IndyCar: Alex Palou serving out his court ordered mandate to drive IndyCar in 2023

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Alex Palou tried to get out of his contract with Chip Ganassi Racing’s IndyCar team, so he could devote full time to F1, but he lost that battle in court, and the judge ordered he must race in IndyCar in 2023.

Palou took the decision like a man with his chin up and is giving what he hopes will be his last year in IndyCar his best effort.

Mark Vaughn of Autoweek spoke to Palou ahead of this weekend’s IndyCar race.

“I’m doing Miami (Grand Prix as a reserve driver) and then doing the rest of the (F1) races once IndyCar is done,” Palou said.

“I had obviously the chance to go to more races (in F1) but I thought it was better just to focus on IndyCar and once that’s done go to F1 races. So yeah, that’s a plan. It’s going to be a busy year. But super exciting as well.”

Vaughn asked him in the Long Beach paddock what it was like to drive an F1 car.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “It’s amazing. It’s the most advanced race car that there is in this world. So super-fast. Lots of downforce, lots of technology. Really fun to drive.”

Believe it or not, it’s even better than an IndyCar.

“I mean, power-wise, F1, it’s a lot more,” Palou said. “We’re a spec series in IndyCar. So obviously, we don’t need to find more power and more power, like, the power, it stays always the same. And the same goes for downforce. We are really tight on rules in IndyCar, while in F1, they have, like, free development, let’s say. So obviously, they are going to generate a lot more downforce.”

“You couldn’t put an F1 (race) here at Long Beach, I think. I mean, in IndyCar we can because it’s a spec series, and we’re used to it, but I don’t think an F1 (car) would last a full race here” [due to the bumps.

Vaughn asked him whether he’ll ever actually drive in Formula 1?

“You never know. There’s a lot more stuff than just driving to get into F1. They, obviously, pull a little bit more for European series drivers just because they drive the same wheels, they drive the same tracks, and normally, here in IndyCar it’s really different types of racing. But I think nowadays it’s getting, we’re getting more attention from them. We saw that with Colton, with Pato, a little bit with myself. So, hopefully in the future we’ll see an IndyCar driver going there.”

Could it be Palou?

“Who knows? I don’t know. I think I’m happy with the chance that I’ve got. I don’t think there’s any opening, like, soon. And obviously, I’m losing my years of young…”