“We had a lot of up and downs”: Alex Palou opens up on why winning back-to-back IndyCar Championships is ‘extraordinary’ than first title

Alex Palou recently became the second driver ever in IndyCar to win the championship in succession. He was then asked to rate his three title-winning seasons and deemed his back-to-back championship victories in 2023 and 2024 more extraordinary than his first title finish.

The Spanish racing driver made his debut in IndyCar in 2020 with Dale Coyne Racing. He then moved to Chip Ganassi Racing the subsequent year and won the title in his first attempt with the team.

However, he suffered a dip in performance the next year. This resulted in him finishing fifty points shy of the series champion Will Power but he came back stronger in the 2023 season. Alex Palou won the 2023 iteration of the series and went back-to-back to secure his third title last year after putting up a stern title defense. Palou appeared in an interview on the YouTube channel EPARTRADE and reflected on his consecutive title finishes.

"It's hard to compare always the years, every year is tougher in different ways. For me, this one was the most special. I think doing it once is very tough but repeating it, especially doing it back-to-back, it just feels like it's tougher. It just goes more difficult to try and stay best after one season. So, on top of that I had my daughter this year for the first time, that made it special but I would say the fact that we are capable of going back-to-back made it extraordinary." (3:03 onwards)

Nonetheless, it was not a walk in the park for Alex Palou. He admitted that both he and the team faced a lot of ups and downs, which could be understood as he scored over 100 fewer points during the 2024 season compared to 2023.

"We had a lot of ups and downs compared to like 2023 for example, and we didn't know until the end if we were going to be able to win it or not."

Despite this, his performances have reportedly caught the attention of people in the F1 world.

Alex Palou is likely to stay in the IndyCar series for a few more years

While he has made his ambition to race in F1 quite clear over the years, his dream hasn't come to fruition. On the other hand, he has become a household name in the USA for his racing action and intends to stay in the American racing sphere for a while longer (via The Race):

"I'm happy here. I'm not knocking on doors. I know also, I'm 27, I'm not 17, where maybe there could be a chance in the near future. I'm not sad about it. I'm actually super excited that I have the opportunity in front of me to try and win an Indy 500 now and ovals and more championships. So I'm all good."

The upcoming 2025 season will be Alex Palou and Chip Ganassi Racing's fifth one together. He had signed a multi-year contract with the Indiana-based team during his feud with McLaren Racing and is slated to stay with them for a few more years.