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“Who needs Formula 1?” Introducing IndyCar and its first-ever Spanish world champion
02/10/2021
MOTORSPORT 'pioneer' Álex Palou started out training and competing with the likes of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen, but at the career crossroads, he swerved off down a different path – that's why you've probably never heard of him.
But Palou, 24, has just made history by becoming the first-ever Spaniard to win the IndyCar world championship title.
Now, the Barcelona-born whizz on wheels wants to be a trailblazer for his sport, raising its profile on home territory.
His results this season have been so solid that in the last race of 2021, at Long Beach, all he had to do was turn up – no need to even reach the podium, and his fourth-place finish was plenty enough to confirm his milestone achievement and immortalise his name.
Not that fame features anywhere on Álex Palou's list of priorities – despite the fact that he is constantly asked whether he plans to break into the crème of the motor-racing world, Formula 1.
“If Chip Ganassi were to switch to Formula 1, I'd dive in head-first,” Álex admits.
“But otherwise, there isn't a single Formula 1 team where I'd be able to win, and what I enjoy most is winning.
“I'm not bothered about appearing in glossy magazines; winning is where I get my kicks.”
IndyCar, mostly alien to Spain
Spain's presence in IndyCar has not been huge over the different generations of household names in the sport – until Álex came along, the most successful Spaniard to date was Oriol Servià, and his is really the only name ever associated with the country in this discipline, other than twice-world champion Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso, whose dip into IndyCar has been more of an extra-curricular hobby and a means to an end: Trying to win the Indianapolis 500 so that, along with his victories in the Le Mans 24-Hour and the Monaco Grand Prix, he can become only the second driver in history to earn the so-called motorsport 'Triple Crown', after the UK's Graham Hill.
What is IndyCar, anyway?
Given that this branch of motorsport has not been high-profile in Spain until Álex's championship, you could be forgiven for wondering what it actually is – and having heard the name of it bandied around your entire life, feel a little embarrassed to ask anyone.
It takes place exclusively in the USA and Canada, which is perhaps why it is not as well known as Formula 1, where every Grand Prix throughout the season is held in a different country or even continent (as yet, not in Africa, but all the other inhabited ones).
American open-wheel car-racing is the official description of Indy car, and 'Indy car' is not a typo: The governing and sanctioning body covering the sport is IndyCar LLC, and the sport is, nowadays, usually referred to by the name of the company which took over the rôle in 1996.
Previous governing bodies, starting from 1905, were AAA Contest Board, USAC, CART and Champ Car, and the actual sport was always called 'Indy car racing' through their reigns; technically, or descriptively, it still is.
The 'Indy' bit comes from Indianapolis, since the Indianapolis 500 (so-called because it's 500 miles long, or 805 kilometres) is the élite event on the circuit – it first took place in 1911 and, given its fame as the biggest and most global of these races, the single-seater open-wheeled winged cars used became known colloquially as 'Indy cars'.
So, that's what the name is all about, but what is the sport itself?
How does it differ from Formula 1?
At first glance, it's easily confused with Formula 1. The history of how these two sports started out from similar roots on different continents on either side of the Atlantic and then diversified does not tell us much about how they operate today, other than the fact that Formula 1, often written as Formula One or as F1, was standardised after World War II as the international road-racing championship in Europe, whilst what is now known as Indy car racing or IndyCar started off with classic road vehicles with front engines, combining roads with oval circuits.
Formula One cars were unique designs created by the individual teams, whilst Indy cars were a standard model bought from manufacturers, or constructors, typically bigger and faster and adapted to racing in an oval, a large arena like a Speedway track, or a horse-racing track but with a tarmac surface.
More recently, Indy cars have followed one specific model type whilst Formula 1 cars are much more specialised, bespoke, and high-tech; the constant evolution of motor technology and new engine designs mean sometimes Indy cars have been faster and more avant garde than Formula 1, and sometimes not.
