“It’s more of a driver’s series”: When Santino Ferrucci deemed IndyCar more demanding than NASCAR & F1 

A.J. Foyt’s IndyCar driver Santino Ferucci featured on The Blueprint podcast by Smoking Gun Creative Agency in August this year. The American highlighted the key differences that make IndyCar more demanding for a driver as compared to NASCAR and F1.

Speaking via The Blueprint podcast by Smoking Gun Creative Agency, Santino Ferucci said:

“You have NASCAR, you have IndyCar, and then you have Formula One. Now, the most difficult of the three for a driver is, I want to say, least car dependent, all talent, and have to go with IndyCar,” Ferucci said (13:40 onwards).

“Because not only do we not have power steering compared to the others, our cars are incredibly similar across the field. There's not much we can do. It's more of a driver's series, kind of like a feeder category into Formula One. It's a bit more of a driver's series. It's how they figure out who gets to be promoted. Money aside. So, IndyCar is like that,” he added.

Before joining IndyCar, Ferucci raced in the F2 series. The 25-year-old raced with Trident for a couple of years before returning to American open-wheel racing. Unlike Formula 1, F2 is a spec series like IndyCar, where the driver makes the most difference.

Although F1 and IndyCar may look the same to the naked eye, there's more to it than meets the eye. IndyCar produces a lower level of downforce and the lack of power steering requires the driver to train their arms. On the other hand, F1 has a whole lot more downforce which requires the driver to strengthen their neck and shoulder muscles to cope with the high G forces in the cockpit.

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Santino Ferucci gave his take on F1 drivers who move to IndyCar

Unlike F1, which only races on permanent circuits and street circuits, IndyCar also races on ovals and superspeedways. The risk factor exponentially increases around an oval with speeds of 235+ mph. The skills required for driving around an oval are also different. Santino Ferucci suggested the same being the reason why IndyCar drivers occasionally beat former F1 drivers in IndyCar.

Ferucci said, (via the aforementioned podcast)

“We have Formula One drivers that come in, past champions of Formula Two, that come into IndyCar. And we eat their lunch money occasionally. Sometimes they're really good. Certain disciplines, we're also very diverse series. We do short ovals. We do the super speedway at Indy. We do street courses. Right. And we do road courses. We're the only one to do really everything like that."

However, former F2 and F3 drivers who join IndyCar have succeeded in the series with Alex Palou, the 2024 IndyCar series champion being a great example.