- 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. (upbeat music) Big thanks to Petal for
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today to find out more. 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.
