2021 was the first time since 2003, that the two most famous races in the world didn't clash in 18 years. Yes, the Indy 500 and the Monaco GP, for almost 2 decades happened on the same weekend. Apart from dividing the attention, it also meant that many Formula 1 drivers haven't had the opportunity to participate in the Indy 500 since it allows open entries, for drivers who don't permanently participate in the Indy 500, however, because of the complexity of F1, the same is not applicable for any F1 race including the Monaco GP. But all this could change if the words of F1's technical director Ross Brawn are to be believed.
Monaco GP and the Indy 500 are part of the haloed motor sporting triple crown won only by the late great Graham Hill. In recent years, this was pursued by 2-time F1 world champion Fernando Alonso who almost won the Indy 500 in 2017 before his car retired. Alonso has now the 24 Hours Le Mans and the Monaco GP and in 2021 returned to F1 after taking a hiatus from the sport at the end of the 2018 season after an unsuccessful 4-year stint with McLaren.
Helio Castroneves won the 2021 Indy 500 which hosted 135000 fans.
"Certainly from our perspective - Formula One Management - we embrace all motorsport, because one of my ex-colleagues Sean Bratches used to say that when the tide rises all the boats go up, and we believe that very strongly," said Brawn.
"It's great that it didn't clash this weekend - it gave me a chance to watch it as I wasn't travelling back from Monaco for once! We embrace all forms of motorsport. It's great a Formula 1 team - McLaren - are involved there now. Formula 1 drivers have always been involved there - it tends to be a follow-on career but maybe if it doesn't clash, it doesn't have to be," Brawn explained.
Notably, Romain Grosjean in 2021 joined the Indy Car roster after failing to get a seat in F1 after being dropped by Haas F1 team. The Indy 500 was home to many ex-F1 drivers like Marcus Ericsson, Takuma Sato and Juan Pablo Montoya. Back in the day, F1 drivers used to switch over to Indy Car more regularly including multiple world champion Nigel Mansell in the 90s.
"'Drive to Survive' has been a great success - it's brought fans into Formula 1; there's no doubt that those fans will be looking at other forms of motorsport as well because suddenly they've found this new world. And we're the same - we want the Indy 500 to be a huge success so that when we go to America, fans will cross over," said Brawn explaining the success of the F1 in the Americas has also been fuelled by the Netflix original.
F1 is run by the former Ferrari duo of Ross Brawn and Stefano Domenicali | Pic Credit: F1
Brawn believes that the ownership of Roger Penske of the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indy 500 race and IndyCar itself will help negotiations making sure the Monaco GP doesn't clash with the Indy 500.
"We're totally open. I think our management here, including myself, are completely open to any of those sort of possibilities. First and foremost it has to enhance the sporting spectacle. We don't want any of this to turn into any sort of false event, but we're very open to those sort of initiatives. And of course, Indy on that side of things is being run by an old friend of ours now in Roger Penske - Roger's always had an interest in Formula 1 and been involved at times in Formula 1 - so there are very real possibilities for collaborations in the future," he said.
F1's popularity has also been boosted by the fact that the Grand Prix of the Americas has proven to be popular which has resulted in even another Grand Prix being added to the calendar to the US in Miami. The Indianapolis Motor speedway used to host the US GP between 2000-2007, but after a shambolic 2005 US GP where the majority of the grid didn't participate in the race because their Michelin tyres were unsafe for the track resulted in a farcical race that enabled Michael Schumacher and Ferrari gain their only win in the season, despite them being highly non-competitive in the year.
