Renowned Formula One presenter, Will Buxton, departs the sport after two decades, joining IndyCar for the 2025 season.
One of the faces of the Formula One paddock, Will Buxton, makes his dream move to IndyCar, joining the FOX Sports broadcasting team as lead commentator for 2025. Alongside him, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will reprise their roles as analysts for the upcoming season.
Buxton played a significant role in the Formula One paddock, following the sport around the globe for the past 20 years. His key role in recent years has been presenting on F1TV and featuring in Netflix’s Drive to Survive series. However, this all changed when the Briton decided at the tail-end of 2024 to bid farewell to the sport and travel across the Atlantic to work with IndyCar.
A significant change
It will be a big year for IndyCar with the addition of Buxton, but also because of the new era the series is heading in. IndyCar makes the significant transition from NBC to FOX Sports, showcasing the series on an even bigger stage. With many new eyes sets to tune into race weekends and Formula One fans following Buxton to IndyCar
Buxton spoke to the media, including EverythingF1, providing insight into his goals for working with the series, highlighting the importance of storytelling and how he will incorporate that into the upcoming season:
“It is our job to hero the drivers, to tell their stories to make people care about them whether they come from the US or not – they all have unique stories to tell.
“We also have 11 incredible teams to tell their story as well. My overriding hope, and what myself, Townsend and James will be doing this year is we want people to care, we want them to feel an emotional attachment to these drivers, whether it is a love or hate relationship with them.
“But when they go to the line and when they roll to green every Sunday, folks sitting at home care deeply and passionately about who they are watching, it’s storytelling.”
“That doesn’t matter what championship you’re talking about, what country you’re talking to or about – it’s storytelling.”
Buxton makes his claim
Photo credit: Travis Hinkle
With his insider perspective, Buxton was asked about the view of IndyCar in the F1 paddock, with the 44-year-old remarking that every motorsports’ series knows ‘IndyCar is the greatest racing on earth’:
“I think IndyCar is motorsports’ best kept secret, and that’s because nobody in any paddock or anywhere around the world will admit what they all know to be true, which is that IndyCar is the greatest racing on earth.
“We all talk about it , no matter what paddock you’re in, whether you’re in World Endurance paddock or Formula E paddock or Formula One paddock.
“Everyone knows the greatest racing in motorsports is IndyCar. But they can’t ever go on the record about it, as they would be down talking about their own championship.”
F1 driver associate IndyCar with ‘fear’
Photo credits: Matt Fraser
Following on from his statement, Buxton went on to say he believes F1 drivers are ‘scared’ of IndyCar. Using Fernando Alonso’s entry into the Indianpolis 500 in 2018 and 2019 as an example to illustrate his thoughts:
“I think for a lot of F1 drivers, there is a fear associated with IndyCar, and I think that’s two-fold. One, they see it as scary, they see ovals as being quite scary. And two, they don’t want to turn up and get shown up.
“Fernando Alonso, one of the greatest of his generation, one of the greatest of all times, qualified and ran well in his first [Indianapolis] 500; second [Indianapolis 500] he didn’t even qualify.
“That is a huge embarrassment for any Formula One driver considering leaving F1 and coming over to America that doesn’t quite consider themselves as at Fernando Alonso’s level, if he can get bumped, any of them can get bumped.”
Featured image credits: Will Buxton
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