Álex Palou exclusive: “No place I would rather be”
- Archie O’Reilly
- Jul 17
- 14 min read
Indianapolis is different. And in all the best ways.
For two weeks of the year, nothing else matters. One thing means everything.
Lives are put on the line for one of racing’s most prestigious prizes. Drivers will risk it all for Indianapolis 500 glory and those who fall short will scarcely feel sporting anguish quite like it.
But for those lucky enough to take the chequered flag first, there is no release of emotion more intense. Because at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, everything is amplified.
In 2025, the year of Álex Palou, it was most fittingly the turn of the Spaniard.
“Normally when you win a race, you are really happy about winning a race but it’s only a race,” he reflects. “You cannot really get too excited. It’s only a race. Your life doesn’t change. That’s it. Your day changes, your week changes but your life doesn’t change.
“When you win a championship, your life changes but it’s gradual change. You see it coming, you’re fighting, you’re in the mix; it’s like five drivers to go for the championship and it’s three, then it’s two and then suddenly you win. So it’s like a progressive excitement.
“But then the 500, it’s like you’re nobody until you cross that chequered flag. You don’t know if you’re going to win until you cross that chequered flag. We saw so many people losing it on the last corner or just having something happening to him or to the car.
“And then suddenly you cross it and that explosion of excitement compact in just like the split of a second, it’s crazy. It’s huge.”
Five times Palou had tried and failed - for at Indianapolis, there is one winner and 32 who come away feeling battered and bruised in defeat. In 2021, Hélio Castroneves was in touching distance across the line as Palou came up second best. Two years later, it pole for Palou and a majestic car to boot, only for him to be wiped out in pit lane.
All the while, the weight of the notion that, no matter how successful an already-legendary career may become, an Indy 500 void would be overshadowing.
“I said that and I truly, truly believed in that,” Palou says. “Even by winning three IndyCar championships, you’re a great driver. I’ve accomplished more than I’ve ever dreamed or wanted.
“But if you look back after, I don’t know, 10 years or 20 years in IndyCar and you have three championships and no Indy 500, it’s like: ‘Man, you’re not really 100 percent an IndyCar driver.’ You can be a really good one but not in that list. And I said that before winning, which I truly believed in.
“It’s very important. It’s only a race. That’s it. It’s only another win. But the effort that the team needs to make, the effort that the driver needs to make as well and everything needs to go so good for you during that day and that month, there’s a lot of effort that goes into that.”
Come 2025, entering the Indy 500 with four wins and a runner-up result in the opening five races of the season, Palou could hardly have been better poised for his Indy moment.
In his classic, composed fashion, he lingered in the shadows for most of the 200 laps. But come Lap 187, he pounced. Palou knew it was his time. Leading the race, Marcus Ericsson was caught off-guard and Palou was utterly decisive into Turn 1.
From that moment, he never looked back.
A mere 12 minutes on from that pass, adorned in his DHL yellow and red to match his national colours, Palou was saluting the crowd atop his No.10 Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) machine a little beyond the Yard of Bricks before leaping and sprinting down the frontstretch.
His gloves were sent flying and the air punched with glee. Then a roar and embrace that he will stay with him for the rest of time with his father and adoring team in front of the hundreds of thousands that flock to the Speedway each year.
It was Palou’s date with destiny. A day he would never forget.
“That was by far the most fun couple days that I had in my entire life - one of the happiest I’ve had,” he recalls with pride after becoming the first Spanish Indy 500 winner. “I had a tonne of family with me. I would say my favorite memory was actually jumping out of the car, seeing the crowd, celebrating a little bit with the crowd and then just jumping with the team.”
Just as it looked as though the initial spree of celebrations were done, Palou again orchestrated the crowd and headed for the catch fence to show his appreciation once more. It was unbridled, uncontainable joy.
That was until, as he rather desperately demanded some water amid the pandemonium, he realised he may have celebrated a little too wildly immediately after a 500-mile race.
