{"id":176819,"date":"2025-06-11T22:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T22:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/176819\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T22:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T22:39:10","slug":"forgotten-alex-palou-overlooked-by-williams-in-5-million-reveal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/176819\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Forgotten’ Alex Palou overlooked by Williams in $5 million reveal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Williams boss James Vowles revealed that IndyCar sensation Alex Palou was on his list of candidates for F1 2025.<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, suggesting Palou would command a salary of $5 million+, Vowles also highlighted the required F1 testing time he would need as an additional stumbling block, while Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur described the Spaniard as a driver \u201cforgotten\u201d in Formula 1 after the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Alex Palou: Too expensive for an F1 rookie?<\/p>\n

Palou has established himself as an IndyCar icon, and the three-time champion recently ticked off another milestone by winning the flagship Indianapolis 500 event for the first time, claiming victory at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard started in single-seaters on the junior ladder to Formula 1 with limited success, but transformed his career after switching to IndyCar, where he now chases a fourth title after winning five of the opening seven rounds in 2025.<\/p>\n

Such form has once more sparked speculation over whether Formula 1 could be in Palou\u2019s future, and Vowles \u2013 team principal at Williams<\/a> \u2013 revealed to Auto Motor und Sport<\/a> that Palou was on their radar, but there were clear sticking points.<\/p>\n

\u201cPalou is super-fast,\u201d said Vowles. \u201cWe had him on our list. But there are two problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith his track record, he wouldn\u2019t be a cheap starter. I reckon he plays in the price range beyond five million dollars.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, he wouldn\u2019t be helped by a test or a Friday training session.<\/p>\n

\u201cPalou would have to go through the same programme as an [Kimi] Antonelli or [Oliver] Bearman. They have completed up to 10,000 kilometres in old Formula 1 cars. That means he would have to take a year off and sacrifice himself completely to preparation. I can hardly imagine that he would want to do that given his status.\u201d<\/p>\n

After one win in two GP3 seasons with Campos, Palou finished seventh in the 2018 European Formula 3 Championship with Hitech, before transitioning to Super Formula in Japan and then IndyCar.<\/p>\n

Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur believes Palou was limited by his machinery in his F3 campaign, and then got unlucky again when the Covid pandemic led to him being \u201cforgotten\u201d in the Formula 1 paddock, despite capturing his first IndyCar title in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cPalou was in the wrong team in Formula 3. He couldn\u2019t shine there,\u201d Vasseur claimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is probably an example of the fact that results in a junior formula do not necessarily indicate how he will develop later in really fast cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe switched to IndyCar. Then came Covid, and he was forgotten here with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

How the F1 2026 grid is shaping up<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 F1 2026 driver line-up: Who is already confirmed for the 2026 grid?<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 F1 2026: Confirmed teams and power unit suppliers for F1\u2019s huge regulation changes<\/a><\/p>\n

Palou had made it clear recently that a switch to Formula 1 is not of interest<\/a>, as he continues to strengthen his bid for a fourth IndyCar title.<\/p>\n

And his compatriot \u2013 two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso \u2013 can well imagine that there is no F1-shaped void for Palou.<\/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 maximised every single day there,\u201d Alonso told the media, including PlanetF1.com.<\/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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next: Hamilton podium? Verstappen gets banned? Bold predictions for Canadian GP<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Williams boss James Vowles revealed that IndyCar sensation Alex Palou was on his list of candidates for F1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[72985,4199,707,4200,225,12,79,16,15,4857],"class_list":{"0":"post-176819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-alex-palou","9":"tag-f1","10":"tag-formula-1","11":"tag-formula1","12":"tag-home-page","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-williams"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114667137523425524","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176819","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=176819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}