MotoGP had shipping delays eliminate its Friday practice sessions, but it did not stop Áleix Espargaró from getting his first career MotoGP victory in his 200th career MotoGP start, and Aprilia's first triumph in the premier class. Valentino Rossi made his first start in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup season, but it was business as usual. It took NASCAR about 200 laps to call a penalty for a piece of tape at Richmond. IndyCar declined Kevin Harvick's call. Formula One announced a Las Vegas round for the 2023, and now everyone in American motorsports is having an existential crisis. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.
IndyCar Just Isn't Sexy
Prior to the start of the Formula One season, I started listening to The Ringer's new Formula One podcast.
An intersection of sports and pop culture, The Ringer, a brainchild of former ESPN writer and Grantland founder Bill Simmons, never gave the time to any motorsports series prior to last year. The Ringer has lived on the American essentials, football and basketball, while also focusing on film and music. It touches upon baseball, golf and soccer regularly, as well as current events, with each having dedicated podcast and regularly featuring articles. But motorsports were never on the radar.
And then came Drive to Survive.
Formula One became a new habit for many in 2020 and 2021 thanks to Drive to Surive introducing the series the previously unaware individuals. The Ringer sees the popularity increase, as well as having the interest increase among its own staffers, and has decided Formula One warrants a podcast.
The Formula One diehard will likely not like this podcast, but The Ringer F1 Show is important in understanding why people are tuning into Formula One.
None of those involved with this podcast are from the Formula One traveling circus. These are not lifelong Formula One. The host Kevin Clark covers football for The Ringer mainly. This show is a gathering of Ringer staffers who watch Formula One. This isn't a place for highbrow conversation. These aren't experts, though they are trying. These are fans expressing their views about what they have seen from each race whether they fully understand what they are watching or not.
The contributors make no bones that they aren't experts, but they know many of its listeners are in the same position and aren't looking for a lecture, but rather something relatable to their viewing experience.
The first few episodes of The Ringer F1 Show was a recap of Drive to Survive season four, and while they have come to appreciate the sport and the competition, it isn't the cars or the races why they are tuning in. It is the personalities, the conflicts, but Drive to Survive is also an escape. Many of the contributors are drawn to the international and eccentric nature of Formula One. The global locations, million-dollar yachts, luxury cars. It is more than a reality show based on a motorsports series, it is a travel show taking the viewer to each corner of the globe.
When these new viewers express why they watch Formula One it is because it is an escape and something they have never seen before, an inside look at sporting organizations trying to compete in this costly sport. There is nothing like Formula One on the planet.
Contrast that to IndyCar, which has been around the entire time and never drew any interest from The Ringer, and IndyCar cannot hold a candle to Formula One.
IndyCar has always been far less extravagant, but when people express their interest in Formula One is because of its lavish lifestyle, IndyCar doesn't stand a chance. St. Petersburg to Denton, Texas to Birmingham, Alabama with additional stops in Newton, Iowa and Madison, Illinois aren't quite the same as Monaco, Monza, Mexico City, Singapore and Abu Dhabi.
The common refrain in the last two years is if only IndyCar had its version of Drive to Survive it too would see an increase in viewership. The problem is IndyCar has not been big enough to be noticed. It has its own events. It has its own travel. It has the Indianapolis 500, but it isn't enough. Nothing IndyCar has feels like it is enough. It is too small to brag about. It wouldn't catch the eye the way the Formula One traveling circus does. It isn't that it wouldn't be interesting or informative or relatable to the viewer. It would just be... average, especially to the American viewer.
Meanwhile, Formula One continues to grow in the United States while IndyCar remains stagnant in its own backyard. The Miami race is sold out for the second Sunday in May, with at least 80,000 attendees expected, and tickets sold for $1,500 a pop. Las Vegas will re-join the schedule in 2023, over 40 years after leaving a sour taste in Formula One's month. Only this time the race will be under the lights, on the Las Vegas Strip and be historic, as it will take place on a Saturday night.
IndyCar on the other hand will likely not get 80,000 people at any race outside the Indianapolis 500 this year, and we are all preparing for the tracks IndyCar will lose ahead of the 2023 without any idea if any tracks will be added to the calendar.
It is ok that IndyCar's lowest price point for every races isn't $1,500, but IndyCar has slid to the third in the American motorsports hierarchy. Formula One surpassed IndyCar without an American driver or a successful American team on the grid while IndyCar has had a handful of successful Americans, including champions and Indianapolis 500 winners this entire time. IndyCar had the playbook we thought was necessary for success and has been completely shredded by something revolutionary.
The referee can ring the bell. This fight is over. Any chance for IndyCar to become moderately respectable is gone. It doesn't matter how many different drivers win a race, how many passes there are on track, how close the finishes are and whether or not three or four drivers are alive for the championship in the finale. Nobody is tuning in for what makes IndyCar great and IndyCar cannot afford to become what makes Formula One attractive.
