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Chip Ganassi: The Motor Sport Interview
Floyd Ganassi Jr, better known as ‘Chip’, is quite simply one of the most successful team owners in the sport. He came to motor racing as a driver and raced…
Ganassi: 'F1 doesn't interest me, IndyCar is more exciting'
Indycar Racing News
Chip Ganassi says the lack of motivation to pursue an F1 championship lies in the lack competitive action and racing excitement
IndyCar has long been known to provide thrilling races – Ganassi says it's the best there is
IndyCar
Legendary IndyCar, NASCAR and sports car team owner Chip Ganassi has said he wouldn’t be tempted to enter F1 because “the racing is more exciting” Stateside.
Ganassi is one of the most successful team owners in the history of motor sport, with five Indianapolis 500s and 14 IndyCar championships, plus wins at the Daytona 500, Daytona 24 Hours, Sebring and Le Mans – but told Motor Sport the world of grand prix racing as it stands holds little attraction, pointing to reasons purely sporting.
“I would never say never but I don’t look at F1 as the best racing I’ve ever seen,” he says in this month’s magazine.
“I want to be where the most competitive teams are, where the most competitive racers are, so wherever that is I want to be there. I’m sorry but right now I don’t see that in F1. For me the racing is more exciting where we are.”
Ganassi was speaking ahead of last Sunday’s thrilling IndyCar race in Texas, which had fans in raptures after two hours of heart-in-mouth racing with nearly 30 cars dicing almost non-stop at 220mph. Josef Newgarden was the eventual winner after an intense battle with Pato O’Ward, but it was a contest where most of the top ten cars had a realistic chance of winning.
From the archive
In contrast the Australian GP, happening earlier on the same day, was marked by controversy and confusion due to stewards’ decisions on several incidents, but also lacked a genuine competitive fight at the front with Max Verstappen dominating for most of the race.
The grand prix was stopped three times, with some suggesting two of these red flags were thrown in a bid to spice up the action.
Ganassi, a staunch supporter of the US racing scene, asserts that American motor sport suffers much less in that area.
“This [IndyCar] is a great racing series and some of the greatest racing,” he told NBC last month. “It’s real racing. The real thing.”
“I mean, let’s face it: F1 is about everything but the racing. OK? It’s like the racing is almost an afterthought.”
Ganassi’s comments come in the wake of Michael Andretti’s attempts to enter the world championship, most recently with the support of Cadillac – which was still met with a lukewarm reception from F1.
O’Ward and Newgarden locked in battle at Texas
IndyCar
However, Ganassi emphasised to Motor Sport that the recent commercial boom of grand prix racing, driven in no small part by its Netflix series Drive to Survive and social media push, can benefit other championships too.
“From my perspective, looking at motor sport as a whole, a rising tide raises all boats,” he said.
“When one category is up it drags the rest of us up, when that one is down, we’ll drag them up. I’ve seen that pendulum swing both ways over the years, enough to know that nothing lasts for ever.”
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