Roger Penske bought the IndyCar series and the Indianapolis circuit at the end of last year, and the American has already admitted on several occasions that he wants to bring F1 back to the circuit, 15 years after the debacle of the 2005 ‘race’.
“My son Greg met with Chase Carey and had preliminary discussions in the last few weeks,” said the man nicknamed the Captain.
“Is it time to consider a Formula One race again? I don’t know if it makes economic sense yet, but we wouldn’t consider it until 2022.”
He says he’s also thinking about bringing IMSA, which races at Daytona in January, among other things. “I want to see F1 back there, just as much as the endurance cars. Indianapolis is for thoroughbreds and we want to make it special.”
“We want to create competition and use the Speedway. We want things that will last and keep our fans coming back, bringing their friends and family. This is an incredible opportunity.”
The circuit made its F1 debut in 2000 as host of the United States Grand Prix, but it was dropped from the calendar after the 2007 season before Austin took over as venue of the US GP in 2012.
Back in November 2019, soon after the takeover of the circuit, Roger Penske had summed up the situation of the IMS (Indianapolis Motor Speedway), admitting anything could be possible at Indy.
“What can we use this for?” he asked. “Can we run a 24-hour race here? Can we run a Formula 1 race here? What are the things we can do?
“This is a great asset. Once the tradition had been broken in adding the NASCAR race, which obviously we’re going to get behind in a big way because for 27 years they’ve run here. So I look at all of these across the board to see what can we do.”
“So I look at all of these across the board to see what can we do. This business is not broken. This is a great business, and the leadership team that’s been here has done an outstanding job, and what we want to do is be a support tool.”
I somehow rather doubt that Penske is all that keen to bring F1 to Indy. Penske now owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy series – the last thing he would do is jeopardize the entire Indy series by giving F1 a major opening in the US. IMSA / WEC etc are not his competitors. F1 is.
Rodger Penske would love to see Formula One come back to his track do we honestly as race fans I think that he’s going to do it for free no but then when you’re dealing with an idiot like Chase Carey which he knows absolutely nothing about Formula 1 and his group Liberty Media run by John Barnes he knows nothing about Formula 1 what do you expect this is the same group they can’t even decide on what engine they want to put in the cars like the engines that should be in the cars mainly normally aspirated V10 or V12 engines .