Valtteri Bottas hints at heading to the NTT IndyCar Series if his Formula 1 career comes to a premature close as Sauber continue to delay their F1 2025 driver line-up heading into the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The 35-year-old Finn is an accomplished driver within the sport and has claimed 10 Grand Prix victories through his career as well as 67 podiums and 20 pole positions, whilst assisting Mercedes to five constructors’ championships alongside Lewis Hamilton.
Car 77 has also finished second in the drivers’ championship twice and third twice before heading to Alfa Romeo (now Sauber) in 2022 and recording an extra 49 points to finish 10th in the standings.
Yet despite his track record and comprehensive demolition of Zhou Guanyu in his specialist area of qualifying, Bottas finds himself staring down the barrel of an F1 exit as Sauber line-up a move for the talented youngster Gabriel Bortoleto, hence the IndyCar idea.
The new CEO, Mattia Binotto, was brought in to oversee the team’s transition to Audi for 2026 and seems to be deliberating between young blood in the Brazilian or another seasoned head in Bottas to partner up with Nico Hulkenberg.
“I don’t think about that too much now,” Bottas said to F1 TV. “I think for me it’s very clear where I want to be and where I’ll most likely be, which is in Formula 1.
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“But let’s say, if it’s a hypothetical question, if not F1 I would definitely race. I’m a racer and I’ve been racing all my life and I couldn’t just quit racing.
“Plan B would be IndyCar and try to win the championship in X amount of years, but I don’t think that’s yet.”
How many F1 drivers go to IndyCar?
Several drivers have headed to the NTT IndyCar Series in recent times when they have been tossed out of Formula 1 with some of the more high profile names to do so being Romain Grosjean and Marcus Ericsson.
Whilst drivers who also tried their hands at European development series such as Formula 2 have also headed to the United States’ racing series due to how closed off F1 is to get into, with names like Theo Pourchaire, Juri Vips, Callum Illot and Christian Lundgaard making the switch.
In fact, the defending two-time champion, Alex Palou, hails from Spain and had attempted to make it to F1 making it as far up as the FIA Formula 3 championship in 2018 before heading to ‘the greatest spectacle in racing’, where he took his first championship in 2021.
Palou, who has been linked with moves back to F1 through McLaren and Red Bull, is poised to win the third championship of his career as he takes a 33-point lead into the final round at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday, September 15.
What are some differences between F1 and IndyCar?
The main difference between IndyCar and F1 is that F1 is considerably quicker through corners thanks to complex aerodynamics, although IndyCar has an edge in straight line speed due to simpler aerodynamics creating less drag.
For a reference of the difference, Lewis Hamilton’s 2018 car lapped the Circuit of the Americas 13 seconds faster than Felix Rosenqvist managed during qualifying at the track in Austin.
The second biggest difference is that IndyCar is a spec series, like F2, meaning that competitors have equal chassis and do not develop them throughout the year, with the only difference being their chose of engine between Chevrolet or Honda.
IndyCar also does not use power steering, meaning drivers are physically fighting the car far more to get it under control, whilst F1 places the extra emphasis on the extreme precision and smoothness of micro-inputs in order to ger the best lap time.
IndyCar also races at oval circuits, requiring levels of bravery that even deters Max Verstappen from the series due to the incredible high speeds and the concrete walls found at speedways across the USA.
It also possesses a different points system, offering points to the Top 33 finishers, as well as for taking pole, to every driver that leads a lap and for the most laps led. The winner claims a minimum of 50 points compared to 25 in F1.
