IndyCar at Austin, Texas, 1:40 p.m. Sunday, NBC Sports

INDIANAPOLIS -- Frankly, I don’t get it. I don’t understand the obsession so many fans have with comparing IndyCar racing to Formula One -- specifically, comparing the speeds and lap times produced by the two series’ vastly different vehicles.

Unfortunately, I fear we’re doomed for a weekend filled with fans engaging in this useless exercise.

This weekend, the NTT IndyCar Series is headed to the 20-turn, 3.427 mile Circuit of the Americas road course for the first time. As many racing fans know, Formula One cars have been competing at the idyllic track since it opened in 2012 -- making this weekend’s race the first time IndyCar and F1 will race on the same track in the same year since 2006 at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

More IndyCar:

For many fans, this offers the ideal opportunity to compare speeds and lap times of the world's two top open-wheel series.

But why? To what end? It’s not like the naked eye is capable of detecting the difference in the speed that separates Lewis Hamilton’s COTA-record 1:32.237 (during 2018 U.S. Grand Prix qualifying) and whatever the fastest lap Indy car produces this weekend.

Is there something useful to be gained by comparing these two series' performances?

“No, it’s silly,” said Sebastien Bourdais, one of few drivers with experience in both series. “I mean, what are we trying to compare?

Good question.

The series' open-wheel cars are so vastly different that a comparison makes no sense -- like comparing the merits of a spoon and a fork. Sure, they both accomplish the same goal, but they get there in very different ways.

In Formula One, Bourdais explains, you’re dealing with some of the most technologically advanced machines in racing. As the pinnacle of motor sports around the world, F1 teams spend somewhere between $80 million and $300 million on their full-season programs.

A top-level IndyCar team might top out at around $10 million. It’s no knock on IndyCar to say that with level of spending disparity, F1 cars had darn well better be quicker in and out of COTA’s corners.

And that’s by far not the only reason F1 cars will turn quicker laps at COTA. Once you add the driver to the equation, Indy cars weight around 100 pounds more than their F1 counterparts (minimum weight of 1,631). They have to. If they weren’t, Bourdais might not be around to explain why.

Indy cars are built to absorb significantly more impact than their F1 counterparts, he said -- primarily because Indy cars race on ovals.

If Bourdais had slammed into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway SAFER barrier going 227 mph and generating 114 Gs -- as he did during 500 qualifying two years ago -- in an F1 car he probably would not have escaped the wreckage with only a fractured pelvis and hip.

“Right now, Formula One has a lot of artificial ways to produce lap times, particularly with the DRS (drag reduction system),” Bourdais continued in his comparison of the two series. “And when you start looking at the difference in pace from race and qualifying, you see a very different picture. They lose like eight seconds at the beginning of the race. On new tires. You have all that fuel, and they’re still not at our minimum weight. That tells you how important weight is (to speed).

“They also have ridiculously big tires that produce a lot of mechanical grip and have a ton of horsepower with the hybrid systems. Of course they’re going to be a lot faster. If we added a 1,000 horsepower on acceleration, we’d go a lot faster, too.”

There are other differences, too, but by now the point should be clear: Why waste your precious time this weekend comparing lap times when there are more important questions to ask?

What will the racing be like at COTA? Will it be entertaining? Those are really the only questions IndyCar should be concerned with, Bourdais said.

"Ultimately, we're in the entertainment business," he said. "We’re in racing, and racing is about a lot more than just pure speed or lap time. It’s about how good a race you put together and how much fighting you got going on and how much action you have on track.

"I think the (F1 and IndyCar) disciplines are completely different, and trying to compare them, yeah, there’s just really not much point in doing it."

I couldn't agree more.

Follow IndyStar Motor Sports Insider Jim Ayello on Twitter and Facebook: @jimayello.