2023 will be a particularly challenging year for Alex Palou, the 25-year-old Spanish motoring talent who conquered America in 2021 and managed to win the IndyCar title. Last season, on the other hand, was less positive, with fifth place in the championship and only one win, in the last race at Laguna Seca. Above all, the Sant Antoni de Vilamajor native found himself at the center of a tangled contract battle between Ganassi – the team he was already racing for – e McLaren. In the end, after long discussions that also ended in court, Palou managed to define his future, agreeing to stay in IndyCar with Ganassi for the 2023 season and at the same time joining the ‘battery’ of third drivers of the Woking stable for the F1. An important occasion, the latter, to take part in new tests at the wheel of Formula 1 cars after those already carried out last year.
Interviewed by the Spanish newspaper AS, Palou explained the advantages of being able to work in parallel in the two main open wheel motorsport championships. “I am looking forward to a new challenge and to have the opportunity to learn from both worlds – commented – I want to try and win a new championship and the Indy 500, or at least fight for it. Then, when the Indy season is over, I will devote myself more to the McLaren team.” In fact, the bulk of Palou’s commitment to the Circus will begin from mid-September onwards, when the overseas season will be over.
“I will follow everything that happens in McLaren and in F1 – confirmed the Iberian driver – but the real work will be when there are no IndyCar races. Double commitment a handicap? Not at all. In the end it’s a good thing. In Indy we manage information that is around ten times higher in F1. They have a much bigger budget, a lot more people. This can help me know the level of detail they can work on”. However, as for most of the riders, especially Europeans, Palou’s ultimate wish would be to enter the Circus as a protagonist: “We’ve already taken the step of going and testing an F1 car. And if there’s a good opportunity that interests us, with good conditions, anyone would go, of course“.
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