A 23 year old F1 car is still faster than a current IndyCar

Sometimes it's difficult to read a tone over the internet.

Unfortunately trap speeds in Indy car are not as available or publicized as it is in F1, especially on Oval's. In fact I have never seen speed trap data during an oval race. We also don't have GPS onboard data from 1996-2000 cars like it is often covered today. I'd rather see some hard evidence that showed these top speeds rather than a snippet from a driver or whatever, but I don't think the numbers are that unbelievable.

Here is a Graham Rahal claiming he hit 256 mph at Indy some time before 2016. That generation of Indy car could lap Indy around 233 mph, but had a LOT less horsepower than the cars from 96-2000. 0:29 of video
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/indycar-driver-graham-rahal-ive-132405662.html?_guc_consent_skip=1638046287

Paul Tracy said he saw 248 mph on the dash at Michigan in 2000. In that race CART added a billboard on the back of all the wings to increase drag and increase passing.

For cars that can average 236-241 mph around a track means their maximum speed would have to be higher than the average speed. If a car is a maximum power, getting the perfect draft behind perhaps a couple of cars punching a big hole in the air, it doesn't seem unreasonable that a car could hit over 250 mph, especially since they are flat out through the corner.

Look what Hamilton did in Brazil this year. Driving alone he was hitting 311 or so kph, but was able to hit 349 kph in the draft with DRS open.

But I didn't see any onboard video or telemetry of that 1996 speed, so who knows. The claim oddly goes right down to the thousandth of a second at 256.948, which is interesting.

Fortunately I posted a video of Gil De Ferran's record breaking run. When he hit that 241.428 average speed, there was no mention of his maximum speed which unfortunately is always the case.

Vmax = velocity maximum = top speed.

 

Harrummmph...

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Kudos to Pato for pushing it hard. Would have been easy to do more relaxed demo laps. Surely he was holding back a bit - didn't want to dent the McLaren.
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And sounds MUCH better!!

 

That's my favorite looking Indy/CART car of all time. Beautiful proportions, sleek and now famous colors - timeless.