I'm watching the NASCAR series "road race" at Sonoma. We all know that there is nothing stock about a "stock car," but there is certainly nothing stock about F1 either. If Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren, Lotus, and Force India were allowed to race, how would they fare at Sonoma versus the NASCAR cars? Complete blow out or a tight race?
Paul S
Favorite Answer
Complete blow out.
1:15 is about the best mark for a NASCAR racecar right now, which is on the shorter course with "the chute." The full configuration would add more than 20 seconds for such a car, so you're looking at roughly a 1:35 lap time in a more than best case scenario. In terms of pace, that will be easily outdone by a Formula Mazda let alone a Fomula 1 car!
An Indy Car can cover the full course in 1:16, and that's not as fast a an F1 car. A better place to look would be Montreal. Last year at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, NASCAR's Alex Tagliani recorded the best in race lap so far at 1:40. Race pace for the 2012 F1 Cars was around 1:15... so it would take less than 3 laps for the F1 car to lap the NASCAR.
As the full course at Sonoma has no real straights, the advantage over the stock cars would be even greater (although Montreal's demands on breaking also magnify the difference between the two in favor of the F1 car, but you would still likely see a larger gap between the two in Sonoma).
rosbif
Sonoma is Sears Point, right?
Put it this way:
a) The Nascar course at Sears Point is shorter than the Monaco GP track by about 140m.
b) The Monaco circuit is by far the slowest and least-suited track for F1 cars, and Sears Point could have been specifically designed to show people how fast F1 cars go round corners.
c) There are only 10 turns on the Nascar course, compared to 19 at Monaco.
d) The F1 lap record at Monaco is 1m14.439s, the Nascar lap record at Sears Point is 1m15.203.
All in all, on this track, the Nascars would get a glimpse of the F1 cars into the first corner, and then again when getting lapped. That's before you factor in the F1 cars being able to do around 200 miles on a single tank of fuel at racing speeds (pretty much the entire Nascar race distance), and being able to change all four tyres in under 3 seconds.
Anonymous
I've tried watching it, but I've decided that the things I love about NASCAR you can't get in F1. Personalities - down to earth, sense of humor, don't take themselves too seriously (most of the time) Strategy - I'm sure there is strategy to F1, but I'm guessing it's very different because it didn't become evident to me while watching Wheel to wheel racing - if F1 is too wheel-to-wheel they're probably going to hit the wall... Access - Talking to drivers, crew chiefs and owners is something you get used to and it doesn't compare to the after the race press conference for F1. I went to the Long Beach Grand Prix several years ago. I had bleacher seats and garage passes and I enjoyed the spectacle, but I really enjoy going to a race where you can see the whole race. It was hard to stay interested when you can only see one corner and you don't know what's going on on the rest of the track. If that makes me low brow - so be it.
seth
The F1 cars would dominate until some of the NASCAR cars decided to initiate some contact.
Jay
F1 cars weigh around 1300 to 1400 lbs. Nascar Sprint Cup cars weigh around 3200 lbs and have much skinnier tires. In terms of lap times, it wouldn't be close at all.