Generally, F1 cars are lightweight, responsive and accelerate quickly off the turns, whilst Indy cars are stable and get to full speed much faster; the F1 is aspirated, whilst the Indy is turbo-charged; the F1 has a bespoke chassis built by its team, as per a rule introduced 40 years ago, whilst the Indy chassis is bought from elsewhere and normally mass-produced; the Indy is slower on street circuits, and much cheaper than the F1 (from this year, a cap on outlay per Formula One team for developing their car has been introduced, at US$145 million – before 2021, a scuderia would typically spend two to three times that amount, whilst a standard Indy car team spends about US$20m, or less than one-seventh of the Formula 1 maximum budget).
As for which out of Formula 1 or IndyCar is the toughest challenge, this is a grey area and usually subjective; F1 drivers who have had little or no success have shone in IndyCar, and Formula One multiple world champions have had poor results in IndyCar. It's a matter of how individual competitors get along with the different track conditions and the different feel of the cars involved.
The advice that paid off
Álex Palou was initially expecting to be focusing his career ambitions on Formula 1 – like most racing drivers, he started out at a young age competing in go-karting, but it was the late Adrián Campos of Campos Racing, dubbed the 'father of motorsport' as he trained up several world-famous competitors and 'discovered' Fernando Alonso back in the day, who advised Álex to take a different course.
He recommended Álex take up IndyCar rather than following Sainz, Verstappen and Alonso into Grand Prix racing, and the young champion has never looked back.
Campos Racing tweeted pictures of Palou following his first-ever race victory, in Euroformula Open in Nürburgring in 2014, alongside one of him a week ago being proclaimed IndyCar world champion.
“Ever since you earned this first victory in your début race, we knew you'd achieve great things,” @CamposRacing captioned the pictures, tagging @AlexPalou and congratulating him in capital letters.
Sadly, Adrián Campos never saw his protégé make motorsport history: He passed away very suddenly at the end of January from a heart attack, aged just 60.
Palou has just finished his second season in the USA after IndyCar 'super-boss' Chip Ganassi contacted him to invite him to join the team, confident of being able to turn the racing ace from Catalunya into the next Scott Dixon, defending world champion – until Long Beach 2021 - and one of Ganassi's most élite drivers.
An international all-rounder
Sporting history shows that IndyCar drivers usually start out in Formula 1 and then make a sideways move – Emerson Fittipaldi also won a world title on Ganassi's team, and others such as Mario Andretti and Nigel Mansell enjoyed success in the field – but Palou bypassed the more high-profile end of motorsport en route to IndyCar, via an initial spell on the Japanese Super Formula circuit, competing in three races in the British Formula 4, a Formula 3 Grand Prix in Macao, China and two seasons in the GP3 Series.
Álex raced a couple of times in Formula Rénault 2.0 NEC and in Ferrari Challenge Europe – coming first and second in the latter – before deciding to up sticks at the tender age of 20 and move to Japan, where he ended the season third in the championship standings after a hugely successful run, then stunned everyone by winning his first-ever race in the World Series Formula V8 3.5.
A string of wins and top-three placings in FIA Formula 2 and FIA European Formula 3, and a season in Japan dovetailing Super GT and Super Formula followed, but his niche was still waiting for him: After trying out an Indy in Mid-Ohio in 2019, Palou was sold.
His 'achieving great things', as predicted by Campos Racing, started when Álex was just eight years old, coming third in the 2005 national go-karting championship standings; then, aged 16, he became national champion in KZ2.
Sporting trendsetters
Whilst not concerned about seeking fame for himself, Palou does hope IndyCar catches on in Spain and is keen to place it firmly on the sporting map in his home country.
Spain's most successful global sports personalities have frequently made their mark in 'minority' disciplines, sparking renewed or even first-time interest in them nationally – few Spaniards followed badminton until Carolina Marín came along and became one of the world's top female players in history; golf club membership soared after the late Seve Ballesteros became a legend and the only Spaniard ever to reach the world number one slot until Jon Rahm did so last year; and tennis only really became popular in Spain through the Midas touch of Manolo Santana, who inspired the next generation to take it up.
In fact, Manolo Santana is credited with setting a trend that went on to become Rafa Nadal, David Ferrer, Feliciano López, Roberto Bautista, Juan Carlos Ferrero, and other, massive, star-studded names who need no introduction anywhere on earth.
“It must be incredible for Spain [to have an IndyCar world champion for the first time] and I really hope to see more people getting to know IndyCar, supporting us more next year, and to watch it snowball as a 'trending' sport,” admits Palou.
