Autosport 2021 Top 50: #5 Alex Palou

In 2021, Alex Palou effectively became the author of ‘How to win an IndyCar championship in the current era’.

Despite it being only his second season in the series, he was without question the most complete driver of the year, only once truly overreaching himself – that crash during qualifying for the Indianapolis 500.

He looked underwhelming at St Petersburg, but his only other such days – in terms of his own performance – came in Texas Motor Speedway’s double-header, where he was very obviously choosing caution over valour in his first ever oval races for Chip Ganassi Racing.

The boss, like most of his peers, prefers drivers who bring their cars home rather than take 50-50 risks.

That appeared to boost his confidence on ovals, so he comfortably went toe to toe with Helio Castroneves on Memorial Day Weekend, and didn’t hurl his car at the wall in frustration as he pursued the finest Indy 500 performer of this millennium, thus earning second place.

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In qualifying at Gateway, none of the Ganassi cars were au point and Palou was also suffering one of three early-engine-change grid penalties, so was consigned to 21st in the starting line-up. Yet after 64 laps he was into the top 10 and perhaps heading for a podium, before he was taken out by Rinus VeeKay.

Palou starred in his second year of IndyCar racing, outclassing several more established names on his way to the title

Photo by: James Black

If Palou’s oval progress was impressive, so too was his determination to never let setbacks cause him to make an irrational error.

If those grid penalties and the engine failure at Indy road course in August were frustrating, the re-order by IndyCar Race Control after the Turn 1 fracas at Portland was rather more than that. It must have felt like he was being punished for taking a route that deliberately avoided an accident.

Yet he turned in probably his finest drive of the year to clock his third win of the season; he had channeled his outrage into a flawless performance. Second and fourth places in the remaining two races were enough to seal the championship.

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To have scored eight top-three finishes from 16 races in a field as stacked as IndyCar’s, Palou was as close to perfection as could be reasonably expected.