Conor Daly believes IndyCar deserves a lot more respect from the world of Formula 1, with the former GP3 and GP2 racer competing in his first full season in IndyCar this year with Dale Coyne Racing.
After competing in GP3 and GP2 in Europe between 2011 and 2014, Daly elected to return to America and pursue his motorsport career in IndyCar, with the Indiana-born racer making his official IndyCar debut at the 2013 Indianapolis 500.
From there Daly competed in a handful of races in 2015 for both Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and Dale Coyne Racing, before securing his first full season in the sport the following year.
During his time in Europe Daly won two GP3 races, finishing third overall in the championship in 2013 whilst also completing a straight line aero test for the Force India F1 team in 2012.
Despite his initial ambitions of breaking into the world of F1, Daly firmly believes that IndyCar’s quality of racing is far superior to that in F1, going as far to say that Europeans don’t fully respect IndyCar.
“I think IndyCar deserves a lot more respect from F1 because I don’t think that anyone over there would come over here and start winning everything,” explained Daly in an interview with Automobile Magazine.
“I think if you put anyone over here over there, any of the top guys over here, they’re going to be competitive.
“The Europeans have this kind of arrogance about them. They don’t really respect what we’ve got going over here.
“I think this is one of the most competitive championships in the world without a doubt.
“Our racing is ten times better than F1. There’s like actual overtaking.”
Despite Daly’s firm opinion that IndyCar is an overall more exciting form of motorsport in comparison to F1, the 24-year-old still feels it would be ‘cool’ to compete in the sport.
Daly is the son of former F1 and IndyCar racer Derek Daly, who competed for the likes of Tyrrell and Williams during his F1 career.
“F1’s obviously massive. That would be cool to be in F1,” continued Daly.
“But I think IndyCar’s awesome as well, and I’m enjoying being here.”