“I actually got so excited that I thought I was going to pass out,” Palou remembers. “I couldn’t breathe. I was like white and I could not really breathe. And there was a tonne of cameras, tonne of people wanting to be with me.
“And I was like: ‘Just give me space because I need to breathe.’”
Palou insisted earlier in the month that he would make sure he went crazy enough that the entire state of Indiana knew about his success should he win his first Indy 500. By the time he reached the post-race press conference, his voice was already fading from the celebratory shouts and screams from the victory lap around the track.
And beyond that, Palou had a date with his beloved Indiana Pacers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in their NBA Playoffs clash with the New York Knicks, where he had the honour of being presented on-court only hours after his Indy 500 success.
“Those two hours at the track celebrating and then the victory lap that you do with the pickup truck, it was the most fun I’ve ever had,” Palou says. “I could have [then] chosen to just go out and be like drinking beer and just get a bit crazy but we went [to the Pacers game].
“I was able to be in front of a crowd that we’re not used to; I’m used to racing fans but not like basketball fans. And that was pretty emotional.”
The Indy 500 success is a part of the wider picture of an all-time great IndyCar season being produced by Palou and his CGR team. It was a crowning moment in a campaign that continues to cement his legendary status in record time.
At 129 points clear of the competition with five races remaining, Palou is hurtling towards a third successive IndyCar championship and fourth title in five years with CGR. And in only his sixth season overall in IndyCar, he is already placing himself among the best to ever do it while still two years shy of turning 30 years old.
With now seven wins inside the opening 12 races in 2025, Palou is the first driver in 18 years - since Sébastien Bourdais in 2007 - to surpass the seven-win mark in a single season. His current 515-point tally is only 29 points shy of that with which he won the title last year.
But as he continues to forge a storied season and fabled IndyCar legacy at his tender age, it could have been very different after his maiden championship as a sophomore.
“Everybody knows that after my 2021 championship, I tried [to go to Formula One],” Palou recalls. “I thought it was a good moment. I was still young-ish - like 24 I believe. It’s still the start of your career and you already have an IndyCar championship under your belt.
“So you can do an all-in and try and make it to F1.”
Growing up in Europe, especially for Palou as a countryman of the great Fernando Alonso, Formula One is at the forefront of the motorsport mentality. And Palou wanted to try and test himself in the championship he had grown up watching.
That was when he struck a deal with McLaren’s F1 team to undergo a testing programme, starting at his home track, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, in September 2022. Within three months, after making his F1 race weekend debut in Free Practice 1 at the United States Grand Prix, Palou was announced as McLaren’s reserve driver for 2023.
“The reason why is because I think everybody would agree that it’s the highest single-seater series out there,” Palou explains. “It’s worldwide, it’s the biggest manufacturers and it’s just different skills that you need there.
“So in my opinion, it was a good moment to just go there, give it a try. And I had a small opportunity of just trying the car, getting a free practice, just try and showcase what I would be capable of doing.
“And unfortunately that wasn’t enough - I was not able to get a drive.”
It quickly became apparent that there would be no F1 opening for Palou at McLaren - the sole intention of his involvement with the team alongside his IndyCar commitments. The lineup of Lando Norris and, at that point a rookie, Oscar Piastri was a long-term play.
“I thought: ‘That’s it. That was my train,’” Palou adds. “It’s not that I’ve ever had an opportunity but that was like my opportunity. And I had to decide to keep on knocking that door for maybe no reason or focus on what I already love, what I already have and what I have an opportunity to win championships and 500s.
“So I thought I did the right thing.”
But Palou’s decision to pursue F1 and then divert attention back away from it and commit his future to IndyCar was not without contention and bridges being burned.
Alongside his F1 test programme with McLaren, it was announced by the team in July 2022 that Palou would be joining Arrow McLaren in IndyCar the following year. But CGR said otherwise, insisting Palou had a contract to honour in 2023.
Legal disputes ensued and it came as no surprise that, with the off-track distractions, 2022 was an anomalously subpar year in Palou’s ultra-successful career to date.
