IndyCar drivers: F1 cars are 'too easy' to drive

Will Power agreed with Marcus Ericsson and Romain Grosjean about the level of difficulty of F1 versus IndyCar.

Will Power wholeheartedly believes that the NTT IndyCar Series cars are more physically demanding than those driven in the Formula 1 World Championship.

The conversation was first sparked on social media when Marcus Ericsson responded to a report that quoted Romain Grosjean as saying karting left him more physically exhausted than driving his HaasF1 entry around the world each season.

“I went go-karting with my friends with a 125cc gearbox and I was more tired than doing a Formula 1 race,” he said in the Autosport report. “Why? Because you push all the time, you don’t play safe. And most importantly we manage the tire all the time [in F1].

“At Barcelona it feels like you are driving at 40%, 50% of the capacity of the car, and it’s not hard. If it was only qualy laps, you would push as hard every lap and then you’d be completely fucked by the end. You’d be tired.

“If we had to refuel you’d be even more tired. When you have to lift and coat for fuel and for tyres, how is it hard on the body, how is it hard on the concentration?”

That struck Ericsson as interesting given his Formula 1 experience turned IndyCar tenure and he took to Twitter to confirm Grosjean’s insinuation.  

Interesting article. Sounds like a lot of what @RGrosjean is asking for is exactly what @IndyCar is at the moment. Pushing all the time, refuelling at every pitstop. And yes I promise, you’re tired both physically and mentally after the races. https://t.co/x4WXTdFmgi

2014 IndyCar Series champion piled-on when asked about the topic on Friday after practice at Road America.

“Well, you look at the Formula 1 cars and compare it to an onboard lap of us at COTA versus (Lewis) Hamilton’s pole lap, he looks like he can be one-handing it around that triple-apex Turn 17,” Power said. “He’s got one hand on the wheel, where we are just sawing at the wheel trying to hang on. It’s too easy (in F1), man. They have too-big tires, too much downforce — that made it too easy, I reckon.

“To be the pinnacle of motorsport, they need to make a more challenging car to drive from what I can see. We’ve been there (with the multiple manufacturer aero kits). We had body kits with a lot of downforce. It’s just too stuck, too easy. Everything was easy.”

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