Graham Rahal takes a dig at F1 with cheeky IndyCar crossover suggestion for fans

IndyCar veteran Graham Rahal took a dig at F1 after the Las Vegas Grand Prix turned out to be an uneventful race besides some action in the first few laps. With regard to on-track racing action, the 50-lap race didn't have much to offer to entertain fans.

The opening lap saw pole-sitter Lando Norris lose two places within two corners after an uncalculated aggressive maneuver to cover Max Verstappen off the start. There was more chaos behind, with multiple cars involved in a couple of separate incidents.

However, besides that, there were too few overtakes in the rest of the 50-lap race. Once Verstappen got the lead in Turn 1, he managed his race to perfection, led all laps, and secured his 69th F1 win and a record-extending eighth win in the United States.

Graham Rahal expressed that he was underwhelmed by the racing and found it to be unworthy of the spectacle that the Las Vegas GP was otherwise. In an X post, he cheekily suggested that F1 should bring IndyCar, which, on average, has more overtakes in a race than F1 has in a season, to entertain its fans who crave wheel-to-wheel racing.

"Vegas GP, what a cool event. But last night had me thinking, an event like that needs real wheel to wheel racing. Should F1 bring in Indycar to spice things up and give the crowd what they want? I think so! Then again, an F1 race isn’t about the race, it’s about being seen," Graham Rahal wrote.

Graham Rahal

@GrahamRahal

Vegas GP, what a cool event. But last night had me thinking, an event like that needs real wheel to wheel racing. Should F1 bring in Indycar to spice things up and give the crowd what they want? I think so! Then again, an F1 race isn’t about the race, it’s about being seen. 🔥😉

The major highlight of the Las Vegas Grand Prix came after the race, when the FIA disqualified both McLaren drivers and championship contenders, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Both McLaren cars were found guilty of excessive plank wear because they ran too close to the ground.

Why Graham Rahal's criticism of F1 racing seems spot on

Graham Rahal at the INDYCAR Bommarito Automotive Group 500 - Source: Getty

Graham Rahal has been critical of F1 in the past, calling it an "elitist sport." However, his criticism of the on-track racing product seems to be spot-on, considering that Mercedes F1 driver George Russell had voiced a similar concern after this year's US Grand Prix.

The Briton had claimed that the competition in modern F1 has become limited to the run-up to Turn 1 on the opening lap. After that, it became a processional event until the end, with very few overtakes.

"Right now in F1 it's a race to Turn 1," Russell told Sky Sports F1 in Austin. "There's no tyre degradation, there's only three-tenths between the quickest car and the slowest car in the top six. Normally, you need at least half a second to overtake, so if I came out of Turn 1 in P3, I'd have been on the podium today. But instead, I came out in P6 and I finished P6."

Contrastingly, IndyCar seldom has processional events. In 2017, when Lewis Hamilton took a dig at IndyCar racing by highlighting how Fernando Alonso qualified fifth for the Indy 500 on a one-off entry against full-time IndyCar racers, Graham Rahal pointed out how cutthroat IndyCar racing was.

The Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver highlighted how IndyCar had seven race winners in seven races that season. That is a regular sight in the American open-wheel racing series. 2025 was an unusual F1-like year in IndyCar, where Alex Palou dominated with eight wins in 17 races.