Four-time IndyCar Champion Alex Palou has caught Red Bull’s eye to fill their second seat to team up with their own dominant driver, Max Verstappen. However, is this the best move for the Spaniard?
After clinching the 2025 IndyCar Championship in Portland and leading the most laps in Milwaukee, Red Bull is supposedly looking to sign Alex Palou and bring him over to Formula 1.
The Spaniard would reportedly take over Yuki Tsunoda’s seat for the 2026 season. With Tsunoda struggling to keep up with teammate Max Verstappen, is Palou the change Red Bull needs? On the other hand, should the IndyCar dominant stay with the No. 10 Chip Ganassi outfit?
What more is there to get?
Palou has etched his name in the IndyCar history books in 2025. The current Chip Ganassi driver took the 2025 Championship with two races left, won 8 races in the 2025 season alone (tying for third for most wins in a season).
Palou has the most pole positions (6), most races led (13) and most leading laps (767). Furthermore, championship runner-up Pato O’Ward only has two race wins, one pole position, and 142 total lead laps.
With the nature of IndyCar, it is challenging to hold the dominance the 28-year-old has achieved in 2025. Not to mention, if Palou would be able to clinch dominance like 2025 again.
Moving to Formula 1 would give Palou a chance to test his dominance on a different stage. Possibly, add more records and accolades to his name. However, is Red Bull the right team to join?
Second driver treatment and a challenging car
Historically, Red Bull has not been kind to its second drivers. Their expectations to keep up with a dominant driver like Max Verstappen have proven unachievable, despite the car allegedly tailored towards the Dutchman.
This story has played out already in 2025, with Liam Lawson demoted from Red Bull to Yuki Tsunoda Racing Bulls after just two races. He joins a long list of ex-Verstappen team-mates, with Sergio Perez, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly all failing in their tenure at the team.
This second driver pattern might be over under the new leadership of Laurent Mekies. However, Red Bull’s treatment and lack of achievement with its second driver is in the history books. A four-time IndyCar Champion and a dominant driver in his own right will not wilfully add his name to those unenviable pages of history.
Verstappen is now very publicly admitting his struggles to tame the monster that is the RB21. Palou could find himself in an all-too-familiar story of struggle and decline if he moves.
A well oiled team
Would Palou even leave the strong bond No.10 with the CGR Team for a team like Red Bull? The Spanish driver has won four championships with CGR and a championship 3-peat. Managing Director Mike Hull put it best after the No. 10 grabbed the championship.
“My thoughts are basically in football you have to have an elite quarterback, not a quarterback. That’s what we have in Alex. We have an elite athlete who drives a race car. You have to have people on the offensive and defensive line. That’s what we have in the building and that’s what we have, as we saw today, in all three pit boxes today,” Mike Hull described.
Like a quarterback and the rest of the team, they blended their talents together to with the championship as a team. It is not just one person to carry it all the way home.
However, we have Red Bull not act like a cohesive team like the No. 10 CGR Team. Although each team is organized differently based on the two series, Red Bull seems like an “every man for themselves” compared to CGR. Mekies has the opportunity to change the culture at Red Bull, but Palou has to go off the past and the present.
Home is where the heart is
Has Palou extracted everything he can from IndyCar? Maybe. However, is Red Bull the best move to a different series? Maybe not.
The Spaniard’s time to move to F1 has likely now passed, with his ill-fated 2022 McLaren F1 Development Driver deal still under legal litigation. Motorsport is a complex sport at the best of times, but this scenario is likely a challenging hurdle to navigate.
On the other hand, he can build his endurance career in IMSA and WEC. At this moment, moving to Red Bull Racing to race in F1, is perhaps not the best idea.
