Álex Palou Montalbo (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈaləks ˈpalɔw monˈtalbu]; born 1 April 1997) is a Spanish racing driver who drives for Chip Ganassi Racing in the IndyCar Series, where he won the 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026 championships and the 2025 Indianapolis 500. Palou is the first Spanish racing driver to win a national championship in American open-wheel racing history and also the first Spaniard to win in the Indianapolis 500 and the GP3 Series.
Palou is the third driver with the most IndyCar championships and its predecessors, behind A. J. Foyt (7) and Scott Dixon (6). He is one of three drivers to have debuted with CGR by winning their first race (along with Michael Andretti and Dan Wheldon). In the first 55 races contested in the series, he became the third-best driver statistically behind Mario Andretti and A. J. Foyt, with eight wins, twenty-podium finishes, and thirty-seven top-ten finishes. He is the fourth driver to win three consecutive championships, after Ted Horn, Sébastien Bourdais, and Dario Franchitti, the youngest four-time champion in IndyCar history (28 years, 4 months, and 9 days), and the second driver to achieve four consecutive IndyCar or Champ Car championships, a feat previously accomplished by Sébastien Bourdais, as well as the only to win five titles in six years.
Palou was a reserve driver for the McLaren Formula One team in 2022 and 2023, making his debut in free practice for the 2022 United States Grand Prix.
Contents
Early years
Born in Sant Antoni de Vilamajor, Palou began karting in 2003. He achieved his only international title in the KF3 category of the WSK Euro Series in 2012, when he finished runner-up to George Russell in the CIK-FIA European Championship.
Euroformula Open
Palou made his open-wheel racing debut competing in the Euroformula Open Championship with Campos Racing in 2014. He bookended the season, winning the opening race at the Nürburgring and the final race at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. He also won a race at the Hungaroring to finish third in the series standings, missing out on the runner-up placing by one point to Artur Janosz.
Racing in Europe
GP3 Series
In 2015, Palou graduated to the GP3 Series with Campos Racing. During the first half of the season, he suffered major reliability issues as well as some driving mistakes due to his lack of experience, but his results improved along the season and he closed the year with a victory in Abu Dhabi. At the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain, Palou qualified fourth for the first race, but he slipped the clutch at the start and lost any opportunity to fight for the points. He made another bad start at the second race. At the Red Bull Ring in Austria, Palou had another bad weekend. Starting from third, he stalled the engine at the start. He later admitted he felt nervous after the mistakes from Barcelona and that that might have contributed to those new errors. He did not finish the second race because of a crash on the first lap.
At the Silverstone Circuit in Great Britain, a gearbox sensor failed when Palou was driving fifth. He was forced to retire and subsequently had to start the second race from the last place on the grid. He managed to overtake eleven cars, eight of them in the first lap, to finish thirteenth. At the Hungaroring in Hungary, Palou started seventh and moved up to fifth until a car hit him from behind. He suffered a puncture and was forced to pit. Starting from the bottom of the grid for the second race, he wrapped up the weekend with an eighteenth place finish. At the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit in Belgium, Palou scored his first points in GP3 as the season passed its halfway point. Struggling with tyre wear and lack of speed, Palou finished in seventh place in the first race. He led most of the second race but eventually fell back to fifth because of the lack of top speed. He later argued that Esteban Ocon was scrapping 0,5 seconds per lap just in the first sector, where the Kemmel Straight was found.
At the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in Italy, Palou had another difficult weekend because of the lack of top speed. Using the same engine he raced in Belgium, he managed to finish seventh in the first race and subsequently started the second one from the front row. He made "The Great Mistake" (as he wrote in his column) when during the warm-up lap he spun at the main straight and nearly hit the wall. Although his car was not damaged, he fell back to tenth. At the Sochi Autodrom in Russia, Palou received a new engine that solved the top speed problems he suffered in Belgium and Italy. Because of Carlos Sainz's crash during Russian Grand Prix Free Practice 3, the first race of the weekend was moved to Sunday. Palou qualified just a tenth away from Pole Position and scored a provisional season-high in the first race when he crossed the line in fourth place. He was ninth in the second one. At the Bahrain International Circuit, Palou suffered yet again more reliability issues. He started from fourth, but during the warm-up lap a gas sensor failed and the car kept on accelerating when the driver lifted the throttle. He decided to enter the pit lane and retire. Because of this, he started the second race from last place. He gained 14 positions, but ended up tenth and outside from the points.
World Series Formula V8 3.5
Palou also raced with Teo Martín Motorsport in three rounds of the 2017 World Series Formula V8 3.5 championship, where he won three poles and a race. This partial season earned him tenth in the championship. Palou finished 2017 with Campos Racing in two Formula 2 rounds, where he scored five points. Palou led the majority of the Jerez sprint race from the reverse grid pole, but ultimately, he could not hang on to the lead with his heavily worn tires and finished eighth. These two rounds finished him 21st in the championship.
FIA Formula 3 European Championship
In 2018, Palou returned to Europe full-time for a full season with Hitech Bullfrog GP in the 2018 FIA Formula 3 European Championship. He scored seven podiums and ended the year seventh in the championship.
Racing in Japan
Japanese Formula 3
Palou moved to Japan in 2017 to compete in Japanese Formula 3 for Threebond with Drago Corse. He won three races but finished the year third in the championship behind Mitsunori Takaboshi and Sho Tsuboi.
