Alex Palou is taking his fight to the IndyCar circuit courts, and winning

IndyCar’s Alex Palou and Formula One’s Max Verstappen have something in common at the moment: Both are winning just about everything there is to win in their respective series.

“They’ve done a helluva a job, they’ve worked extremely hard on the car side of it, and they deserve everything they’re getting right now,” fellow Chip Ganassi Racing driver Scott Dixon said of Palou and his team ahead of this weekend’s Honda Indy Toronto.

“The lead that he’s got is definitely very large. We, and by that, I mean the rest of the field, have to be on top of our game … but he’s going to have some problems for us to put a dent in that lead.”

Dixon, the defending Honda Indy winner, is second in the IndyCar drivers’ standings but he is 110 points behind Palou’s 377. Only 51 points separate second and eighth place.

With wins in the last three races and four of the last five, Palou is as successful this season as Verstappen, who has won eight of 10 races in F1. But IndyCar is considered to have the most competitive field in motorsports while F1 is often dominated by one car and one team.

The 26-year-old Palou, the 2021 series champion, deflects the credit to the mechanics and engineers and “everyone back at the shop.” Still, he is winning at a rate not seen on the circuit since Sébastien Bourdais won four consecutive Champ Car titles (2004-07), winning the final four races in 2007. No driver since has strung that many consecutive wins together.

If Palou wins in Toronto this weekend — and he “loves” racing in Toronto — it would be the 10th time since World War II that a driver has won four straight races. A.J. Foyt holds the record with seven straight in 1964.

“I know how lucky I am to be in a series like this, with a strong team like Ganassi,” Palou said.

It hasn’t always seemed that way. A year ago, just before the 2022 Honda Indy, Ganassi announced it had a contract extension with Palou. The driver denied the deal, saying he wouldn’t be returning to Ganassi in 2023. McLaren said it had signed Palou, and Palou tweeted he was “looking forward to a future with @McLarenF1.” Ganassi sued the driver.

The dust settled in September, but Palou’s long term-future is still uncertain. He has tested in F1 and still possesses an FIA Super License that allows him to compete in F1. Palou’s Ganassi contract expires at the end of this season

Palou, as he did a year ago in Toronto, says his focus is on the next race. But the ordeal with his contract has taught him a lesson.

“It was very tough, not what I wanted,” Palou said. “It was supposed to be about focusing on the track and the races, but we were focusing more on what was happening off the track. I learned a lot personally that made me stronger mentally. It’s over now, and I’m not glad it happened, but I am glad I was able to take positives away from it.”

Palou and the rest of the 27-car field for Sunday’s race will see a series of improvements to the 11-turn Toronto road course. Turns 9, 10 and 11 have been repaved to change the road surface to a single material instead of the imix of concrete and asphalt that made the section very unpredictable. The pit area has also been expanded to accommodate the 27-car field, which is two cars larger than last year.

Other sections have also been reworked, while safety barriers have been increased. But the race remains, arguably, IndyCar’s most intensely challenging road course.

“It tends to be a crazier race than other road courses,” Palou said. “We try and be confident in testing and in simulation prep. But you need to be super flexible because there might be (rain on race day) … the surface can change from lap 10 to lap 60, it can be a completely different course by then. So you have to be prepared and as flexible as possible.”

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