Marco

F1 drivers salaries NOT including endorsements:

MS 50 million
KR 25 million
FA 13 million
JPM 9 million
etc
I gaurantee indy isnt close
I can also tell you this. As far as Indy I assume they only run ovals, and I dont watch any oval racing, But IRL or whatever that run courses
The cars are at least 7 seconds a lap slower than F1
Here are the complete regulations:

http://f1.racing-live.com/en/season/regula...rules2005.shtml

b0mbrman

enlightenment

Those salaries are also in Euros. Convert that to Dollars

PeaceLove&S2K

Right turns.

rai

I think that's in US dollars.

BTW where's RB on that list? He should make a mint even tho he's #2 sometimes he does better than MS. Remember the famous race where he gave MS the win?

JPM must be mad b/c MS and KR make so much more than him. I think JPM has a huge following although he hasn't done much IMO. He's good at punting and rear-ending other cars tho.

rockville

Both require extreme skill to master. Contrary to the belief of some, ovals are very difficult to master. Marco Andretti's race engineer told me that tight oval setups and the setup for Indy specifically are actually harder to do than for a road course. He also told me the ovals are far less forgiving of diver errors. One little mistake and you've lost the speed it took a lap to build. Also, where as a great driver can turn good road course times in a poorly setup car, a great driver can't turn good lap times in a poorly set up car on an oval.
FYI: I generally prefer road courses and find high banked ovals like Michigan and Daytona to be very dull. Relative to the other high speed ovals Indy has sharper turns with less bank.

The rules for each have varied over the years but the most fundamental difference is Indy teams buy cars, F1 has to build them.

For quite a while F1 has basically said the chassis makers can't sell cars to other teams so McLaren can't make a chassis for Minardi. This is one of the reasons you see such a difference between 1st and 14th. Quite often the winner is as likely to win because of a fundamentally faster car vs a better driver (note the number of Ferrari 1-2 finishes).
F1 has made it very difficult for new teams to join. I think Toyota paid something like $14million for the privilege of NOT racing one year. Some of this is because F1 has contracts with promoters guarantying a minimum number of cars will race. Currently F1 cars have more power, are faster around a road course but have slower top speeds.

Indy has always allowed this and with the advent of the IRL has basically made this the rule. An Indy team will buy a chassis from Dalara (sp?) or Panoz (formerly G-Force) and an engine from Honda, Chevy or Toyota. The top teams and the slower guys basically have the same equipment so the bigger differences are in the quality of the people setting up the car and the drivers.
Indy traditionally has allowed anyone with a legal car, engine and type competition license to run. In the past many teams just ran the Indy 500 as the rest of the circuit hasn't been as popular (minus the years that Indy was part of the Grand Prix points circuit).
Since the '80s Indy cars have been faster though not as quick (heavier thus slower to accelerate and change directions). Until the IRL-CART split the Indy cars could turn harder thanks to more liberal aero package rules than were allowed in F1.

Currently F1 is enjoying a period of relative prosperity funded in large part by the corporate egos of Toyota, MB, BMW, Honda, and Ferrari. There is speculation that the costs have risen to the point where the series will implode. Note that F1 is simply the current name applied to the series that used to be Grand Prix racing. If

Elistan

Let's see, some rough stats off the top of my head. Somebody correct me if I off on any of these:

Engines:
IRL runs 3.0 liter V8s using methanol fuel. About 12,000 rpm and 800 hp.
F1 has 3.0 liter V10s using regular pump gas. 18,000 to 19,000 rpm, 950 hp.

Aero:
Just from visual inspection, it appears that F1 teams have much greater freedom in determining the car's aero shape. I can't tell differences between IRL teams. I don't know who has the overall greater downforce, although my guess is F1.

Weight:
In F1, car plus driver must weigh at least 605kg. In IRL, I don't remember exactly but isn't it about 650kg?

Courses:
F1 is 100% road course. IRL used to be 100% oval, although has introduced a few road courses.

Race procedures:
IRL does a rolling start. Just about every on-track incident leads to a lengthy full-course yellow. Under yellow conditions, cars can go to their pit only once the field has formed up - so usually, everybody goes at the same time. From what I can tell, this tends to keep the cars very close to each other.
In F1, the races start from a standstill. Only the most extreme incidents lead to anything more than a brief local yellow. Anybody can pit at any time during the race. So a car that is pulling away from the field is more likely to retain that advantage.

Points:
IRL points system gives scores for a number of situations so consistency is rewarded and a greater number of cars get points, so teams remain close to each other, while in F1 the dominant factor is how many races you win. In fact, until recently the 2nd place finisher used to only get 60% of the points the winner got. These days it's 80%.

Technology:
F1 has the reputation for being the most technically advanced race series. There are several aspects to this - 18k rpm engines, building everything as light as possible, carbon fiber gearbox cases, etc - but they still operate under some strict restrictions. (For example, Honda's front diff from last year.) The biggest improvement in lap times from year to year come from tire compound advances.
I'm not really familiar with the role that innovation plays in IRL. It seems that teams pretty much have equal access to all technologies employed, so innovation probably isn't as important.

Excitement:
For me personally, the sight of a F1 car running a course is much more exciting than any other race series. However, the actual car-to-car racing is relatively a letdown compared to IRL, Gran-Am, ALMS, SBK and the like. My ideal race series? Le Mans cars with fewer restrictions on F1 circuits.