But then try and someday give back to some young guys the opportunity that I had, try and see if there’s a young talent – in Spain or from out of Spain – that we can try and help open some doors and try and get him or her to the place that I am.īeing one of the biggest names in Ind圜ar, a champion, and a McLaren driver too, Palou says he received a tonne of messages from young drivers when the team was announced. “The idea is to obviously enjoy, to get involved in racing more. It’s a topsy-turvy résumé, and so The Race asked if Palou’s experience of not having enough budget to compete where he wanted and having to experiment with different routes was one of the things that influenced him in starting the team. A few standout drives for Hitech in the Formula 3 European Championship raised attention in 2018 but it was Super Formula the following year that really attracted the interest of Honda and paved a way to Ind圜ar.Ī strong first year at Dale Coyne then earned him the Ganassi seat he would use to win the title. This rarely works out for other drivers in the way it has for Palou. When Palou finished 15th in his second year of GP3 in 2016 – having finished 10th the year before – he’d come to the realisation that staying on that ladder would not yield a drive in F1, and instead he pursued other opportunities. It’s going to be nice to work with him like this.” “At least four-to-five years, so he’s very hands-on in motorsport. “Before we got into teams he was my mechanic, my team boss, he was doing everything on the kart, taking decisions, preparing my engines, so he was basically, let’s say, my team when I started, for quite a long time,” adds Palou. Monaco Increase Management – which looks after Palou’s interests and was representing him when the Ganassi/McLaren conflict began – is also involved in the project.īut it’s his father Ramon who will run the team day-to-day, and it creates a sort of racing full circle for Palou Jr as his father led him to successes including the WSK Euro Series title in 2012 right at the beginning of his career. That campaign and a subsequent return to Japan in 2019, that time with Nakajima Racing in Super Formula, helped Palou earn his move to the States with Dale Coyne Racing for 2020. In his new team’s corner, Palou will have ThreeBond, which helped run Palou to third in Japanese Formula 3 in 2017. Palou raced in Euroformula Open in his first year of cars in 2014, finishing third in the championship with three wins and three poles. #PalouMotorsport #TestingWeek /KATzSPwr88 □□ After months of hard work, we are ready for the first tests! Very excited to see our team in action. □□ Después de unos meses de mucho trabajo, estamos listos para los primeros test! Con muchas ganas de ver al equipo en acción. Palou’s long-time backer Campos Racing is among the opponents, with testing for the new team starting this week. It could have 20 cars on the grid when it kicks off in May at Spa, and it will visit other Formula 1 venues Zandvoort, Monza and Barcelona – very close to Palou Motorsport’s base and to where Palou was born – as part of a 16-race calendar. But yeah, they still have two months before the start of the season, so plenty of time.”Īlthough it evaluated racing in other championships, Palou Motorsport will race in the new Eurocup-3 series that effectively steps in between the Euroformula Open Championship for Dallara F3-spec cars and the Formula Regional European Championship. So obviously, I don’t need to worry about all that stuff. It’s still racing, it’s fun and he’s taking a lot of it on. “It was something that we already planned, with my dad, and then the opportunity came and it was like, ‘Oh s***!’” says Palou, admitting all of the ingredients of the team came together at the very last minute. He will be free to do as he pleases career-wise for 2024.Īfter such a stressful year that certainly didn’t help his title defence, Palou has set up a team of his own to try to spread some of the passion for why he got into racing in the first place, working with his father Ramon and others to establish the new entity. It ended up in messy litigation and wasn’t resolved until September when Palou announced a deal had been reached for him to race at Ganassi and test McLaren’s F1 car this year. Palou had one of the most difficult years of any Ind圜ar driver in 2022 as he attempted to move from the team he had won the previous year’s title with, Chip Ganassi Racing, to McLaren. Now he’s got a plan to help other drivers like him reach the top by starting his own team, Palou Motorsport. Alex Palou certainly hasn’t had the most linear of rises from karting to Ind圜ar champion, with some unusual and sideways steps taken on his way to reaching his eventual goal.
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