An interesting question, Kyle: particularly the comparison with Endurance Racing.
The answer is multiplex, but these are the simplest elements:
- Unlike Endurance Racing, F1 has a far more concentrated time-frame, with little of the luxury of picking one's moment to pass. It is therefore a matter of urgency.
- Open wheel racing is very much more dangerous than Endurance racing, with the latter having the inherent protection of wheels shrouded in bodywork. High speed wheel contact in open racing can be disastrous; indeed, it is a credit to F1 drivers that wheel-to-wheel contact, when it occurs, is almost always restricted to a tyre's sidewall only; contact between the leading surface of one tyre and the trailing surface of another can yield a difference in excess of 400mph, causing near instant launching of one (usually the car approaching from behind) or sometimes both cars.
- Most passing in Endurance events is between cars not in competition with one another.
- Other factors are mostly of a sporting nature, where the prizes and kudos and money invested by the sponsors of F1 can (and has, in the past) lead to unsporting driving from team-mates; manipulation within teams (Ferrari in particular have been notoriously guilty); and even manipulation between two or more teams agreeing to 'gang up' on another, should the circumstance arise (Williams and McLaren, to 'get even'?)!
It may seem slightly 'impure' but I believe it is now an essential feature of F1 with well-matched cars*, especially when they are so highly reliant upon aerodynamics to achieve cornering speeds way beyond anything achievable in Endurance Racing.
*Long ago, of course; it was far less relevant.
