Louis Foster – IndyCar's next star Brit: 'F1 is boring, US rewards drivers'

“Obviously, money doesn’t come out of thin air, but F1 doesn’t do as good of a job as IndyCar does with supporting young talent. If you win here, you’re valued a lot more.”

There’s strong evidence to support Foster’s claim, with Drugovich and Pourchaire – 14 F2 race wins between them –  still waiting for a chance.

“That doesn’t sit right,” says Foster. “They’ve worked all their lives to get to this point, and they’ve won the championship that’s supposed to get them in and they’re now just sitting on the sidelines.”

Significantly, others have made the switch from Europe to America and reaped the rewards. Swede Linus Lundqvist gave up on his F1 dreams and dominated US junior categories. He was snapped up by top IndyCar team Ganassi for 2024. Meanwhile former F2 frontrunner Christian Lundgaard has now been signed by McLaren for its 2025 IndyCar line-up after winning in Toronto last year. Pourchaire has made a number of substitute appearances for Zak Brown’s squad too.

Foster says the nature of the competition allows talented drivers to show what they can do.

“I also really like the racing itself,” he emphasises. “I know people in Europe can look down on American racing, but I think in recent years people have started to kind of realise that it is very competitive.

“At the Iowa double-header recently, everyone thought Newgarden would dominate, but in the first race he was nowhere. The action is very good compared to F1.”

For a confident kid like Foster, who compares his considered driving style to Alain Prost, jumping into the swashbuckling nature of US racing has suited him, as borne out by the seven race wins and championship crown in his debut year on American soil.

“It’s much more fun racing and much better to watch”

“Going from very precise European teams, and then going over to America, it’s a little bit different!” he laughs about the more laidback Stateside approach.

“But you learn to get used to the difference and once you have, it’s actually quite a lot of fun.”

Its not just the racing habits, more relaxed stewarding and fluid nature of the driver market which suits Foster – he says the very tyres the championships run on encourages better racing. He adapted quickly.

“The [Firestone] compound is a bit harder than the European tyre, because the sidewall doesn’t flex as much, it has less peak grip. The grip lasts for longer, and you slide the car around a lot more,” Foster explains.

The gung-ho attitude from Foster appears to have suited him, but often the hardest part for European drivers adapting to America is racing on ovals.

Was he intimidated by keeping his foot in at 200mph on the ’roundy-round’?

“Well, I won my first ever oval,” he replies immediately, before admitting. “At first I was a bit daunted by it and a little bit like: ‘I wish we didn’t have to do ovals,’ but nowadays I love them.

“It’s the same as anything, I just tried to be a sponge. I think qualifying on an oval is fun, but where they really are amazing is the racing – it’s so much fun, it’s completely different.

“You have to set up passes laps in advance. It’s a lot more thinking than a road course, where you can just send it.

“Overall, it’s a bit of a chess match between you and the other drivers, taking the air off their wings and stuff like that.”

Right now Foster’s living the American dream, but he’s aware the bubble could burst if he capitulates this season. At a loss to even think of what else he might do if things go catastrophically wrong this year, the Brit is still realistic of his chances of being in a decent IndyCar team next season even if he does win the title.

“We need to win the championship first,” Foster says. “We’re in a really good spot, but it’s far from over, anything can happen. It’s too early to start settling for fifth and sixth place race finishes, we still need to go for wins and podiums.

“I would love to be able to say: ‘Yeah, I’ve got six teams who want me,’ but that’s not the case. There’s definitely interest for sure, from multiple teams.

“I can’t imagine I’m gonna know anything until at least late September. All the teams that I’m talking to are great, I’d love to be with any of them. Just any opportunity I can get, I’d really really appreciate.”

Foster knows his career could be over at any moment should he not succeed this year – but he’s no less confident in the choice he’s made.

“IndyCar does things a million times better than F1,” he asserts. “[Imagine] if I was to win Indy NXT and they say ‘Cool, put these headphones on and sit behind the crew chief for three years.’ I’m there to race! Everyone’s there to race.”