what is the difference betwen a Formula 1 car and an Indy car?

Answer 1

The not so technical answer from a female F1 fan is ...

F1 is the elite performance class with a few restrictions for safety reasons but apart from that its a case of get as much speed as possible for your money. We are talking mega millions here as the latest and greatest technology and best drivers do not come cheap. The cars look alike because using wind tunnel technology they have all worked out what the most aerodynamic shape is and everyone generally sticks to that.
On the other hand Indy cars also stick to that aerodynamic style of the F1s but have heaps more restrictions which generally are aimed at creating a more level playing field and allowing everyone to be competitive.
Ultimately F1s are the fastest and money talks, Indy Cars are slower, less expensive and more evenly matched.
Hope that helps.

Answer 2

Indy cars are built to extremely restrictive rules. The cars are much cheaper, somewhat slower than F1 and very evenly matched. The racing is close and passing frequent. The downside is that the technology is not very exciting. The engines are limited to a certain rpm.

F1 cars have much freer rules. The cars are bizarrely expensive. A low end team spends maybe 50 million a year, more than the very best Indy car teams. A top end team spends more like 500 million a year. They are somewhat faster than Indy cars. A few teams dominate and only they can hope to win. In 2006 Ferrari won 9 races and Renault 8. Honda won one, a strange race with rain and crashes. They basically won by being lucky on when they made pit stops and having other cars break or crash.

The races are usually more like parades, with few passes. The cars are spectacular though, with high revving engines that truly scream.

While F1 cars are set up only to run road courses, if they were setup to run ovals (smaler wings, etc.) they would be faster there, also.

Answer 3

For starters a cart is 6 seconds slower than the lowest placed F1 car on the same circuit. This is "light years" in racing. However technically the rules are very different.
In Formula One, everyone builds his own car and develops it race after race,In American racing, there are two or three manufacturers of Indy cars which are available for sale to the teams. So, things are not going to be pushed to the limit as they are in F1.
Only the engines are supplied while the teams develop. Till a few years back, only Ferrari were the team which did their own cars including engines. The rest of big five in formula 1 always got engines and designed the cars.
Weight. F1 cars minimum weight is 585 kg (1,287 lbs). Indy car
minimum weight is 1,550 lbs (704.5 kg).

Brakes. F1 cars use carbon fibre brakes which are lighter and
more durable than the steel brakes used by Indy cars. (Indy cars
are allowed to use carbon brakes on the 2.5 mile superspeedways
at Indianapolis and Michigan. Steel brakes are mandatory at all
the other races).

Ground effect. [AS] It is generally said that ground effect cars
are no longer allowed in F1 but this is not strictly true. All
cars generate ground effect, you cannot 'ban' it, only try to
design the rules to limit the downforce that can be obtained
from it. In F1 this is done by requiring flat bottoms between
the wheels (now with 50mm step). In Indycar they still allow
shaped ground effect tunnels, but with strictly controlled
dimensions and at a minimum height above the bottom of the
chassis.

Turbo charging. Banned in F1 but still allowed in Indy -
although at a much lower boost pressure than was used by F1 cars
in the 80's.

Semi-automatic gearboxes. Allowed in F1 but not in Indy.

Primarily F1 is the pinnacle of automobile advancement, while Indy is a circus.

Answer 4

A f1 car is made by each team it is told to fir within certain dimensions, have a min. weight of around 950 kilos, and a few different technical rules and the rest is up to the team, each car on the grid is different, and almost every team has a different engine

and Indy car (irl) is a spec panoz chassis with a Honda engine
you can tune it but all the cars are the same

formula one is desgined to accelerate as fast as possible and turn as fast as possible

Indy cars are made to maintain a high end speed around an oval

Answer 5

What's the difference? About US$300million dollars. It's not the cost of the car that's expensive, it's the costs of development.

There's a saying in computer security: "90% of the security costs 10% of the money, and 10% of the security costs 90% of the money." Translation: The easy part costs very little, it's the hard stuff that eats all the money. The same applies to racing.

A champion IRL or Champ Car team can operate for around US$30million per season. An F1 team can't even put a car on the grid without a budget upwards of US$70million, and the top teams spend at least US$200million per year.

This also applies to lower level formulae as well. Compare the lap times of Atlantic series cars (US$500,000-1m annual costs) to Champ Car on their tracks, or the Star Mazda cars (US$150,000-300,000 annual costs) to the IRL cars at Watkins' Glen and Sears Point. The times are very similar. Also, the IRL and Champ Car both ran the same St. Petersburg street circuit and produced almost equal times. Champ Cars lap times were slightly slower, but that was due to the added hairpin at turn 1; the IRL cars ran a wide-open right hander.

People laugh at the difference in lap times between Champ Car and F1 when racing at Montreal. For such uninformed people, try sticking some facts in your head: Champ Cars weigh approximately 400kg more (900 pounds) than F1 cars, AND Champ Cars have steel brakes versus F1's carbon brakes. Their braking and acceleration are cripple because of the weight and technology, and the same would apply to the IRL's cars.

If you want to laugh at somebody, wait until the NASCRASH vehicles "race" in Montreal next year. Weighing 1500kg (3300 pounds), using steel brakes, and running on a track with two hairpins and four chicanes, the NASCRASH vehicles will be comically slow.

Pole position lap times in Montreal:
F1 - 1:13
Champ Car - 1:19
Estimated NASCRASH time - 1:50

For any NASCRASH fans who would argue with that estimate, try to remember Juan Pablo Montoya's lap time of the Indianapolis F1 track in a NASCRASH car versus Jeff Gordon's inexperienced lap time in the Williams F1 car. Although Montreal has four fast straights, the acceleration of F1 and Champ Car vehicles is why they are so fast. NASCRASH cars will take twice as long to crawl from the Casino Hairpin to the Wall of Champions.

At Indianapolis, with half the 4.2km (2.6 miles) on a single straight (thus acceleration and braking are less critical than top speed):

Gordon in Montoya's F1 Williams - 1:16
Montoya in Gordon's NASCRASH car - 1:39

(Montoya's lap time in during the F1 races was 1:11.)

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1208/is_29_227/ai_105556752

NASCRASH will be laughed out of Montreal for lack of performance. If they want to race in Canada, they would be better off going to Mosport which is similar to both Sears Point and Watkins' Glen.


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Answer 6

The same difference between FC Barcelona and L A Galaxy.
Both have 11 players, boths kick a ball.........
After that, everything is different.
By the way Formula 1 compared to Indy is like Barcelona compared to Galaxy.

Answer 7

Actually, besides the basic shape, almost everything is different between a F1 and Indy cars. Engine, gearing, tires, suspension, and wings are very different.

Answer 8

The short answer. About a Gazillion dollars.

Answer 9

also, a formula 1 car is soooo much heavier than an indy car

Answer 10

infinite