I'm interested to hear what people think about (a) the current competitiveness of the US road to Indy feeder series, and (b) whether they are given a reasonable weighting by the current superlicense system.

The standard route up the junior ladder in the US at the moment is:

• US national F2000 or a lower level series (0 points for winning title)

• Pro Mazda (0 points for winning title)

• Indy Lights (15 points for winning title)

• IndyCar (40 points for winning title)

In general, I do think these series are less competitive than top European series with similarly powered cars -- FR2.0, F3, GP3, GP2. That is evidenced by drivers who have moved between the US and Europe. On the other hand, a driver who blitzes every US series up to IndyCar is still a long way from a superlicense (e.g., Spencer Pigot). Essentially the only way to F1 from that side is winning IndyCar, which probably isn't much easier than winning GP2, especially given the importance of being in a top team.

By comparison, a driver can score the full 40 points by winning Euro F3 or 25 points by winning Super Formula. I'm not sure there's anything necessarily wrong with that, but curious to hear community thoughts.