{"id":143475,"date":"2025-05-30T07:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T07:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/143475\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T07:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T07:03:08","slug":"why-f1-dream-is-over-for-indianapolis-500-winner-alex-palou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/143475\/","title":{"rendered":"Why F1 dream is over for Indianapolis 500 winner Alex Palou"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Alex Palou crossed the Yard of Bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to become Spain\u2019s first Indy 500 winner, eyebrows raised. Surely, Formula 1 is about to come calling.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But if you ask the three-time IndyCar champion, he\u2019ll deny it. Formula 1 is the \u2018total opposite\u2019 of the kind of racing he wants to do \u2014 so don\u2019t expect him in Europe any time soon.<\/p>\n

Spanish racers praise Alex Palou for Indy 500 win<\/p>\n

Just a few hours after the chequered flag flew at the Monaco Grand Prix, the 109th running of the Indy 500 went green in a contentious race that ultimately saw Spanish driver Alex Palou take victory.<\/p>\n

Palou has won three IndyCar championships, but as a driver coming over to the United States from Europe, his lack of familiarity with ovals meant that he had yet to master that specific discipline.<\/p>\n

At Indianapolis, Palou made history by taking his first oval win, by being the first Spanish racer to win the iconic 500-mile event, and by winning five of the first six races of the season. \u2018Dominant\u2019 almost feels inadequate in describing the Chip Ganassi Racing driver\u2019s year.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that Palou is easily the greatest open-wheel driver in America right now, and that has plenty of people wondering how he might perform in a discipline like Formula 1.<\/p>\n

More on Alex Palou and Formula 1:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Alex Palou challenges for \u2018greatest of all time\u2019 title with third IndyCar championship<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Cadillac F1: The ideal driver line-up to power the new American team to success<\/a><\/p>\n

Palou was the talk of the town in the build-up to Formula 1\u2019s Spanish Grand Prix<\/a>, with his fellow countrymen Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso asked to comment on his performance and how they think he might perform in Formula 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think someone that is capable of winning in Indy \u2014 Indy 500 \u2014 at least, I don\u2019t know, at some point should be given the chance to show what he can do in Formula 1,\u201d Williams driver Carlos Sainz said to the media, including PlanetF1.com, during the pre-event press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if he\u2019s quick enough in Formula 1, then he should be welcome in Formula 1.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sainz should know; he and Palou were teammates once, back in their foundational stages of racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always rated very highly Alex because I was his teammate in Cadet, and he was very quick in Cadet karting,\u201d Sainz said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut honestly speaking, what he\u2019s doing in America is something really admirable, I think, to dominate Indy the way he\u2019s dominating \u2014 you have to be very good at what he\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen Formula 1 is a completely different discipline, different world, but I don\u2019t have anything else than respect and admiration for what Alex is doing in Indy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The elder Spaniard on the F1 grid, Fernando Alonso, also had nothing but praise for Palou.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, great, great for Spain, first of all,\u201d said the driver who contested the 2017 and 2020 Indy 500s.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat for him to have the Indy 500 now after winning the series in the IndyCar for a few consecutive seasons, and now leading the championship as well. He\u2019s doing great out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that most of the drivers, we dream about a Formula 1 seat and having a career here, but he had the opportunity in IndyCar, and he maximized every single day there.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a legend in the IndyCar, and he will be a legend always in IndyCar.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think he\u2019s not missing Formula 1. And I\u2019m very happy for him, because he\u2019s a very, very talented driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are just following him from here with a lot of respect and you know, as a fan because I was watching on Sunday the race and just hoping that he will finally make it, and he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does F1 follow an Indy 500 win for Alex Palou?<\/p>\n

Alonso and Sainz aren\u2019t the only people considering how Alex Palou would perform within the world of Formula 1. Fans, pundits, and other drivers have also raised the question.<\/p>\n

But Palou denies that Formula 1 is back on his radar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fun part of being a racecar driver isn\u2019t being famous,\u201d Palou said, as reported by IndyStar<\/strong>, which went on to note his sense of anonymity \u2013\u00a0Palou joined American reporters in seeking out Spanish reports of his victory, which were hard to find.<\/p>\n

When asked if he\u2019ll take the BorgWarner trophy to Barcelona, he replied, \u201cI don\u2019t know if there would be much people there, unfortunately.\u201d And when asked if he was as popular in Spain as drivers like Alonso and Sainz, his answer was a polite \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the same response when quizzed as to whether he\u2019d now look to make a move to F1 after ticking the 500 off his bucket list.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to leave now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if they say, \u2018No, don\u2019t worry, you can come back in one or two years, what if suddenly everyone is here and I\u2019m never able to catch back up to them?<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd [F1] wasn\u2019t in my mind last year, and it\u2019s not in my mind this year. It\u2019s getting less and less and less every day, and with this, it\u2019s like, \u2018No, I want to get another [Indy 500 victory].\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201c[F1] is not calling me anymore. I still follow it. It\u2019s a huge series. It\u2019s amazing. I\u2019m a big fan, but I don\u2019t think they\u2019re having as much fun as I\u2019m having here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see people celebrating with their wives and their kids as much as we do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see them hanging in the bus lot or having dinner with their mechanics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI only enjoy driving and having fun and being with my people, so I think [F1] is the total opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he put it later: \u201cThere\u2019s not many [F1] seats that I\u2019d want to be in, compared to the No. 10 [Chip Ganassi Racing Honda] car right now. It\u2019s pretty tough to beat.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was indeed a period of time where Palou was in the F1 hunt \u2014 and it put him in legal trouble.<\/p>\n

Back in 2022, CGR announced that Palou would be driving for the team the following year in IndyCar \u2014 something that Palou immediately denied. He had instead inked a deal with McLaren that would have seen him serve as an F1 reserve driver, with the aim of one day securing an F1 race seat.<\/p>\n

It turned out to be quite the contractual fiasco; Palou\u2019s manager at the time had effectively tied him to two teams, and it required a court case to determine that the Spaniard was required to serve out his time at CGR. In return, McLaren sued Palou for over $30 million in damages.<\/p>\n

Since then, his name has been casually linked to the incoming Cadillac F1 program thanks in large part to his former CGR-founded links to Cadillac\u2019s endurance racing programs. However, that has amounted to little more than speculation.<\/p>\n

For now, Palou is ready to head off to Detroit, where he\u2019ll continue his championship charge this weekend.<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0What you can really expect to see from the FIA\u2019s new flexi-wing test<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Alex Palou crossed the Yard of Bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to become Spain\u2019s first Indy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,225,24582,12,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-143475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-home-page","12":"tag-indycar","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114595509240376324","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}