Thanks Giles
Also, I have heard while watching a CART race that the ChampCars are producing lower power levels this year, but with higher boost pressure, somewhere in the range of 750 hp. The reason being Ford Cosworth is the sole supplier this year of engines, so they have focused on durability vs power.
And that is indeed very true about those tracks, Canada is a low downforce configuration, something the ChampCars can at least find somewhat of a common ground on, being that they do not produce as much downforce. Even with this taken into consideration, the F1 cars are 6 seconds faster, and like you said, on a very technical course demanding high downforce, the ChampCars would get slaughtered on a circuit like the Circuit de Catalunya, I'm guessing they would be in the range of 10 seconds slower perhaps. The same would go for Monaco, they would get absolutely destroyed there as well.
It would be a little more even on a track like Monza, but the F1 cars would still be faster.
It would be interesting to see what an F1 car could do around the Indianapolis oval, in proper speedway trim. I'm sure that if they were all trimmed out, they would be much faster than the current IRL cars there. But no way would they be if they ran in current configurations, they simply produce so much more downforce that the drag would slow them to a crawl.
I would really like to see a Ferrari, McLaren, or Williams trimmed out, remove the little winglets, put slender wings on, and fly around the Indy oval, I'm sure they would be faster as they are lighter and more powerful.