Every achievement of Alex Palou, the Catalan driver who has won the IndyCar championship – the American Formula 1 – for the third time, brings his fame closer to Spain. Turning 28 on April 1st, he is the second youngest three-time champion in the history of IndyCar. He achieved it last season, and this year he is on track to fight for the fourth, with outstanding performance since the start of the season. “There are still many records to be broken,” he explained in Thermal.
Alex Palou has it all in the United States, where he keeps on winning
An Alex Palou who maintains ties today with General Motors and Cadillac, a manufacturer that will compete from 2026 in F1 with its team, number 11 on the grid. At the same time, the Catalan also competes in the American Endurance Championship, the IMSA, with Cadillac, in which Fernando Alonso also tried his luck in 2018 and 2019, with a victory in the 24 Hours of Daytona.
It is for all these reasons that, by pure logic, the name Alex Palou is associated with a hypothetical presence in Formula 1 in 2026. And not for nothing, only because he is an official Cadillac driver and the team is looking for drivers for its Grand Circus ship, the Barcelona native is in the running. So do Colton Hertha, the American IndyCar driver, Bottas, and Sergio Pérez, among others.
To understand the consequences of this legal imbroglio and why Cadillac is important, you have to look at the details of the structures. Chip Ganassi Racing, the team owned by the American magnate of the same name, uses Honda engines in IndyCar, while in IMSA (prototypes and Grand Touring) and the FIA WEC (endurance) it uses Cadillac engines.
But above all, the Spaniard’s profile is interesting because of his proven ability in US races and because he is European. An interesting duality in the new context of multipolar F1.
Cadillac, a new team in Formula 1 for 2026, is looking for drivers
Cadillac’s entry breaks the rules for newcomers as we know them. Teams that burst onto the grid usually have budget and performance difficulties if they do not have an associated brand or a satellite relationship.
This is what happens between Red Bull and Racing Bulls or Ferrari and Sauber. To this we must add the driver merry-go-round that takes place at the end of each season and even during the season, when the silly season takes place, as the accumulation of rumors that are unleashed during the summer holidays is popularly known.
The main stumbling block for Palou is his main strength: his in-depth knowledge of the ins and outs of American motorsport. But he is also signing up for a Formula 1 that, barring a major surprise (although not unimaginable), will be at the wheel of one of the cars that will close the grid for the following season. It is true that the rules change and that is precisely why Cadillac-General Motors entered with the initial idea of Mario Andretti’s project.
“It would be tremendous to be the first driver to turn down Formula 1”
That is why the question is: is it worth it for the Spanish driver, who is currently a benchmark in a championship of the stature of Indycar? Would he trade the victories, the titles and being considered one of the best drivers on American tracks for enrolling in an F1 with infinite possibilities of not achieving success?
His friend Dani Juncadella, another Spaniard who has also been competing in the United States for several years, had his say on the matter. Juncadella, who is also a test driver for the Aston Martin F1 team, currently races in the GT class of IMSA, the American Endurance Championship, with Corvette.
“I was with Alex in Sebring (he finished on the podium) and we talked about Formula 1 and the offer from Cadillac. I said to him, what’s going on with this?”, reveals the 24 Hours of Daytona champion. ‘I told him that it pisses me off that everyone is talking about Checo Pérez or Colton Herta. From what he tells me, I believe that he hasn’t received any offer from Cadillac and he isn’t going to get one’, he says in the podcast ‘Dura la Vita’.
“Alex Palou has no offer and he doesn’t think he will get one; if he goes to Formula 1 it will be somewhere else”
The presence of an American driver like Alex Palou is almost assured, while Juncadella was pessimistic about a possible offer from the debutant team for the Barcelona-born driver: “Firstly, because he races for Chip Ganassi, which is Honda, he races in IMSA with Acura, which is Honda. He has no offer and he doesn’t think he will get one. I don’t think Cadillac is the right place for him. If he goes to Formula 1 it will be somewhere else. Hopefully that opportunity will come along. I think he wants the option and then he’ll decide. It would be huge if he was the first driver to turn down Formula 1.
The three-time IndyCar champion has it all in the United States. However, Juncadella has already been there and done that: Formula 1 is another story. “He is very happy where he is, I think IndyCar is growing more and more, he has his family there, very happy, and he keeps winning,” Dani Juncadella concluded about Alex Palou.