Álex Palou

Álex Palou Montalbo (born 1 April 1997) is a Spanish racing driver who drives for Chip Ganassi Racing in the IndyCar Series, where he won the 2021 and 2023 championships.

He is the first Spanish racing driver to win a National Championship in American open-wheel racing history and also the first Spaniard to win in the GP3 Series.

Born in Sant Antoni de Vilamajor, Spanish racer Palou began karting in 2003.

His biggest karting achievement was the championship title in the WSK Euro Series in 2012.

He managed to overtake eleven cars, eight of them in the first lap, to finish 13th.

At the Hungaroring from Hungary, Palou started seventh and moved up to fifth until a car hit him from behind.

He suffered a puncture and was forced to pit.

Palou made his open-wheel racing debut, competing in the Euroformula Open Championship with Campos Racing in 2014.

He bookended the season, winning the opening race at the Nürburgring and the final race at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

He also won a race at the Hungaroring to finish third in the series standings, missing out on the runner-up placing by just one point to Artur Janosz.

In 2015, Palou graduated to the GP3 Series with Campos Racing.

During the first half of the season, he suffered major reliability issues as well as some driving mistakes due to his lack of experience, but his results improved along the season and he closed the year with a victory at Abu Dhabi.

At the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya of Spain, Palou qualified fourth for the first race, but he slipped the clutch at the start and lost any opportunity to fight for the points.

He made another bad start at the second race.

At the Red Bull Ring of Austria, Palou had another bad weekend.

Starting from third, he stalled the engine at the start.

He later admitted he felt nervous after the mistakes from Barcelona and that that might have contributed to those new errors.

He did not finish the second race because of a crash on the first lap.

At the Silverstone Circuit of England, a gear-box sensor failed when Palou was driving fifth.

He was forced to retire and subsequently had to start the second race from the last place on the grid.

Starting from the bottom of the grid for the second race, he wrapped up the weekend with an 18th-place finish.

At the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit from Belgium, Palou scored his first points in GP3 as the season passed its halfway point.

Struggling with tyre wear and lack of speed, the Campos Racing driver finished in 7th place in the first race.

He led most of the second race but eventually fell back to fifth because of the lack of top speed.

He later argued that Esteban Ocon was scrapping 0,5 seconds per lap just in the first sector, where the Kemmel Straight was found.

At the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza from Italy, Palou had another difficult weekend because of the lack of top speed.

Using the same engine he raced in Belgium, he managed to finish seventh in the first race and subsequently started the second one from the front row.

He made "The Great Mistake" (as he wrote in his column) when during the warm-up lap he spun at the main straight and nearly hit the wall.

Although his car was not damaged, he fell back to tenth.

At the Sochi Autodrom from Russia, Palou received a new engine that solved the top speed problems he suffered in Belgium and Italy.

Because of Carlos Sainz crash during Russian Grand Prix Free Practice 3, the first race of the weekend was moved to Sunday.

Palou qualified just a tenth away from Pole Position and scored a provisional season-high in the first race when he crossed the line in fourth place.

He immediately scored a provisional season high when he crossed the line in fourth place.

He was ninth in the second one.

At the Bahrain International Circuit of Bahrain, Palou suffered yet again more reliability issues.

He started from fourth, but during the warm-up lap a gas sensor failed and the car kept on accelerating when the driver lifted the throttle.

He decided to enter the Pit-Lane and retire.

Because of this, he started the second race from last place.

He gained 14 positions, but ended up tenth and outside from the points.

At the Yas Marina Circuit from Abu Dhabi, Palou won his race in GP3 and became the first Spanish driver to ever get a victory in the series.