IndyCar will race at the Phoenix Raceway in a crossover weekend with NASCAR. As Chip Ganassi Racing prepares for the race weekend, they shared a post on social media X and took a dig at the new generation F1 cars.
Multiple F1 drivers, including Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, came out after the qualifying at the Australian GP and bashed the new generation of F1 cars. FIA overhauled the regulations going into the 2026 season, splitting the power dependency almost equally between the internal combustion engine and the electrical system.
To extract the best lap time out of the 2026 F1 car, drivers have to lift going into the corner to recharge the battery; they’d run out of battery on the straights. As a result, driving flat out is no longer an option.
Max Verstappen came out during the Bahrain testing and compared the new generation of cars with Formula E on steroids. Lando Norris came out after the Australian GP qualifying and claimed that F1 went from the best F1 cars to the worst with the onset of 2026 regulations.
IndyCar team Chip Ganassi Racing took to the social media platform X and uploaded a video about race day. Their social media accounts took a dig at F1 new regulations by responding to their own tweet, which read,
“’Super-clipping’, ‘downshifting on straights’, ‘battery management’ 🥱 Yeah, we don’t do that here. We race.”
The introduction of the new F1 power unit led to the multiple new terms being introduced, including Superclipping, which refers to the engine revving despite the driver slowing for the corner. The engine, instead of delivering the power to the wheel, charges the battery pack.
Unlike F1, IndyCar opts for internal combustion power for the upcoming regulation change
F1 introduced the hybrid power unit in 2014, and the naturally aspirated V8s were phased out. IndyCar’s last major change was over a decade ago, when the 2.2L Twin Turbo V6 was introduced. A couple of years ago, IndyCar integrated a mild hybrid technology to the 2.2L Twin Turbo V6.
With F1 opting to shift the power dependency towards the electrical systems with the new regulations, it attracted manufacturers like Audi to join and Honda to continue in the series as the world moves towards electric vehicles. However, the same seemingly has taken away from the edge appeal of the sport.
IndyCar recently confirmed its plans for the new powerunit, set to be introduced in 2028. It’ll be a 2.4L Twin Turbo V6 hybrid, but the majority of the power will be produced by the internal combustion engine. Both Honda and Chevrolet recently came out and confirmed that they will continue under the new regulations.
Edited by Pranay Bhagi