Super GT and Super Formula
Palou moved back to Japan in 2019 to compete full-time with McLaren Customer Racing Japan in the Super GT GT300 class and TCS Nakajima Racing in Super Formula. In Super GT, Palou was partnered with 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Seiji Ara. As a team, they scored one podium at Autopolis but ultimately finished fifteenth in the championship. In Super Formula, Palou had far more success. He won at Fuji Speedway from pole position and, after qualifying on pole at the final round at Suzuka, he looked to be the championship favorite. A problem with the ventilation duct early in the race immensely slowed Palou's car down and he finished nineteenth in the race. This dropped him to third in the championship in the end.
IndyCar
Palou tested an IndyCar in July 2019 with Dale Coyne Racing at Mid-Ohio.
Dale Coyne Racing (2020)
On 19 December 2019, it was announced that Palou would move to the IndyCar Series for a rookie campaign with Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh. His manager in the IndyCar series is former IndyCar driver Roger Yasukawa.
In his first race for the team at the 2020 Genesys 300 at Texas Motor Speedway, Palou was taken out by fellow rookie Rinus VeeKay. He took his first IndyCar podium at Road America.
Chip Ganassi Racing (2021–present)
Palou was signed by Chip Ganassi Racing to drive the No. 10 Honda for the 2021 IndyCar Series season. On 18 April 2021, Palou earned his maiden IndyCar Series victory in the season-opening race at Barber Motorsports Park. Palou started on pole for the first time in his IndyCar career at the first race of the season at Texas Motor Speedway, although his pole position was earned due to his early-season championship point lead after qualifying was canceled for the race due to inclement weather. Palou added another podium for the season at the GMR Grand Prix and then finished second in the 2021 Indianapolis 500 to Hélio Castroneves' record-tying fourth victory. Palou's finish in the 500 vaulted him into the points lead for the championship. For the rest of the season, only himself and Pato O'Ward would hold the points lead.
Palou then went on a run of podium finishes after the 500, although he briefly lost the points lead to O'Ward in Detroit by a single point. Palou finished third in the second race in Detroit, won at Road America after Josef Newgarden suffered a gearbox failure, and finished third at Mid Ohio to solidify his points lead in the championship over both Scott Dixon and O'Ward. This was despite suffering three engine change related penalties imposed on him by IndyCar. He gave up the points lead to O'Ward after he and Dixon were collected in an accident caused by Rinus VeeKay at Gateway but took it back after taking his first earned pole position and a third victory at Portland. After a second-place finish at Laguna Seca, Palou carried a thirty-five-point advantage over O'Ward heading into the final race of the season at Long Beach, with only himself, O'Ward, and Josef Newgarden still mathematically capable of winning the title. After O'Ward was knocked out in an accident on the first lap of the race Palou drove conservatively and finished in fourth place, winning his first IndyCar championship. He became the third Chip Ganassi Racing driver to win the IndyCar series championship after Dixon and Dario Franchitti and the first Honda driver other than Dixon to win an IndyCar championship in the Dallara DW12 and turbo V6 era of IndyCar racing. Palou also secured his first IndyCar track discipline championship in 2021, winning the Mario Andretti Cup as the season's highest-scoring driver on the road and street courses. For his Indianapolis Motor Speedway victory lap, he drove a chicken-themed limousine, in honor of his favorite after-victory meal of fried chicken.
Palou started the 2022 season out with podiums at St. Petersburg, Long Beach, and Barber, outperforming his Chip Ganassi teammates and putting him in a strong early position to defend his title. The title would eventually be lost to Penske's Will Power, but Palou still finished fifth (due to countback, as he tied Scott McLaughlin with 510 points) with a commanding win in the Laguna Seca finale to round out the year.
Formula One
In September 2022, McLaren announced that they had signed Palou to their Testing of Previous Cars program that would see him test the MCL35M, first at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, and later in October at the Red Bull Ring, both together with Pato O'Ward. Palou made his debut in free practice with McLaren at the 2022 United States Grand Prix. On his free practice debut, Palou called the F1 car "insane" and "capable of so much".
On 1 December 2022, McLaren announced Palou as a reserve driver for the 2023 Formula One World Championship. He drove the MCL35M during a test at the Hungaroring alongside Oscar Piastri.
Other racing ventures
Palou owns a team in Eurocup-3 series called Palou Motorsport which currently fields four cars: the No. 16 driven by Filipina Bianca Bustamante, the No. 27 driven by Brazilian Heitor Dall'Agnol, the No. 33 driven by Frenchman Rafaël Pérard, and the No. 48 driven by American James Egozi. Palou Motorsport got three podiums in its debut season in 2023, all of them courtesy of Javier Sagrera. In 2025, the team won three races over the course of the Eurocup-3 Spanish Winter Championship and the main championship. All of those race wins were obtained by Egozi.
Palou competed in the 2025 12 Hours of Sebring with Meyer Shank Racing in the GTP class.
Personal life
On 4 December 2023, Palou and his wife Esther welcomed their first child. They reside in Indianapolis.
Karting record
Racing record
Career summary
† As Palou was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.
* Season still in progress.
Complete Euroformula Open Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Complete GP3 Series results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
† Driver did not finish the race but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.
Complete Japanese Formula 3 Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Complete World Series Formula V8 3.5 results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Complete FIA Formula 2 Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate points for the fastest lap of top ten finishers)
Complete FIA Formula 3 European Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Complete Super GT results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Complete Super Formula results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Complete Formula One participations
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
American open-wheel racing results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
(key)
* Season still in progress.
1 Non-points-paying, exhibition race.
Complete IMSA SportsCar Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)
* Season still in progress.
Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)