

Smokey, you make a really good point about watching motor racing live rather than on TV. TV makes the cars seem a LOT slower and less dramatic than they actually are when you are stood trackside! Applies to F1 just as much as Indy.

Smokey, if you want to see F1 cars going fast then watch the Italian GP at Imola. It's the fasest track of the year.

It's very hard to compare F1 to Indy as there are significant differences in the cars and driving skills

F-1 used to have an "oval", the banked one at Monza. That was back in "ancient" times, however, when the cars were gorgeous. Then some cretins decided that wings and ground effects were cool and the cars got wide, fat and angular. Haven't had the slightest interest in any of that. I consider 1968 the beginning of the end. Indy cars looked pretty for a few years after that, but they went the way of the dark side too. Since Dan Wheldon died at Las Vegas, the stupid looking cars might as well just put on fenders and forget about it……….

Have hardly missed one in twenty years, thought it was a great race.

F1 cars hit about 220 MPH on some straights, so they are very fast, especially this year with the smaller rear wings and wider, lower tires.