An American GP2?

[Formulahistory]

There were some rumours about a planed American GP2 series last year, but I never heard about it since.

But as I read the test entries for this weeks Indy-Lights test with just seven cars, I ask the question: Would it be better to restructure the American Formula Junior series? And how could it be done better? Would an American GP2 help?

[Peat]

see: http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=138491

[NaBUru38]

Ratings.

Would Americans prefer to watch an F1 feeder for 22-year-olds, or America's premier formula racing featuring the 500?

[Paradise City]

GP2 America would wind up becoming a feeder series for Indycar or even have a cross fertilisation of drivers including Indycar drivers switching and pining for an F1 gig.

GP2 America might be in both in the interest of Indycar and F1.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

GP2 America is Indy Lights.

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

Ratings.

Would Americans prefer to watch an F1 feeder for 22-year-olds, or America's premier formula racing featuring the 500?

Judging by the TV ratings for both those series in the US, neither.

[Paradise City]

Originally Posted by Biscuits In A Red Bull

GP2 America is Indy Lights.

Noone in F1 looks at Indylights. American drivers would be drawn to GP2 because they'd have a crack at F1 and have Indycars waiting as a fall-back. If anything GP2 up and running would ruin Indylights.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

Noone in F1 looks at Indylights. American drivers would be drawn to GP2 because they'd have a crack at F1 and have Indycars waiting as a fall-back. If anything GP2 up and running would ruin Indylights.

Indy Lights needs bigger grids with serious teams not only from American motorsport, but potentially European-backed drivers. Montoya went to CART as a Williams protégé, and that ended up working very well. Perhaps F1 teams should think of Indy Lights as a good place to place a young driver. Considering the state of GP2 right now, I'd be torn between the two, but FR3.5 will be the first choice for years to come.

[Paradise City]

Originally Posted by Biscuits In A Red Bull

Indy Lights needs bigger grids with serious teams not only from American motorsport, but potentially European-backed drivers. Montoya went to CART as a Williams protégé, and that ended up working very well. Perhaps F1 teams should think of Indy Lights as a good place to place a young driver. Considering the state of GP2 right now, I'd be torn between the two, but FR3.5 will be the first choice for years to come.

Well, we can say Indylights needs lots of teams but, like with everything, it's bringing about the conditions where that is true which is the difficult part. As it is, Indy-Lights isn't on F1's radar, they struggle to muster a skeleton grid, there's ovals there which hurts the relevancy for F1, and the F1 club is a little like NASCAR, they'll shun the offerings of rivals in lieu of their own 'product'. I wouldn't speak of GP2 ever being popular with 'audiences' per say but with Austin on the map, an F1 path as an incentive, American drivers with budgets will arrive at American GP2 if they do take the plunge.

I think GP2 could help Indycars by reviving an interest in single seaters for American drivers though. Drivers and their sponsors who where defeated in engaging with F1, Indycar would be a natural alternative like the WEC is, for European drivers. Whereas now a bulk of talents are lost to the NASCAR ladder.

[Marcus666]

If CART existed today and they had those 950 hp monsters at the back then I think an GP2/FR 3.5 step could have been done, but at the moment GP2 cars have around the same horsepower and they are faster on road courses, although I think Indycars are faster on ovals (obviously). At the moment, Light cars have 420 hp... that would be a shock going from 420 to 950 but not to 600!

[Teretonga]

The saddest thing is that once upon a (now distant) time we had healthy Atlantics and Indy lights cars as CART support series.....

Hard to believe it was at it's premium best 20+ years ago....

[Formulahistory]

Originally Posted by Teretonga

The saddest thing is that once upon a (now distant) time we had healthy Atlantics and Indy lights cars as CART support series.....

In 2007 we had two Junior series with Formula Atlantic and Indy Lights, but now we have just one half of a series - a shame and an question that can't be answered why...

[Marcus666]

I wonder how much attention Indy Lights drew to the whole open wheel society back in the 90s. If I were Helmut Marko, and just heard that Greg Moore has won 10 out of 12 races in IL, then I would sign him directly to the junior program. Apparently the serie had around 30 drivers at that point in IL (1995).

[Marcus666]

And, I must say:

To introduce that AER engine will probably save this series. Dan Anderson should be proud over making that decision!

[JacobP]

One of the problems with GP2 is the high cost. Is the American series going to address that?

