IndyCar avoiding F1 regulation mistakes - Miles

IndyCar CEO Mark Miles says the series has looked at Formula 1's regulations to ensure it does not design a car that has an adverse effect on racing.

2017 has seen new aerodynamic regulations introduced in F1, with increased downforce levels resulting in faster lap times. However, with the wider cars also being more sensitive to dirty air when following another car, overtaking has become more difficult.

IndyCar's next generation of car features less downforce, and when asked by RACER if the series monitors how F1's changes are working out, Miles replied: "Yeah, we do, and Jay [Frye] has been talking technically.

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"It's so interesting. I was just told that a front wing – it was a McLaren conversation – is a quarter of a million pounds I think. Then times six for that. Maybe that's high but it's what I was just told. You're kidding me?! Ours is $6,500! It's almost embarrassing but I don't buy it... What are you getting for it?

"So we're trying to be sensible about the value and creating great racing. It isn't going to be technically where Formula 1 is, without a doubt, but we like that you don't know who's going to win it when it starts and we like where we are competitively in terms of what happens on the track."

And Miles says the main priorities for IndyCar were to design a good-looking car that also improved the on-track action, even if it has less aerodynamic performance than its predecessor.

"From my perspective it looks like a retro racecar. I was talking to Juan Pablo Montoya and he's driven it and he's convinced it will be a significant improvement in the racing, which we thought was pretty good already. So we're excited about that.

"It's got less total downforce, he likes it because he thinks it prefers the better racer, which champions love. Longer braking zones, less air coming off the back, so it means it should be an improvement to what we thought was good racing already.

"Actually it was almost equal parts aesthetics and performance. Jay would tell you that they almost designed it backwards knowing that they were going to get the performance and it had to improved, but a very strong view of what it needed to look like. Get a lot of that stuff off the top of the car – I'm still thinking aesthetic – a lot of new cars in the States are more retro looking, especially kind of muscle cars.

"So I think that was a big driver of it, and then make sure it improves the racing. We thought that getting the downforce under the car and off the top would help with that, which looks to be true. We've tested it at least four times with a couple of drivers, soon all the teams will be getting the parts and we'll see more then."