Ahead of his anticipated debut as an Indycar commentator, Will Buxton has praised Indycar while attacking F1’s attitude towards the series.
As Indycar prepares for its first race this weekend in St Petersburg, Buxton has joined the series in a new role as an Announcer. James Hinchcliffe and Townsend Bell join the Briton as Announcers.
Speaking to media ahead of his debut, including Fastest Formula News, Buxton praised the sport, going as far as to call Indycar “the greatest racing on earth”.
He elaborated by stating other racing paddocks share this view but do not acknowledge that it has damaged their own series.
“I think IndyCar is motorsport’s best kept secret”, he said. “And that’s because nobody in any paddock anywhere in the world will admit what they all know to be the truth, which is that IndyCar is the greatest racing on earth. We all talk about it.
“It doesn’t matter what paddock you’re in, whether it’s the world endurance paddock or the Formula E paddock or the Formula 1 paddock.
“Everyone knows the greatest racing in motorsport is IndyCar. But they can’t ever go on the record about it because they’d be down talking their own championship.“
F1 ‘fear’ of Indycar
Buxton also reaffirmed his comments on F1 drivers fearing Indycar. He recalled Fernando Alonso’s failed attempts to win and qualify for the Indy 500 in two successive years as an example.
“I think for a lot of F1 drivers, there’s a fear associated with IndyCar. And I think that’s twofold. One, they, they see it as quite scary. They see ovals as being quite scary. And two, they don’t want to turn up and get shown up.
“Fernando Alonso, one of the greatest of his generation, one of the greatest of all time, qualified and ran well in his first 500. Second, didn’t even qualify. That’s a huge embarrassment for any formula one driver considering leaving formula one and coming over to America that doesn’t quite consider themselves to be at the level of Fernando Alonso.
“If he can get bumped, any of them can get bumped. So I think there’s trepidation on a couple of levels there for them.
“And it’s great when you see drivers that do come over and do want to give it a go. And, I know talking to Marcus Ericsson, both when he was in Formula 1 and since then, the one thing that he was most looking forward to was getting to learn how to drive ovals, and he was most excited about, about taking on the ovals.
“Obviously that’s, that’s shown as he’s now an Indy 500 winner. But for some of them, when they come across from Europe, we see it, you know, year in, year out, when someone comes over from Europe, they don’t do ovals the first year and then they get swept up in the electrifying nature of not just the racing, but the event that is the Indianapolis 500, and by year two, it’s, it’s absolutely top of their bucket list.
Feature Image Credit: Motorsport Magazine