But I can see the possibilities. If you attended the last Austin GP weekend, then besides the F1 race, qualifying, and practice, all you else you would see is the "gentlemen" racers in their Ferrari Challenge competition. The North American F1 races are in a dire need of having good support races. If down the road we end up with four North American F1 GPs (2 USA, 1 Canada, 1 Mexico), I think that would be a good time to jump start the North American GP2 series or similar.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

They could run it with the USCC and the Continental Tire Series...

[BSchneiderFan]

Are we really suggesting that the US could support a domestic GP2 series AND Indy Lights? Sounds all too much like the CART/IRL split to me...

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Originally Posted by BSchneiderFan

Are we really suggesting that the US could support a domestic GP2 series AND Indy Lights? Sounds all too much like the CART/IRL split to me...

And that worked out beautifully, just look at how healthy both series' are right now...

[ptclaus98]

More like Atlantics/F3. There is no need for a formula that points in one hopeless direction. That's the problem with Lights as it is. The solution is to get a formula well regarded by F1, IndyCar, and sportscars(as in LMP1 teams and GTE-pro teams). F3/Atlantics fits that bill and could be done as cheaply as Star Mazda.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Originally Posted by ptclaus98

More like Atlantics/F3. There is no need for a formula that points in one hopeless direction. That's the problem with Lights as it is. The solution is to get a formula well regarded by F1, IndyCar, and sportscars(as in LMP1 teams and GTE-pro teams). F3/Atlantics fits that bill and could be done as cheaply as Star Mazda.

Check out British F3. Formula 3 done at the price of Formula Renault. Interest generated - almost nothing. Indy Lights has the same issue with only running on 1 GP circuit and ovals won't be taken nicely by F1.

What we need is for people to talk to each other...

[ptclaus98]

Originally Posted by Biscuits In A Red Bull

Check out British F3. Formula 3 done at the price of Formula Renault. Interest generated - almost nothing. Indy Lights has the same issue with only running on 1 GP circuit and ovals won't be taken nicely by F1.

What we need is for people to talk to each other...

Yeah but British F3 cannibalized itself and still had better grids than IndyLights. The F3 Open is doing just fine. F3 as a formula has partnerships with many manufacturers, all of which have a strong footprint in motorsport. if you can foster those relationships instead of pigeonholing yourself with one manufacturer who is niche at best and doesn't have any presence in topline motorsport then it is always going to be an uphill battle.

[Paradise City]

GP2 America would destroy Indy Lights if a GP2 America went ahead. Even if Indy Lights was strong, it'd hit them

If a GP2 America project did go ahead, Indycar would be better off unofficially positioning itself as the first alternative to F1 and pick up drivers that way.

[Formulahistory]

Originally Posted by BSchneiderFan

Are we really suggesting that the US could support a domestic GP2 series AND Indy Lights? Sounds all too much like the CART/IRL split to me...

I think there must be one series, but that must be a stronger series as Indy-Lights with just a handfull drivers. Perhaps a cut would help and a new American GP2 series could catch more attention.

[BSchneiderFan]

Is there any way you could have Indy Lights running to GP2 regs (and hey, maybe Super Formula too), or would the ovals make that impossible? It'd be great to see the same cars across the three formulae, maybe with different engines - but then, I'd like to see engine competition in GP2...

[somebodysb2]

Originally Posted by BSchneiderFan

Is there any way you could have Indy Lights running to GP2 regs (and hey, maybe Super Formula too), or would the ovals make that impossible? It'd be great to see the same cars across the three formulae, maybe with different engines - but then, I'd like to see engine competition in GP2...

I would personally rate IndyCar to be on the same level as Super Formula. The grids may be a bit small compared to IndyCar but the standard of driving is still very high with recent Le Mans winners and ex-F1 drivers. Their cars are also built to 2010 F1 safety standards and the organisers have openly stated that they wanted a VJM06-level of performance.

I'm interested if the Indy Lights organisers could possibly adapt older cars for racing. Why construct new ones when older cars are lying around? Just throw a restrictor on a Swift 017.n/FN09/SF13 (ex-Super Formula 2013), Panoz DP09B (ex-Superleague Formula 2011), Dallara IR07 (ex-IndyCar 2011), Williams JPH1B (ex-Formula Two 2012), etc.

Could these older formulae prove to be an attractive option for 2015 and beyond? Could a restrictor reduce running costs and minimise dangerous tendencies like Dallara IR07 flipping? Surely longer being able to compete in a current championship has driven values down significantly?