James Hinchcliffe's 2023 IndyCar stars: 'I'm not sure he's human!'

“The clinical way in which he executed every single weekend was unlike anything we’ve seen IndyCar in a long time.

“And you look to the stats, his worst finish of the season was eighth – and that was the season opener. When we talk about the competitive era IndyCar is in and how tough it is to win these races – to take as many as Palou, and in some of the dominating fashions that he did – it was beyond impressive.”

When considering what makes the Spanish driver the formidable competitor he is, Hinchcliffe points to one particular area – made all the more pertinent by the off-track pressure Palou has endured due to contract wrangles between Ganassi and McLaren implicating the young driver.

“There’s a mental strength there, that’s very evident,” he says. “Even guys like Scott Dixon, who we talk about as ‘The Iceman’ and being unflappable, every once in a while you hear the angry radio message or you’ll get the frustrated interviewer – he’s still human, after all.

“I’m not entirely sure what Palou is made out of, he might be not be human! It just didn’t seem like anything could faze him.

“For example, even after his qualifying crash at Road America, nothing throws him off, his tone stays the same. That points to him being in a great place mentally.”

 

2023 IndyCar team of the year

Chip Ganassi Racing

Chip Ganassi has long been at the forefront of IndyCar racing. From early champions such as Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya to legends like Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon, the team has a glittering history of success.

However, its 2023 performance has been unprecedented – head and shoulders above the rest in a championship where every team uses largely the same equipment. Ganassi’s nine wins out of 17 races with three different drivers was an incredible achievement, as Hinchcliffe attests.

“Again, I don’t want to default to the obvious,” he stresses. “But when you just look at the fact that, for the first time in 14 years, we had a championship locked up before the end of the season; we also had second place locked out too – that’s how dominant Ganassi was throughout the year.

“You see their performances at the Indy 500 over the last few seasons, I know they obviously didn’t get to win in 2023, though they were pretty damn close!

“The fact that Ganassi can produce that many cars that are competitive at the Speedway: we don’t see Penske doing that; we don’t see Andretti doing that anymore nor McLaren.

“So when you take into consideration the two things that matter, the championship and the 500, Ganassi just showed up in a way that no other team really came close to this year.”

Racing series are often incestuous worlds in which staff move through many teams, getting to know a range of different working practices, but Hinchcliffe says Ganassi’s focus on the right human resources has been a key strength.

“I’ve always been a believer that racing is not about the cars or engines or tyres – it’s about people,” he emphasises.

“At Chip Ganassi Racing, right now they just have such a good infrastructure, some really good people in the right places, the driver line-up was one that got along very well and works together.

“All those things play a part: it’s not money, as Penske’s got all the money in the world; McLaren’s got all the money in the world; Andretti’s not short on resources. It’s people and the processes, and that’s allowed them to just edge ahead.

“IndyCar is so competitive, you don’t need half a second to go third to first, you need 0.1sec. Ganassi isn’t necessarily miles ahead of the competition in terms of outright pace, but they’ve got that little bit extra.”

 

2023 IndyCar race of the year

Toronto

“We’re spoiled in IndyCar, that we have so many races every year that are so so fun to watch,” says Hinchcliffe.

“Texas was was a brilliant race. The pass from Scott McLaughlin on Romain Grosjean in Barber in that final stint to get the win was exciting, as well as the two of them crashing when fighting for the lead in St Pete – Graham Rahal gave us some exciting moments too.

“But you can’t beat a first time winner. I liked Christian Lundgaard winning in Toronto, the effort he was able to put forward in getting the Rahal team to the front.

“I definitely think he gets an honourable mention [for 2023’s unsung hero also] for what he was able to accomplish, a couple of poles and  the victory in Canada.”

 

2023 IndyCar unsung hero

Kyle Kirkwood

Palou’s astounding performance this year has overshadowed some other impressive campaigns in 2023, and Hinchcliffe believes the emergence of a new star, not far behind Palou, is worthy of attention.

“Just look at Kyle Kirkwood’s sophomore season,” he says. “Pole position and a couple of race wins [at Long Beach and Nashville] on the types of track that [his team-mate] Colton Herta has been so dominant at.

“A street circuit with Herta behind the wheel of an Andretti: that’s been a tough combination to beat the last couple of seasons and, in equal equipment, Kirkwood got the better of him.

“We should also throw out some love to Graham Rahal for that last third of the season. The Rahal team obviously did something to get the cars better, and he showed up in a big way and proved that the ‘old guy’ has still got some tricks up his sleeve – it was great to see his poles and the podium at Indianapolis.

“If we’re going to really throw one out there: Augustin Canapino. His first year in open wheel and he jumps into IndyCar, I mean, that’s the ‘Shark Tank’, with the youngest team [Juncos-Hollinger] – and he did a very, very respectable job.”

 

2024 IndyCar one to watch

Ganassi’s fifth car

“I definitely think [2022 Indy NXT champion and new Ganassi signing] Linus Lundqvist is one to watch,” he says. “The big question mark for me is how does Ganassi handle going to a fifth full time car with Kyffin Simpson?

“They’ve got quite a big change in the driver line-up, you’ve got Marcus Armstrong coming in [for his first] full season, Lundqvist, and Simpson coming in full season [in addition to Palou and Dixon.] Expansion is tough man. We’ve seen it with Rahal, we’ve seen it with McLaren. It’s not easy, we also saw Penske drop back to three cars.

“I’m really interested to see how David Malukas performs in his new environment too [at McLaren].

“I thought he was brilliant in his rookie season [ in 2022 at Dale Coyne], head to head with Takuma Sato, who we all know is a very fast, very accomplished competitor, in a small team.

“Now, Malukas is moving into one of the biggest organisations with race winners and championship contenders in Alex Rossi and Pato O’Ward. I’m really excited to see what what ‘Little Dave’ can do with some very experienced, very talented guys as his team-mates.”