Related Topics
MOTORSPORT 'pioneer' Álex Palou started out training and competing with the likes of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen, but at the career crossroads, he swerved off down a different path – that's why you've probably never heard of him.
But Palou, 24, has just made history by becoming the first-ever Spaniard to win the IndyCar world championship title.
Now, the Barcelona-born whizz on wheels wants to be a trailblazer for his sport, raising its profile on home territory.
His results this season have been so solid that in the last race of 2021, at Long Beach, all he had to do was turn up – no need to even reach the podium, and his fourth-place finish was plenty enough to confirm his milestone achievement and immortalise his name.
Not that fame features anywhere on Álex Palou's list of priorities – despite the fact that he is constantly asked whether he plans to break into the crème of the motor-racing world, Formula 1.
“If Chip Ganassi were to switch to Formula 1, I'd dive in head-first,” Álex admits.
“But otherwise, there isn't a single Formula 1 team where I'd be able to win, and what I enjoy most is winning.
“I'm not bothered about appearing in glossy magazines; winning is where I get my kicks.”
IndyCar, mostly alien to Spain
Spain's presence in IndyCar has not been huge over the different generations of household names in the sport – until Álex came along, the most successful Spaniard to date was Oriol Servià, and his is really the only name ever associated with the country in this discipline, other than twice-world champion Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso, whose dip into IndyCar has been more of an extra-curricular hobby and a means to an end: Trying to win the Indianapolis 500 so that, along with his victories in the Le Mans 24-Hour and the Monaco Grand Prix, he can become only the second driver in history to earn the so-called motorsport 'Triple Crown', after the UK's Graham Hill.
What is IndyCar, anyway?
Given that this branch of motorsport has not been high-profile in Spain until Álex's championship, you could be forgiven for wondering what it actually is – and having heard the name of it bandied around your entire life, feel a little embarrassed to ask anyone.
It takes place exclusively in the USA and Canada, which is perhaps why it is not as well known as Formula 1, where every Grand Prix throughout the season is held in a different country or even continent (as yet, not in Africa, but all the other inhabited ones).
American open-wheel car-racing is the official description of Indy car, and 'Indy car' is not a typo: The governing and sanctioning body covering the sport is IndyCar LLC, and the sport is, nowadays, usually referred to by the name of the company which took over the rôle in 1996.
Previous governing bodies, starting from 1905, were AAA Contest Board, USAC, CART and Champ Car, and the actual sport was always called 'Indy car racing' through their reigns; technically, or descriptively, it still is.
The 'Indy' bit comes from Indianapolis, since the Indianapolis 500 (so-called because it's 500 miles long, or 805 kilometres) is the élite event on the circuit – it first took place in 1911 and, given its fame as the biggest and most global of these races, the single-seater open-wheeled winged cars used became known colloquially as 'Indy cars'.
So, that's what the name is all about, but what is the sport itself?
How does it differ from Formula 1?
At first glance, it's easily confused with Formula 1. The history of how these two sports started out from similar roots on different continents on either side of the Atlantic and then diversified does not tell us much about how they operate today, other than the fact that Formula 1, often written as Formula One or as F1, was standardised after World War II as the international road-racing championship in Europe, whilst what is now known as Indy car racing or IndyCar started off with classic road vehicles with front engines, combining roads with oval circuits.
Formula One cars were unique designs created by the individual teams, whilst Indy cars were a standard model bought from manufacturers, or constructors, typically bigger and faster and adapted to racing in an oval, a large arena like a Speedway track, or a horse-racing track but with a tarmac surface.
More recently, Indy cars have followed one specific model type whilst Formula 1 cars are much more specialised, bespoke, and high-tech; the constant evolution of motor technology and new engine designs mean sometimes Indy cars have been faster and more avant garde than Formula 1, and sometimes not.
Generally, F1 cars are lightweight, responsive and accelerate quickly off the turns, whilst Indy cars are stable and get to full speed much faster; the F1 is aspirated, whilst the Indy is turbo-charged; the F1 has a bespoke chassis built by its team, as per a rule introduced 40 years ago, whilst the Indy chassis is bought from elsewhere and normally mass-produced; the Indy is slower on street circuits, and much cheaper than the F1 (from this year, a cap on outlay per Formula One team for developing their car has been introduced, at US$145 million – before 2021, a scuderia would typically spend two to three times that amount, whilst a standard Indy car team spends about US$20m, or less than one-seventh of the Formula 1 maximum budget).
