IndyCar News: Series should stop trying to copy F1 – O’Ward

What can IndyCar do to take advantage of the exploding interest in motorsport that stemmed from F1’s Netflix Drive to Survive series?

O’Ward’s answer was simple: IndyCar needs to stop trying to outdo F1.

It never will out do F1 – it will never become anywhere near as big and popular as F1.

“IndyCar needs to embrace Formula 1 and not compete against it,” O’Ward said in an interview with Jalopnik during a track day he hosted at Circuit of the Americas.

“Formula 1 is never going away. It has invested astronomical numbers into the series and into making people feel like they’re part of something — but they did it by going to the biggest platforms.”

“I don’t think [IndyCar] realizes how big the series can be if they just gave it more love,” O’Ward told Jalopnik. “They’re giving it love, but they need to multiply it four or five times.”

“It’s mind-boggling that we don’t race in Mexico,” O’Ward said, the exasperation clear in his voice.

“And then IndyCar was like, oh, we’re gonna have an exhibition race at Thermal [a club track that will draw few if any real fans]. What? If we’re going to do something, let’s do it properly.”

So, if O’Ward was responsible for IndyCar, what would he do?

“I wouldn’t do the same thing Formula 1 is doing because F1 is global. It will always be global,” he said.

“But we have this massive pool of people in Latin America waiting for a race. Go full-in. Brazil. Argentina. Mexico. Uruguay. Somewhere in South America, then maybe a race in Europe — then we’ve got a badass calendar.”