'Alex Palou can bridge IndyCar-F1 divide… if he can find a team'

You may well have worked out where I’m headed right now, as this summer has once again seen a contract controversy surrounding Palou and McLaren, but in this case it seems to be a major U-turn.

Zak Brown informed his IndyCar team that Palou had told him he wouldn’t be honouring the 2024 deal, and legal action has since begun that appears to be chasing compensation and damages rather than trying to force the talented Spaniard to make the move.

This one didn’t totally come out of the blue Stateside, but the read I had on it was that it meant Palou was chasing a Formula 1 seat. He was dominating the IndyCar championship and is on the verge of his second title at the age of 26, but has also had GP3 and GP2 experience (with limited success, admittedly), plus a third-placed championship finish in Super Formula – a category Red Bull values highly.

Take the AlphaTauri situation, and there’s every chance there will be a seat available there next year, it’s just not clear which seat. Either Yuki Tsunoda beats Daniel Ricciardo and the Australian’s hopes of getting back to the main team are over, or Ricciardo gets the better of the Japanese youngster and Red Bull moves onto other talents having seen Honda ditch it and then sign with Aston Martin for 2026.

Palou might not be American, but he would bring significant US interest to F1 if he were to wrap up a second IndyCar championship and then move series rather than defend his title. And Red Bull has been keen on tapping into that ever-growing market, hence the focus on Herta a year ago.

Yet, that isn’t the way it has played out. The decision from Palou to turn his back on the McLaren deal – and the reserve F1 role he held this year that allowed him to test former machinery plus receive a likely FP1 outing later this year too – was to stay put with Ganassi.

McLaren and Brown might not like it, but you can see where Palou’s head is at from an IndyCar context, as he is now keen to remain with the team that has delivered him great success at a young age and doesn’t show any signs of losing the ability to fight for championships. But it feels strange that a serious F1 option wasn’t forthcoming.

Holding out for an F1 chance would still have resulted in upsetting McLaren, but that would have been a good problem for Brown to face as there is no race seat available at the team that has turned its season around spectacularly. Things are good at Woking right now, and in Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri it appears to have a driver line-up that can take it forward for many years to come.

So Palou definitely had to look elsewhere, but doesn’t appear to have got into a strong enough position to be able to keep his IndyCar options on ice. And that does feel like a missed opportunity both for himself and for some F1 teams.

There are no superlicence issues when it comes to Palou, and there is clear talent to be able to put together the type of season he has this year. With 162 points left available this season, Palou holds a 101-point lead over the most successful IndyCar driver on the grid – who also happens to be his team-mate – in Scott Dixon, so there’s no doubting he has shown everything he possibly can in the US.

As much as we might say they do, and it’s true for the majority, but not every driver aspires to be in F1. Palou certainly does, though, hence the deal he did with McLaren and the fact he had a clause that would allow him to get out of that 2024 contract should he secure a seat on the grid.

The argument against many IndyCar champions in recent years has been their age in the sense that it doesn’t make them a candidate for a switch. Dixon (43), Will Power (42), Ryan Hunter-Reay (42), Simon Pagenaud (39) and Josef Newgarden (32) are the only champions other than Palou since 2012, and only Newgarden could really have come into realistic consideration.

But Palou’s just about to hit his prime, has the superlicence and – aside from making a few more friends – can do no more in IndyCar to convince an F1 team to give him a shot.

If he has committed to Ganassi and given up on his F1 hopes this year when so much seems to be in his favour, then it might just be Palou’s best chance that has now come and gone. And potential teams will have passed up on a driver who really does look like he could cross the divide.

They may well have dodged some serious contract headaches, though.