As for which out of Formula 1 or IndyCar is the toughest challenge, this is a grey area and usually subjective; F1 drivers who have had little or no success have shone in IndyCar, and Formula One multiple world champions have had poor results in IndyCar. It's a matter of how individual competitors get along with the different track conditions and the different feel of the cars involved.
The advice that paid off
Álex Palou was initially expecting to be focusing his career ambitions on Formula 1 – like most racing drivers, he started out at a young age competing in go-karting, but it was the late Adrián Campos of Campos Racing, dubbed the 'father of motorsport' as he trained up several world-famous competitors and 'discovered' Fernando Alonso back in the day, who advised Álex to take a different course.
He recommended Álex take up IndyCar rather than following Sainz, Verstappen and Alonso into Grand Prix racing, and the young champion has never looked back.
Campos Racing tweeted pictures of Palou following his first-ever race victory, in Euroformula Open in Nürburgring in 2014, alongside one of him a week ago being proclaimed IndyCar world champion.
“Ever since you earned this first victory in your début race, we knew you'd achieve great things,” @CamposRacing captioned the pictures, tagging @AlexPalou and congratulating him in capital letters.
Sadly, Adrián Campos never saw his protégé make motorsport history: He passed away very suddenly at the end of January from a heart attack, aged just 60.
Palou has just finished his second season in the USA after IndyCar 'super-boss' Chip Ganassi contacted him to invite him to join the team, confident of being able to turn the racing ace from Catalunya into the next Scott Dixon, defending world champion – until Long Beach 2021 - and one of Ganassi's most élite drivers.
An international all-rounder
Sporting history shows that IndyCar drivers usually start out in Formula 1 and then make a sideways move – Emerson Fittipaldi also won a world title on Ganassi's team, and others such as Mario Andretti and Nigel Mansell enjoyed success in the field – but Palou bypassed the more high-profile end of motorsport en route to IndyCar, via an initial spell on the Japanese Super Formula circuit, competing in three races in the British Formula 4, a Formula 3 Grand Prix in Macao, China and two seasons in the GP3 Series.
Álex raced a couple of times in Formula Rénault 2.0 NEC and in Ferrari Challenge Europe – coming first and second in the latter – before deciding to up sticks at the tender age of 20 and move to Japan, where he ended the season third in the championship standings after a hugely successful run, then stunned everyone by winning his first-ever race in the World Series Formula V8 3.5.
A string of wins and top-three placings in FIA Formula 2 and FIA European Formula 3, and a season in Japan dovetailing Super GT and Super Formula followed, but his niche was still waiting for him: After trying out an Indy in Mid-Ohio in 2019, Palou was sold.
His 'achieving great things', as predicted by Campos Racing, started when Álex was just eight years old, coming third in the 2005 national go-karting championship standings; then, aged 16, he became national champion in KZ2.
Sporting trendsetters
Whilst not concerned about seeking fame for himself, Palou does hope IndyCar catches on in Spain and is keen to place it firmly on the sporting map in his home country.
Spain's most successful global sports personalities have frequently made their mark in 'minority' disciplines, sparking renewed or even first-time interest in them nationally – few Spaniards followed badminton until Carolina Marín came along and became one of the world's top female players in history; golf club membership soared after the late Seve Ballesteros became a legend and the only Spaniard ever to reach the world number one slot until Jon Rahm did so last year; and tennis only really became popular in Spain through the Midas touch of Manolo Santana, who inspired the next generation to take it up.
In fact, Manolo Santana is credited with setting a trend that went on to become Rafa Nadal, David Ferrer, Feliciano López, Roberto Bautista, Juan Carlos Ferrero, and other, massive, star-studded names who need no introduction anywhere on earth.
“It must be incredible for Spain [to have an IndyCar world champion for the first time] and I really hope to see more people getting to know IndyCar, supporting us more next year, and to watch it snowball as a 'trending' sport,” admits Palou.
Related Topics
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