I’d been watching him in 2020, he looked pretty handy, doing a good job in his first season, and when we did the first test with him at Laguna Seca ahead of the 2021 season we thought ‘this guy is really good’. That’s when we called Chip and told him, ‘This kid is mega.’ I don’t think anyone else was looking at him at the time so the deal was done.” That’s four-time IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti, now a key adviser at Chip Ganassi Racing.
We could say the rest is history, Alex Palou winning the IndyCar title in his first year with Ganassi and looking red hot for a second this season. But... when we catch up with him in early July the rumour mill about his future is in overdrive. Specifically there’s talk of a possible move to Formula 1 where he is already a McLaren reserve driver, although in the fevered world of online speculation several teams are said to be interested. A decision from Palou is said to be due at the end of the month.
So our interiew, which comes on the back of a stellar run of four wins in five, marks a moment in time for the 26-year-old. Will he stick or twist? Yes, he’s flying high. But why leave Ganassi? Unless he’s on an F1 promise…
But before all that, let’s go back to the start, to understand how the cream of a fine new IndyCar generation has risen to the top.
In brief, it took him 10 years to get where he is today,