That doesn't mean IndyCar should pack it in and give up, but for it to be truly recognized in its own backyard, it has to tie itself to Formula One. IndyCar has to stop being foolish and realize where the tide is rising. There are going to be 80,000 people at Miami, Austin was already drawing close to 150,000 on race day and Las Vegas will likely be somewhere in the six-figure range as well.
IndyCar isn't going to grow being on its own. Pride needs to be buried under 12 feet on concrete and IndyCar should bend over backyard to become a support series to each Formula One weekend in the United States and probably all of North America as well. It should do it for free because of the exposure alone. Austin on Saturday draws 70,000 people. Montreal and Mexico City are massive events. Miami and Las Vegas will likely draw similar crowds, but these are people who aren't going to seek or stumble into IndyCar. IndyCar has to put itself in front of them. They might just get a kick out of it and IndyCar might become something else to follow.
Formula One might have three races in the United States, but IndyCar has 16 races in this country. A person only has three chances to see Formula One, but if IndyCar plays its card right, it could use Formula One to its own benefit. Americans travel to these Formula One races. People from Cleveland go to Austin. People from Seattle will go to Las Vegas. Those in Los Angeles will head to Miami. Formula One only has three options, but if IndyCar is there with Formula One and people enjoy it, they could learn that there is a race in Long Beach or Laguna Seca or Portland or Mid-Ohio and all of a sudden have another race to check out. They can have their Formula One date, but only find out there is an IndyCar race when Formula One isn't around. Not to mention that IndyCar date will take less out of the bank account.
Believing IndyCar's best course of action to Formula One's growth is to be the anti-Formula One and be on its own all the time is moronic. To benefit from the rising tide, IndyCar has to get in the right body of water. It needs to fish where the fish are and it has to swallow its pride for its own damn good. It should beg to be a part of these weekends, but also work with Liberty Media to have its own respectable race. It works for Supercars in Australia. IndyCar is no different.
There are no more excuses. We see the success. We see the people that are going to these American Formula One races. Nothing IndyCar has done in the last 25 years rivals this level of interest. For IndyCar's own benefit, it has to be second fiddle for these three weekends each year. There is no downside to it. There is no way fewer people are going to watch IndyCar because it is running on a Formula One weekend. That logic really doesn't check out. There are differences and Formula One cars are quicker, but people can see when a race is competitive. IndyCar believes in its racing product. It should be confident of the race it will put on.
IndyCar is already taking three weeks off between each of its first four races. Taking the same amount of time off between say Laguna Seca in September and Austin in October and then Las Vegas in November when Austin and Las Vegas will each have at least 70,000 spectators on Saturday is worth it, especially if Austin and Las Vegas will be the final two races for IndyCar. The season grows, the offseason shrinks, and IndyCar's champion would be crowned in front of an actual crowd and not a glorified club racing weekend. That is a win-win-win.
People are into Formula One now. They might not love Formula One in two years. This might just be a blip, but for IndyCar to get anything out of this period, it has to do more than just sit on its hands and hope that a fraction of this audience will just decide to watch IndyCar because they are race cars that look similar. IndyCar needs to be active and cozy up to the more popular and more attractive girl in school to receive attention. It can no longer be on the sidelines hoping that people will just notice it. It has to be present when 100,000 people are gathering to watch a motor race and accept that isn't the main draw, but just because it isn't on the top of the bill doesn't mean it is not what is best for the series.
There should be no shame in being a support series. If IndyCar is confident in the racing it has, it should want people to see it and do all it can to increase its exposure. We know IndyCar believes it has great racing, and we know the drivers enjoy the level of competition in the series. Show that off to an audience that is otherwise unaware IndyCar exists. Be a fan friendly series and have spectators walk through its paddock while the Formula One paddock is inaccessible.
There are plenty of ways IndyCar could become a big winner from a Formula One weekend. It just has to be there first to show off what it has got.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Áleix Espargaró, but did you know....
Celestino Vietti won the Moto2 race from Termas de Río Honda, his second victory of the season. Sergio García won the Moto3 race.
Denny Hamlin won the NASCAR Cup race from Richmond. Ty Gibbs won the Grand National Series race, his third victory of the season.
The #32 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi of Kelvin van der Linde, Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts won the 3 Hours of Imola.
Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar is back with the Grand Prix of Long Beach.
IMSA will also be in Long Beach.
MotoGP scurries on up to Austin for its lone visit to the United States.
The Australian Grand Prix returns to the Formula One calendar.
Supercars joins Formula One at Melbourne's Albert Park.
NASCAR has its first Saturday night race, a 400-lap race around Martinsville.
Formula E is back with a doubleheader in Rome.
Supercross has its final Triple Crown round of the season in St. Louis.
World Superbike opens its season at Aragón.
Super Formula opens its season with a doubleheader at Fuji.
World Touring Car Cup opens its season at Most, Czech Republic.