He ultimately remained with CGR for 2023 and honoured his contract, alongside his commitments with McLaren’s F1 team. And it was a resounding return to form, with Palou becoming the first driver to wrap up the title before the final race since Bourdais Champ Car victory in 2007 - over a decade-and-a-half earlier.
There was no way he could leave CGR off the back of his second championship.
So the cutthroat winner that he is, Palou decided to remain where he had the greatest chance of success, despite the resources McLaren had placed into him and an Arrow McLaren drive appearing on the table for 2024.
McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown was furious and more legal proceedings ensued. But Palou was in a position where he could win in IndyCar - and that matters most to him.
Fixated on finding a way to F1, Palou had put relationships on the line. And when it did not work out, there was a realisation of the toll it had taken on the team he adored. He wanted to apologise to Chip Ganassi and company - but not just by saying so.
“It was tough. It was not easy for me, for the team… for anybody,” Palou admits. “And I said it once I got the opportunity back to just get back to the [CGR] family and say sorry, the way of saying sorry was not by just saying it.
“It was by giving back the results and giving as many wins and as many championships and as many good moments to the team - but especially to Chip. So that’s a way of me saying sorry instead of just saying it once and that’s it.
“And I told him every single year that that’s a goal and that’s what I’m going to do for the rest of my career.”
And no matter people touting him for a drive at the new Cadillac F1 team in 2026, now in the midst of his legendary 2025 season, Palou is intent on IndyCar being his career-long home.
“Now in my mind, I’m not thinking at all about F1,” he says. “Maybe in ‘22, I was still thinking a little bit; ‘23, I was just like one percent. But that’s now not anymore.
“The age and also the experience I had there and what I’m able to probably build here in America and in IndyCar, this is my focus. I have such a good place here on private life and also racing life that there’s probably almost no places that I would rather be.”
If success is the best apology to Ganassi, it is safe to say Palou has probably been forgiven.
The 2025 season has been one where everything has clicked perfectly into place. Palou’s dominance in 2023 was hailed as one of the most impressive feats seen in decades and among the best seasons in history. But 2025 almost sinks that into inferiority.
Palou has won races in every conceivable way: on strategy and pristine execution, on patience and control from the shadows before pouncing, on pure pace and by domination. And never having won on an oval before the Indy 500, he has replicated his level across all types of track - now a superspeedway and short oval victor.
Palou is the only repeat pole-sitter of the year with his four P1 Awards too. He has always been a consistent qualifier but never the quickest in the field; that has changed emphatically this year, with no starting position worse than ninth and 10 top-six starts in 12 races.
But so extraordinary it is, even Palou is not entirely sure what the key to the success is for himself and the No.10 team, which has proven an all-time great combination.
“It’s tough to say,” Palou says. “There’s not only one reason why this 2025 season, it’s been so good for the No.10 car, for CGR. The other day we were speaking with my chief mechanic Ricky Davis and we were getting all these questions about why.
“And we don’t know. But I think it’s because we have everything in place. If you look at a key to open a door, every little step needs to be perfect and needs to match. Otherwise if you have one that it’s a little bit off, it won’t open that door. And I think now we have that.
“We have the speed from the car; without speed from the car, you cannot do it. We have the speed from the pit crew; without that, you cannot do it. We have good strategies. We had a little bit of luck here and there. And I’ve been fast as well.
“So just combining all of that together, you have this magical season that we’re having so far.”
Scott Dixon, Palou’s six-time champion teammate, theorised that the additional weight from the hybrid unit has pronounced Palou’s precise driving style. Palou concedes it has not been harmful, as it has been for plenty of drivers, but suggests it is probably only one of many factors.
Then you have the intangibles. Speaking to Palou, it stands out the extent to which he prioritises enjoying his craft. And with that enjoyment comes a refreshing looseness and alleviation of pressure unquestionably conducive to success.
Place that on top of having a fast car and culture of trust within a team operating in such faultless fashion, it comes as no surprise how smoothly everything is running.
“I’m having so much fun,” Palou says with genuine warmth. “I’ve never had so much fun racing like this year. And me personally, it’s been super easy.
