78 Which are faster: F1 or IndyCars ?
Description
This article is from the Motorsport FAQ, by A H Henry bspahh@midge.bath.ac.uk with numerous contributions by others.
78 Which are faster: F1 or IndyCars ?
This very much depends on the racetrack and the race distance. For a
qualifying lap on a road course or short oval, an F1 car would be much
quicker. However F1 cars are designed to race for 190 miles and are not
designed to cope with racing conditions found on a superspeedway.
Stefan Johansson was the most recent driver to try an F1 car on a
superspeedway, in a 1986 McLaren-Porsche. The car was relatively quick
even running with a lot of downforce and drag, but probably would have
not been able to run for 500 miles without breaking down. F1 engines
are usually only run for 400-500 miles between rebuilds and the
clutches rarely have to take more than three standing starts per race.
Both F1 and IndyCars have about 750-800 bhp on tap. However, the
minimum weight for an F1 car is 1108 lbs. The minimum weight for an
IndyCar is 1550 lbs. Generally, F1 cars are more sophisticated and
expensive than IndyCars. Carbon fibre brakes used in F1 are less likely
to fade and are much lighter than the steel brakes used in IndyCars.
However they are also much more expensive.
Although semi-automatic gearboxes are banned in IndyCars, some say
that after the initial development cost, they actually save money for
F1 teams by reducing the amount of engine damage when drivers miss
downshifts with a manual gearchange.
F1 cars have to have a flat-bottomed chassis which means that an
IndyCar, which is allowed ground effect tunnels, can generate a lot of
downforce for a given amount of drag.
The May 1994 issue of Automobile magazine listed these performance
figures for 1993 cars.
Williams Renault FW15C 1993 Lola T93/00-Ford
---------------------- ---------------------
0-60 mph 2.9 sec 3.0 sec
1/4 mile 7.3 sec @188 mph 7.7 sec @177mph
Top speed at fastest 205 mph (Monza) 240 (Michigan)
track
Pounds per bhp 1.9 2.3
Miles between engine 311 550
rebuilds
Race fuel consumption 5.5 mpg 1.8 mpg
Maximum lateral acc. 4.5 g 4.0 g
Max power 760 bhp @14,700 rpm 780 bhp @13,000 rmp
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