Palou: “Not having noise out of track” key to IndyCar success

Written by Archie O’Reilly

Credit: Amber Pietz

Álex Palou has credited the lack of off-track distractions as an important part of his recent IndyCar success.

The Spaniard has won three of the first four races - finishing second in the other - in 2025 and already leads the standings by 60 points as he chases a third successive title and fourth overall. 

But in the midst of his run of three championship crowns in four seasons with Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR), Palou found himself embroiled in a legal dispute in 2022. After winning the title as a sophomore in his first season with CGR in 2021, he dropped to fifth in points.

The saga began as Palou, contrary to a statement from CGR saying he would be continuing with the team, announced he would be departing to join Arrow McLaren in 2023. Palou was undergoing a Formula One test programme with McLaren and was named the team’s reserve driver in F1.

It made for an awkward end to 2022, with Palou still driving for a team who felt blindsided by his imminent departure and commenced legal proceedings against their own driver. 

“I had a couple of issues off track that maybe didn’t allow me to be very open,” Palou said of the difficulties, speaking after taking pole for this weekend’s Grand Prix of Indianapolis. “I’m a person that doesn’t really like to show myself on a way of how I am or how I feel.”

A settlement was ultimately reached by the end of the 2022 season and Palou enacted a U-turn to remain with CGR alongside his McLaren F1 commitments. He rounded off the campaign with a dominant win at Laguna Seca.

He was still supposedly contractually obliged to join Arrow McLaren for the 2024 season, but with no opportunities to step up to F1 with the team, he decided to remain with CGR for the long-term. 

Credit: Chris Owens

More legal proceedings ensued in the background between McLaren and Palou as the Zak Brown-led team attempted to recoup damages having put money into an F1 test programme for Palou, alongside claims that he had already been paid money towards the deal for 2024.

But crucially, despite broken bridges elsewhere, bonds were rebuilt at CGR and a settled environment returned for Palou - in which he thrives. 

The 2023 season was a record-breaking return to form - Palou the first driver in over 15 years to win the championship before the final race of the season. He took five victories, achieved 10 podiums and finished no lower than eighth in any one race.

Last year actually left Palou heading into 2025 searching for more, winning only twice and standing on the podium six times compared to the lofty heights of 2023. But such is his largely unprecedented level, he still walked away from 2024 with the title by 31 points.

Kicking off 2025, he has found the upturn he was searching for. And no doubt, already in a position where he could sit a race out and still lead in points, Palou is now better than ever and still improving. He has been nigh on untouchable.

“It’s a mix of everything,” he said of his success. “It’s a mix of having more experience, maybe not having so much noise out of track but also having a really fast car and an amazing team behind. 

“I wouldn’t say it’s all up to myself. I would say that the car that I have now is very, very quick. I feel super comfortable. I feel very relaxed and very happy.”

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Palou realises his current run is something historic. He also acknowledges some people may find it boring to have such a frequent repeat winner - something IndyCar is not accustomed to. 

But that rarity of what we are currently witnessing, as Palou continues to bring inevitability to a series renowned for its competitiveness and unpredictability, is undoubtedly special. 

“It’s pretty cool,” he said. “That [historic nature] makes it extra, extra special… probably extra, extra, extra special - like three times extra specials. But even if it was common to have these kind of runs, it’s super sweet and it feels amazing for everybody. 

“You can see in the team, myself, my confidence and it just feels amazing to be in this position. Hopefully we can make [four wins in five races] happen. That’s what we want to do. We want to win every single race, which is really tough. 

“But whenever we have a chance of having a lot of confidence in driving a really fast car like what we have here, it’s up to us to try and execute.”

It would be easy for Palou to feel the weight of expectation. But the 28-year-old is relaxed, extremely composed and completely unflappable, despite the scale of his current success. 

“I would say it’s the opposite [of pressure],” he said. “There’s always pressure. Chip [Ganassi, team owner] doesn’t care if I won at Barber last week - he kind of forgets about it and it’s normal. Everybody does in the team. You cannot say: ‘Oh yeah, I won last week so I can take a week off.’ You need to still perform. 

“That’s what I like. I like to be up front. We don’t do it to win and celebrate and then that’s it. The pressure is still there but it’s a good kind of pressure. Asking or hearing about the amazing run within, it’s adding good confidence instead of just putting pressure. 

“It’s more: what if we make it happen tomorrow? Instead of: what if we don’t make it happen?”

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Palou continued his momentum by taking pole position for the Indy GP - the eighth of his career - as he made it consecutive pole positions after winning the P1 Award at Barber.

If there has been one chink in Palou’s armour, as much as he has always been a consistent qualifier, it has been his outright qualifying speed. But in 2025, he has matched his faultless consistency with field-topping raw speed as results of his competitors fluctuate in qualifying.

And given the sole caution this season has been on the opening lap in St. Petersburg - followed by a three-race no-caution run for the first time since 1986 - qualifying has been more important than ever.

But Scott McLaughlin - fifth in points and 91 adrift of Palou - is Palou’s closest rival to have made the Fast Six. Second and third place in the standings, Christian Lundgaard and Kyle Kirkwood, will start 14th and 21st. 

When it mattered on Friday, Palou delivered to seize pole by over 0.4 seconds. And that was on a set of tyres on which he quite aggressively locked up too.

“The car has been really, really fast,” he said. “But especially qualifying. Qualifying was really, really good. I had a couple of moments there locking a couple of tyres, especially on Fast Six. That was big. 

“The track grip is super high. It gives you a lot of confidence so we start pushing, pushing, pushing but we get to a point where the tyre says no, which makes it really fun to drive. Then suddenly you get moments like that where the tyre doesn’t like it. 

“We’re going to have to use that tyre [in the race] so it’s going to be exciting. They are okay because we got pole with those. But obviously it’s not ideal to have a big lock-up on them. I’ll be crying during that stint.”

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Palou did concede that he was the only driver on new alternate tyres in the Fast Six, which could have contributed to his pole margin. But even he admitted it was a near-perfect lap with little more on the table.

“I was surprised as well about the total lap time,” he said. “It was super quick and it felt amazing. I don’t think [there was more in it]. The tyres were already on the limit. There’s always time that you can find but it was pretty good.”

There was a lot of talk around tyre strategy given there is one set fewer alternates this weekend, plus a new requirement for teams to run two sets of alternates (along with two sets of primary tyres) in the race - a change which has split opinion.

“All the drivers have a preference on which tyre to run,” Palou said. “You cannot have that preference. You need to be fast on both of them. Hopefully it’s going to mix up a little bit of things… not on our end hopefully. I have hopes that it’s going to make the strategies a bit crazier.”

Heading into qualifying on Friday, some opted to get a read on the alternates in practice - chiefly Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing en-route to having all three cars qualify inside the top five. But Palou and his No.10 team wanted to save a set and did not touch the softer compound until qualifying. 

Even as some teams used two alternate sets in Round 1 of qualifying, Palou easily progressed by doing a primary-shod banker lap before switching to the alternates. It was a qualifying whitewash as Palou paced each of the three rounds.

Now his attention turns to making it successive clean sweeps of pole and win.

“That would be very nice,” Palou said. “I don’t know if many people would be happy with that… that’s what I would like.”