“I’m just enjoying every single weekend and knowing that you go out on track and you have a fast car, that you can rely on your team so much on the strategy, on the pit stops. It just makes you have so much confidence that it’s super fun.”
Such was the level from the outset in St. Petersburg from Palou, who backed that win up with victory at the Thermal Club as he kicked off his run of five wins in the first six races, people started to issue ill-feeling towards Palou and his No.10 team.
“At the beginning for the No.10 car team, for especially some mechanics, it was tough to get some hate from people,” Palou admits. “At the end of the day, our job is to do the best we can every single weekend. And our job, they pay us to win. That’s it. Period.
“That’s all we have in mind. And fortunately this year, it’s been magical for us. We have speed, we’re able to maximise, we’re able to just get the result almost every single weekend. So it was tough at the beginning to be like: ‘Guys, why are you hating us if we’re just doing our job? That’s what we’re supposed to do.’
“But then we just realised that it’s normal. It’s okay. It’s part of the sport. It’s very fun and we’re very fortunate to be in the position we are.”
Maybe a natural product of domination, some are keen to suggest it is ‘boring’ seeing one driver run away with a championship.
But in a series renowned for its unpredictability, the fact that Palou is bringing a sense of predictability and inevitability is a marker of extremely rare and unprecedented greatness. And often sports fans are guilty of not appreciating this level of greatness until it is too late.
So rather than dismiss it as being boring, instead of simply reflecting in years to come, why not relish history being made before our eyes in the present and enjoy watching something that may be a once-in-a-lifetime level while it unfolds?
And as Palou himself says, while he has streaked clear in the championship, it has taken a hard fight, race in, race out to run away as he has done over the course of the season.
It takes perfection in a field so competitive. And Palou is producing that in a manner scarcely seen before.
“They need to just watch the race. If you looked at the races, there’s not been any race that I started first and led all the way. None,” Palou insists. “Even Mid-Ohio, that looked that it was going to be that way, then I went out and decided to throw the win out [dropping to second with a rare mistake late on].
“If you are only one of those fans that looks at the results, maybe you can say: ‘Oh, there’s been seven times the same winner and then three times for [Kyle] Kirkwood, then only one for Scott [Dixon] and one for Pato [O’Ward].’
“But if you look at the races, it’s been super unpredictable. It was looking at Iowa that I was going to win, then it was looking like Josef was just going to destroy everybody and then suddenly it came back to me in the last 15 laps.
“All the races have been super fun to watch but I understand if there’s people that just prefer crazy amounts of winners. I understand that that can be fun as well. But it’s not that we’ve had this for a long time. It’s only been this year.”
With five races remaining, Palou needs three victories to tie the single-season record of 10 wins. But while achievements obviously matter, he does not get bogged down in the talk of breaking records. He will not lose sleep over it.
And that is another telltale sign of how much he values simply driving for the love of his craft and enjoyment of the process and working with his team. It is the perfect recipe for success.
“It’s not for the records or it’s not like: ‘Oh, I have an opportunity to try and get six IndyCar championships,’” Palou says. “It’s more waking up every single day and knowing that I’m working towards a race win or a championship. That’s what motivates me.
“If I look back in my career in 10 years and I win four IndyCar championships or six, it’s not going to change, honestly. It’s going to be a little bit better but that’s it. It’s not going to be like: ‘Oh yeah, suddenly it’s six, it’s a lot more.’ Well, it’s a lot more and it will be super cool but it’s not going to change entirely my life.
“But waking up every single day for the next 10 years, knowing that I have a chance of beating our competition every single weekend, that motivates me a lot.”
As he continues on in this historic season, Palou continues to have the time of his life. And that is as big a part as anything for him. But as much as his focus may not be on records, there feels like no limit to the possibilities of what he could achieve.
As looks ahead with the view of a decade-plus remaining in the series, there is nowhere he would rather have as his home than IndyCar.
And for those degrading his successes, well, Palou can only apologise.
“I would just say: ‘Sorry and enjoy it.’ And that’s it.”
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