Is IndyCar as skilled as F1?

[Merlin5]

Sorry if this might be an old discussion.

Just wondering if it's easier and quicker for F1 drivers to be good at Indy than Indy drivers to be good at F1? We know that Alonso was doing well in his short time at Indy. Would the top american Indy drivers who win most of their races and championships be a serious threat to the likes of Hamilton, Vettel, Verstappen and Ricciardo if they came over to F1?

 

[Hotwired]

F1 is a cash bonfire and Indy is oval track racing.

That is enough of a difference already before trying to make a claim on driver skill.

 

[Rroff]

I'd have said Indy involved far more specialised skill in a narrow area while F1 requires a little broader set of skills - not necessarily quite as specialised.

I'd say it would be 50/50 some top Indy talent could put up some serious competition in F1 others wouldn't make their mark.

Personally I find both incredibly boring.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Not even close to F1. Mid fielders at best.

 

[timmeh]

Not even close to F1. Mid fielders at best.

Yeah Montoya was a real midfielder

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Yeah Montoya was a real midfielder

Didn't he start in F1 though?

 

[timmeh]

Didn't he start in F1 though?

Started in CART then moved to F1.

 

[MikeTheNative]

A lot of people don't know what they are taking about. The original indy and cart kind of merged over 10 years ago, the current schedule, see below, has more road tracks than oval. F1 has a better drivers simply as it's international and the pinnacle of open wheeled racing. That doesn't mean that the cars are easier or harder to drive, if top from F1 did a season in indy you would expect them to do well. On the reverse, there's a few that have done well in indy/cart but not achieved much in F1. Justin Wilson and Sebastian Bourdais are examples.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_IndyCar_Series

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Bourdais is doing alright in Formula e though.

 

[MikeTheNative]

Bourdais is doing alright in Formula e though.

He's a decent driver, but he won multiple championships in cart, in F1 he's probably middle of the road. All the 3 champions of FE so far have been ex F1 drivers, while Beumi and Piquet jr did reasonably well i don't think many people will remember their F1 careers.