SpanishÁlex Palou Montalbó (born 1 April 1997 in Sant Antoni de Vilamajor, Barcelona) is a Spanish racing driver who became one of the dominant forces in American open-wheel racing, winning four IndyCar titles (2021, 2023, 2024 and 2025) and the 2025 Indianapolis 500 with Chip Ganassi Racing. His path there ran through the European and Japanese single-seater ladder.
Junior career
Palou graduated from a strong karting background — including the 2012 WSK Euro Series title — into car racing with Euroformula Open in 2014, finishing third with three wins, and was runner-up in the Spanish Formula 3 Championship. Campos Racing promoted him to the GP3 Series in 2015, where he improved through the year and took a maiden win at the season finale.
Formula 2 and Formula 3
Palou's only taste of FIA Formula 2 came late in 2017, when he stepped in for Campos Racing as a stand-in, debuting at the Jerez feature race. It was a short cameo rather than a full campaign. He spent 2017 mostly in Japanese Formula 3, taking three wins and third in the standings, before a full FIA Formula 3 European Championship season in 2018 with Hitech Bullfrog GP, where he collected seven podiums on his way to seventh overall.
After F2/F3
Rather than continue chasing Formula 1, Palou moved to Japan to race in Super Formula and Super GT in 2019, winning at Fuji from pole and finishing third in Super Formula. That form earned him a 2020 IndyCar move with Dale Coyne Racing, then a switch to Chip Ganassi Racing for 2021 — where he immediately won the title. His subsequent three-in-a-row from 2023–25 made him the first IndyCar driver to manage that since Dario Franchitti, and in 2025 he added a maiden Indy 500 victory.