Last Updated on December 11 2025, 9:10 pm

FIA relent over Indycar recognition – Indycar is North America’s premier single seater racing series but for many years has been treated by the FIA as inferior to its own Formula One feeder series F3000, GT2 and now F2.

The biggest race on the North American calendar is held in May at the Indianapolis Speedway and the Indy500 attracts in excess of 300,000 people on race day. The 500 mile long race on the two and a half mile oval was part of the FIA F1 world drivers championship between 1950 and 1960, although the race and the Indycar series are governed by their own regulatory body.

Whilst in recent years a number of ex-F1 drivers have made the transition to Indycar, including Marcus Ericson, and Romain Grosjean to name but two and the news in November broke that Mick Schumacher will be racing in the series in 2026.

 

 

 

 

F1 drivers winning the Indy500

The benchmark for gaining a Grade A license to race in Indycar is based on experience and a points based system, which is less stringent than the FIA’s own super license required for F1. In days of yore, drivers would compete in different series either side of the Atlantic but in modern F1 history few ex-Indycar drivers make the trip across the pond.

One of the reasons being is that its tough for them to gain the required points based on the FIA’s poor ranking of the Indycar series. Yet with Indycar being a spec series (where all the cars are the same) usually a wider range of drivers are able to win races each season, given its based on talent on not who has the best car.

Formula One’s Alexander Rossi made the transition to the US series after a short spell in F1, he went on to win the blue ribbon event the Indy500 at the centenary running of the race in 2016. Marcus Ericson too after years of back of the field running for Sauber won at the brick yard, but was robbed of a second victory on the last lap by Joseph Newgarden in 2023.

In F1’s golden era, there were a number of Formula One champions who made their ay across to Indiana to win “The greatest spectacle in motor racing.” Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi, and Jacques Villeneuve all became F1 World Champions and Indy 500 winners and Fernando Alonso attempted it three times, but failed to cross the yard of bricks finishing line first.

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Unfair FIA points allocation

F1 fans often look down on the Indycar series seeing it as inferior to their own global championship held around the world. Yet the spectacle of cars averaging 230mph in qualifying and over 200mph in the gruelling race, is something F1 could never replicate.

Recently there was a push for Californian born Indycar racer Colton Herta to join F1, but during Covid the qualifying points awarded for Indycar were reduced due to a reduced field during Covid. His move to Alpha Tauri was blocked by the FIA given he had just 32 super license points after successively taking seventh, third and fifth in IndyCar from 2019 to 2021.

The points allocated to F2 are as follows for drivers finishing from first down in the championship… 40-40-40-30-20-10-8-6-4-3. For Indycar which is a higher powered and more competitive series, the FIA has granted the following points for championship positions. 40-30-20-10-8-6-4-3-2-1.

But given the competitive nature of the series – until recently – a driver may finish one year in P2 and the next could easily be P7/8. Colton Herta is perusing his F1 dream by quitting Indycar for 2026 and taking his chances in the FIA approved F2 series.

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Herta’s push for F1

For his two seventh placed finishes in 2024 and 2025 he will carry just 8 points forward in his bid to reach the magic 40 for an F1 super license. He needs to finish in the top three of the 2026 F2 title race to achieve his goal.

F2 will attract a significant amount of incremental attention next season, with Herta who has claiming nine victories in Indycar during his six year career together with 16 pole positions form his 116 career starts in the Indycar series.

Herta is signed as the test and development driver for the newly formed 11th F1 team Cadillac. In their first season ever in F1 they have recruited two safe pairs of hands in their drivers, Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas. Yet the American owned F1 team has made no bones about the fact they want an US driver amongst their racing ranks as soon as possible.

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FIA upgrade Indycar points

Now the FIA have relented to the criticism of their downgrading of the Indycar series in terms of points allocated to achieve a super license. Now the finishing places in the annual championship will be worth 40-30-25-20-15-10-8-6-3-1 instead of 40-30-20-10-8-6-4-3-2-1.

This still places a premium on the FIA’s own F1 feeder series of F2, but had this allocation been in place 2019-21, Herta would have accrued 48 points – enough to qualify for a super license. 

Based upon the results the past three seasons of Indycar four drivers would have qualified under the FIA’s current criteria with Alex Palou, a triple champion scoring the maximum 120, Scott Dixon who has six Indycar titles with 56 points, McLaren’s reserve F1 driver Mexican Pato O’Ward on 48 and Scott McLaughlin on 41.

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Herta to take on F2

The new allocation system were they applied retrospectively would see the same drivers qualify and the first outside the points on 39 would be Colton Herta. As part of Cadillac’s support for Herta he will race with the solid F2 outfit Hi-tech team.

That said since the inception of the series Hi-Tech and none of its drivers have claimed a championship, although Paul Aron who is the Alpine reserve driver did come third in the 2024 F2 championship.

The F2 cars will be a downgrade on the Indycar’s Herta is used to, with lower downforce and less power although the competition will be fierce. The Californian will use the experience to learn a range of tracks where the F1 championship competes along with the Pirelli rubber, which is significantly different from the Firestone’s of Indycar.

 

 

 

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