zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Racing
/
Here's How IndyCar's Lap Times at COTA Compare to Formula One's
Here's How IndyCar's Lap Times at COTA Compare to Formula One's-June 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:11:11

The results are in. At long last, race fans will finally have a way to directly compare the speeds of Formula One cars against IndyCars. As IndyCar’s first testing sessions come to a close at Circuit of the Americas, it seems like as good a time as any to see how these two open wheel series compare.

One of the big arguments as to why IndyCar wouldn’t race at COTA was, for a while, that it would show how much slower IndyCars were than F1 cars, thus making IndyCar look like a foolish, small potatoes series next to the grandiose international series that is Formula One.

I, personally, have always found that argument silly—both series are designed for different purposes and race on different tracks. Each series uses its own technology—hell, IndyCar doesn’t even have power steering like F1 does. There’s no reason why they should even need to have comparable speeds, but alas. I cannot speak for the Internet. Instead, I’ll let these numbers speak for themselves.

Let’s start with F1. Lewis Hamilton is currently the record-holder at COTA. During the 2018 qualifying session for the US Grand Prix, he set a fastest lap of 1:32.237. That’s nothing to shake a stick at.

Now, onto IndyCar. The fastest lap set during their spring training session was clocked by rookie Colton Herta at 1:46.6258, according to . For those who are not keen on doing math on a Wednesday morning, that’s about a fourteen second difference.

It’ll take some time before we get a really accurate comparison between lap times—this is, after all, just a training session to familiarize IndyCar drivers with the track. We’ll likely see a more accurate representation of exactly how fast those cars can go during IndyCar’s own qualifying session at the race in March.

I’ll go ahead and repeat this one for the people in the back: this comparison isn’t to pit one series against the other. They’re two different categories of racing, and it would be disingenuous to do so. It’s just a way to check out the differences because it’s been such a huge talking point.

But put Lewis Hamilton in an IndyCar and send him around COTA... then we’ll talk.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Racing
World Anti-Doping Agency Is Skeptical Of Haas' It's-Not-A-Russian-Flag Livery
World Anti-Doping Agency Is Skeptical Of Haas' It's-Not-A-Russian-Flag Livery
The Haas Formula 1 Team — the only American team in F1 — debuted a Russian flag with a race car behind it on Thursday. I can only describe the Haas VF-21 chassis in such a fashion because the influence is so blatant. The team’s new title sponsor, a...
Jun 30, 2025
Please Enjoy The Time Top Gear Entered Rallycross And Everything Went Wrong
Please Enjoy The Time Top Gear Entered Rallycross And Everything Went Wrong
By the time nouveau Top Gear did an episode on rallycross, the trio of Hammond, Clarkson, and May were already a little bit past the series’ prime. For real, genuine, completely hectic misadventure in the world of rallycross, you need to wind the clock back to 1988. This is...
Jun 30, 2025
Formula One's 2021 Liveries, Ranked
Formula One's 2021 Liveries, Ranked
Now that we have almost all of the Formula One grid’s liveries released (Ferrari will be releasing its livery on March 10, but I feel fairly confident that it will be red with maybe a little white and black, which is fine. It’ll end up somewhere in the bottom...
Jun 30, 2025
A Formula 1 Team Was Hacked. Its Sponsor Is A Cybersecurity Firm
A Formula 1 Team Was Hacked. Its Sponsor Is A Cybersecurity Firm
You may have already read that the Williams FW43B Formula 1 car leaked on Friday, which prefaced my chance to of this year’s F1 season as far as are concerned. You might not, however, have noted that the breach happened even as one of Williams’ sponsors happens to be...
Jun 30, 2025
Here's How To Watch NASCAR And Everything Else In Racing This Weekend; March 6-7
Here's How To Watch NASCAR And Everything Else In Racing This Weekend; March 6-7
Welcome to the Jalopnik Weekend Motorsports Roundup, where we let you know what’s going on in the world of racing, where you can see it, and where you can talk about it all in one convenient place. Where else would you want to spend your weekend? It’s pretty much...
Jun 30, 2025
Here's What Happened During Romain Grosjean's Scary F1 Crash In Bahrain
Here's What Happened During Romain Grosjean's Scary F1 Crash In Bahrain
At the tail end of the 2020 Formula One season, Haas driver Romain Grosjean suffered a terrifying crash at the Bahrain International Circuit. His car became lodged between sections of the Armco barrier, split apart, and lit on fire. It was one of the more violent wrecks we’ve seen...
Jun 30, 2025
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved