Speaking with Motorsport.com’s Matt Weaver, Alex Pallo took a candid look at his incredible career as an IndyCar driver. In 2025, he earned his fourth IndyCar title in the last five years and became an Indy 500 legend.
During the 15-minute interview, Pallo discussed a variety of topics, including the decision to become a race car driver, his first accident, overcoming his fear of ovals, and becoming one of the sport’s greatest drivers.
At one point, he credited his time in Super Formula as one of the main factors behind his current skill-level. He spent the 2019 season there, taking a win at Fuji and ending the year third in the championship standings.
“Really high-grip tracks, super technical, no runoff areas, and all the Japanese drivers – they’ve only had seven, eight tracks, so they know those tracks amazingly well,” said Palou. “They know every bump, they know how the track develops. They know so much, the level at which they compete is 100% since practice. The car is one of those cars with a lot of downforce, no weight, a lot of power… I really believe that without racing in Super Formula I would not be as fast or confident as I am today.”
And despite his dominance, he is always pushing to find a new limit and gain a greater edge over the competition. And while trophies and checkered flags are great, it’s much more than that for the Spaniard.
“To get another Astor Cup is the ultimate goal, but I don’t think it will change whether I get three, or four, or five. I think it’s really cool and an amazing career, but it’s about how much fun I can have while doing it, how much I can push myself, and how much reward we get at the end. But it’s not the fact of having the trophy.”
His goal for next year is to simply keep winning, but he doesn’t expect his 2025 dominance to continue.
“The year we had was magical. I enjoyed every single second of it. I wish I could enjoy this year a little bit and drink it down every now and then, because I know I’ll probably never reach this level of happiness. It’s going to be hard, but I want to get as close to it as I can next year.”
Alex Pallo, Chip Ganassi Racing
Photo by: Penske Entertainment
One thing everyone knows about is Palou’s dream of becoming a Formula 1 driver, but he has a complicated history with that specific dream. It faded and came back again several times during his career.
“I started dreaming about F1 when I was five or six years old,” said Palou. “But before long, that dream ended. There’s no way. I needed this, this, and that. And for me, the dream was to become a professional go-kart racer – honestly. I thought that was the highest level I could achieve.”
However, as Pallo said, the dream did not disappear for long. “I started in single seaters, (and) that dream reappeared and it was like wow, maybe this works out and we can get a chance. But then I had two tough years in GP3… As soon as I had to go to Japan, that dream stopped again.”
After becoming IndyCar champion for the first time, his desire to pursue a career in F1 returned, but IndyCar remained his true focus.
“For me, the dream of coming to America was IndyCar. That was my dream. When I was in Japan, the dream wasn’t F1. It was IndyCar – that was the goal.”
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