Editor’s note: Manon Boulanger is an exchange student from Belgium. She has attended the Belgium Formula One Grand Prix and will work the Indy 500 this year with the Ben Davis cross country team.
The Indianapolis 500 is known all over the United States. Held each year before Memorial Day in May, the car race hosts hundreds of thousands of people from all across the country in Speedway, Indiana.
The event contested by IndyCar Series, a category of professional racing in the United States, consists of racing 500 miles over 200 laps on the 2.5-mile track. On the other hand, Formula One is also a driving championship known all over the world. Here is what you need to know before race day on Sunday, May 25th.
The first race of the Indy 500 was held in 1911 and was won by Ray Harroun. The race is part among other races of the championship held by IndyCar Series. The championship is under the supervision of the FIA. FIA or Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (in English: International Automobile Federation) is an international organization surrounding use of the automobile and supervising, among other things, the famous Formula One Championship.
Formula One and Indycar Series are similar in some ways but also different in other ways. While they are both open-wheel, single-seat racing championships that employ some of the best drivers in the world, they have differences in the way they race. For example, Indycar Series sometimes races on oval tracks, as is the case for the layout of the Indy 500. On the other hand, Formula One never races on oval tracks and even if they sometimes race on street courses, they compete most of the time on permanent tracks which were built for racing and don’t use the roads in the streets.
Another difference is the location of the races. IndyCar Series only competes in the United States and in Canada while Formula One races on the five continents. IndyCar runs on 45 tracks that are oval, road or street courses, and races an average length of 350 miles per race. Formula One holds 75 worldwide circuits in 34 different countries and races an average length of 192 miles.
Regarding the cars, even if they may look similar, they are still slightly different. While all the cars racing the Indy 500 are almost identical with engines coming from Chevrolet or Honda, the cars racing worldwide have distinct designs for each of their ten teams competing against each other.
As far as speed goes, F1 cars can go faster around the track but Indycars have a higher top speed hitting 240 mph during the race compared to F1 engines that are “only” able to hit 220 mph.
The number of drivers racing against each other also differs. The number of drivers competing in the same race in IndyCar goes from 24 to 33 while in Formula One, the same 20 drivers race against each other from the beginning to the end of the season which goes from March through mid-November.
In conclusion, Formula One and IndyCar series are the two top open-wheel, single-seater driving championships in the world. Even though they have similarities, they are also very different in some aspects. Formula One started its season a couple weeks ago with the Australian Grand Prix before racing in the Middle East for the past few weekends. Regarding IndyCar Series, the next race will be held in Alabama before travelling all the way to Indiana.
The Indianapolis 500 race will be held on Sunday, May 25 of this year for the 109th edition.
