Bobby Rahal, co-owner of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, has stated that IndyCar has a lot of similarities to what Formula 1 was years ago.
The long-time racer and team owner made his thoughts known during a media conference to welcome Christian Lundgaard to his team.
Lundgaard has spent two years in F2 with ART, and, despite having a link to Alpine, did not have a path to an F1 seat for 2022. He agreed to come stateside for a full season with RLL after running his maiden IndyCar race with the team in 2021.
Rahal has spent almost the entirety of his racing career in IndyCar, although he did contest two F1 races as a driver for Walter Wolf Racing in 1978.
“First off, I think IndyCar is what Formula 1 used to be, to a large degree,” said Rahal. “Clearly we don’t have the politics. Clearly we don’t — there’s a lot of things that don’t exist in the IndyCar paddock that exist in the Formula 1 paddock.
“You look at how many really good guys [there] are in F2 who maybe are frustrated now because they can’t make that next step, and yet they’ve kind of proven their abilities.
“I think that — if I’m a young guy in Europe and I look at the potentials — I think the potential for my career is much greater here in IndyCar than it is there [in Formula 1].
“I fully expect — as we once had a number of years ago where we had a number of Europeans and Brazilians in IndyCar racing — to see a greater representation from countries in Europe and countries in South America towards IndyCar.”
Lundgaard echoed Rahal’s comments, saying part of what drew him to the deal is that the series has a spirit that is lacking as you move your way through the European ranks towards F1.
“What IndyCar is now is probably what I would think F1 was before I was born,” said the 20-year-old. “You know, it’s the proper racing I want to do.
“I spoke to some drivers a few days ago that’ve been in IndyCar and they say, ‘Here, you come, you enjoy, you like driving.’
“But at first, when you begin in Europe, you have the, let’s say, the proper feeling of racing that you enjoy. But the more you do it you kind of die, the spirit dies.
“Where for me over here it just continues. That’s what I had when I came for the race in August, that this is just so different.
“It’s a complete new spark that just fired in me, and I wanted to continue with that. I think it will. I’m pretty sure it will.
“IndyCar is the place to be, and I’m perfectly happy with where I am with RLL.”
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