How Fast Would Formula 1 Go at the Indy 500?

the indianapolis 500 is one of the most prestigious race events in the world where the cars reach over 230 miles per hour and race nose to tail for 200 laps but what would happen if you put an f1 car on the grid would you be able to go even faster we've done some research to find out first of all thanks very much to omaze for sponsoring this video where you have the chance to win a corvette stingray c8 and a vip experience to the 2022 500 you can enter at omaze.com forward slash driver 61. indy cars and formula 1 cars look pretty similar both open wheel formula cars lots of downforce and both run turbocharged v6 engines [Music] however there are some pretty big differences indycar is a spec series meaning that all of the cars run the same delaware chassis the same aero package for each circuit and have the choice of two engines honda or chevrolet a bit like the corvette from earlier on the other hand formula one is a constructed championship the cars are made by the teams with only some components shared between the teams like williams using mercedes engines and has running ferrari components like the steering wheel indycar run the series like this to save costs for the teams and encourage closer racing meaning there are very limited opportunities to spend more money and gain an advantage over other teams where formula one teams spend hundreds of millions on wind tunnel testing and cfd to create their own aero packages sometimes with new ones for each race indigo have to run the same body floor and wind packages as all the other cars on the grid and this leads us on to another difference indy cars run on both ovals and road circuits and as you can imagine the aerodynamic and suspension setups need to be very different to accommodate this indycar has three distinct aero packages at short oval speedway and road configurations each with different wings brake ducts and suspension setups the engines are also pretty different indycar run a 2.2 liter v6 with twin turbochargers they produce between 500 and 700 horsepower as the organizers specify the maximum boost pressure for each race allowing them to control speeds and keep the racing close despite formula one using a smaller 1.6 liter engine with a single turbo charger the manufacturers have been in a development race for many years spending hundreds of millions on creating the most efficient engines on the planet these produce over 1 000 horsepower with 160 being donated by the hybrid system and the same goes for the aerodynamics manufacturers have been competing to produce the most efficient aero packages for years fighting for every tenth of a second around the corners and maximizing speed down the straights by minimizing drag whereas indycar use the same system for entire seasons and only change it when a new spec car is released [Music] in 2020 colton hurtus had the fastest lap ever at indy with an average speed of 237.986 miles an hour but f1 cars have far more downforce more power and wider tires so surely they would go faster at indy well it's not as clear-cut as that the best like for like comparison we have is at the circuit of the americas where indycar in roe spec ran a one minute 46 lap time in 2019 and formula one just a few months later ran a 1.32 so formula one has a 14 second advantage but that's on a circuit what about an oval despite what many people think ovals are incredibly tricky to get right from a setup perspective the cars need minimal drag to be quick down the straights but also have a lot of downforce to carry the speed through the corners for minimum drag indycars use their speedway setup this has a simplified single element rear wing with almost no wing angle the front wing follows a similar trend with a single element and a simplified end plate this allows them to reach up to 240 miles an hour on the straights which would destroy any f1 car even in monster spec f1 cars of course could develop lower downforce wings and remove all of the smaller downfalls producing elements but there is one other trick indycar has that is currently illegal in formula one the underfloor aero tunnels they are used to accelerate the air under the car creating a lower pressure and sucking the car to the ground this produces lots of downforce with very little drag currently f1 regulations state that the underside of the floor has to be flat and so more over body downforce would be needed to hold the car stable through the corners at least for this year on an oval formula one hybrid systems just wouldn't work it's tuned to perform best on a circuit where there are lots of braking zones that can be used to regenerate power but on an oval these regen opportunities are fairly sparse they could utilize time in the pit lane to run the engine and recharge the battery a bit like they do in f1 races and could also do a similar thing when in a slipstream behind another car however even with these times the car would be around 850 horsepower for most of the race rather than the full 1000. the setup also has to be different to excel at only turning left so indy cars use a few clever setup parameters that f1 cars don't have look at this they set the camber of all four tyres to lean to the driver's right meaning that as the car loads up into the corner all four tyres are producing as much grip as possible the entire car wants to turn left they even offset the steering to ease the load on the driver and produce less tire scrubbing through fast turns the anti-roll bars also play a huge part they can actually be tuned on the driver's steering wheel during a stint and as the cars burn off the fuel the balance in the car changes to where a stiffer rear bar would help the car when it's heavier it may need loosening off for more grip when the car is lighter and the way this works is genius the system turns these blades which are specifically shaped to vary the stiffness of the car the shape means that if the blade is in this orientation it is flexible and if you rotate it by 90 degrees it becomes much stiffer so the drivers can vary this to fine-tune the car the drivers also may want to change the balance of the car into the corners they do this with a weight jacket it's a small hydraulic round that is placed on the rear right suspension if extended it changes the cross weight of the car this is how the car's weight is split between the four tyres if you extend the rear ram this puts more weight on the front left tyre this can make the car have more grip at the front or the rear depending on what the driver wants at that point in the race as i'm sure you're aware f1 has none of these things quite simply because they aren't needed for circuit racing where the cars are pretty symmetrical in setup the oval would also require much longer gear ratios than f1 cars normally run where shorter gear ratios are preferred for better acceleration however the f1 regulations say that the gear ratios have to stay the same for the whole season but we'll ignore that for now so in terms of straight line speed the formula one car has the edge they have about 150 horsepower more and providing they develop a specific aero package for indie they could produce as much downforce as an indy car with similar drag but it would come down to the corners being able to carry the momentum through without sliding and scrubbing off speed one big advantage of the f1 car is the tyres they are 20 wider on the front and 10 wider on the rear so the theoretical grip is higher however there is one sticky point the setup in the cars are designed for ovals and are understandably very good at it for an f1 car to match an indy car through the corners the entire suspension system would need to be redesigned to accommodate the left hand camber and the sort of fine tuning needed to compete on an oval but this is f1 if there were to be a racer indeed the f1 teams would invest so much time and money that catching up would be entirely possible it would be a challenge for the teams but that's something they are used to so i say formula one could do it i don't think it would be by much but i think they would be quicker more power more downforce and similar drag it seems entirely plausible but it goes without saying indy cars are incredibly capable and are unbelievable to watch as 33 cars fly around the circuit at over 230 miles per hour and thanks to omaze you have the chance to not only win a vip experience to the 2022 indy 500 but while you're at indy with a friend you get to ride on board for a pre-race lap watch the race from the vip suite and get the tour of the pits and garage and as part of the winning prize omaze are also giving away a corvette c8 stingray it's got 495 horsepower and hits 60 in 2.9 seconds i would absolutely love to have a go in that car around one of the awesome circuits in the us what's great though is that every donation goes to support the 500 festival it's a great course that produces events and programs for disadvantaged youth in indiana so for your chance to win this incredible prize check out omaze.com forward slash driver61 you should check out this video where we explain why an f1 car could never go 300 miles an hour thanks for watching and i'll catch you in the next one

Channel: Driver61

Views: 2,101,074

Keywords: Formula 1, Driving, Coaching, Motorsport, Engineering, F1, Racing, Incredible Motorsport, Driver61, indy 500, formula one, indianapolis 500, fernando alonso, indy car, castroneves, castroneves indy 500, castor oil, castro funny moments, indy 500 finish, indy 500 live, indy 500 last laps, indy500, indy 500 highlights, indianapolis 500 documentary, aerodynamics, engineering, CFD, Wind Tunnel, Maths, Explained, Calculations, andretti autosport

Id: EC8gjahjSYc

Length: 9min 41sec (581 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 01 2021