Carlin’s Max Chilton believes the ‘purity’ of competition is a major factor in what has made the NTT IndyCar Series so attractive to world class drivers in recent years.
After leaving Formula 1 at the end of 2014, Chilton made the move to Indy Lights for 2015 before getting his IndyCar opportunity the following season with Chip Ganassi Racing.
Since then other drivers from F1 have also made the move across the Atlantic such as Alexander Rossi, Marcus Ericsson and now Romain Grosjean.
Double F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso has also attempted the Indy 500 on three occasions in recent years.
The 2021 IndyCar season also sees the arrival of two other top talents in seven-time NASCAR Cup champion, Jimmie Johnson, as well as triple Australian Supercars champion, Scott McLaughlin.
“I think IndyCar is doing a fantastic job at the moment getting some big names in the series,” said Chilton.
“I think that’s so beneficial, and it’s the last pure single-seater formula out there. Loud, fast, and whatever other word they use, it’s definitely loud and fast. They’re doing a great job of that.
“I saw an article that [Kamui] Kobayashi is potentially looking at coming over, as well. I know me and Alex [Rossi] were the first, and then you’ve got Marcus [Ericsson] that’s come over, and now Romain [Grosjean].
The 29-year-old also believes the reduction oval races in recent seasons has also aided in the attraction.
The Briton pulled himself away from oval racing in 2018 with the exception of the Indianapolis 500 citing concerns over driver safety.
“I think there’s going to be more others, especially European drivers, some of them are not big fans of the ovals like myself,” he added.
“The more we reduce those oval races off the schedule, which we have done the last couple of years, naturally more people are coming over, which is what we’re seeing.
“I think we’ve got some great times ahead of us in the IndyCar Series.”
I see what you did there Max. Dream on.
They need to stop dropping the oval tracks, especially with the birth place of the series being on a oval in Indy. The series draw people from all different racing series bc it has road, street, and oval courses.
The cars have gotten too fast and too fragile for ovals. Today’s cars should be street/road course only and another formula for ovals only. Like Chilton says, no one wants to come over to race ovals. Just because the series was born on dirt track ovals, it’s a long way from that now.