Former IndyCar driver slams F1 over Alex Palou's unfulfilled dream: "Racing is a dumb sport”

IndyCar star Alex Palou signed a contract with Arrow McLaren for the 2023 IndyCar season, which, after mediation with CGR, was delayed by a year. However, the Spaniard refused to honor the contract, which also put an end to his F1 dream. James Hinchcliffe recently came out and slammed F1 for Palou's unfulfilled F1 dream.

Alex Palou was set to make a move to Arrow McLaren for the 2024 IndyCar season, which would also give him the role of reserve driver for McLaren's F1 team. After mediation with CGR for the 2023 contract, the Spaniard tested the F1 car for the Papaya team.

However, with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris signing long-term contracts with McLaren, and Alex Palou not seeing any opportunity to make the move from McLaren’s IndyCar team to the F1 team, the Spaniard decided not to honor the contract and stay with CGR, which led to the Papaya team filing a lawsuit.

Palou decided to stay in IndyCar and continued his success with CGR as he gave up on his F1 dream. James Hinchcliffe recently featured on the Red Flags podcast and discussed the Arrow McLaren and Alex Palou situation, which detailed the Spaniard’s success in the series.

The host mentioned how Alex Palou and Carlos Sainz are of similar age and are from the same country. He mentioned how Palou could've been in Sainz's spot if he had a figure like Carlos Sainz Sr, an FIA World Champion, involved in his career, to which James Hinchcliffe replied,

“If he had Red Bull backing from go-karts, and so was always in the best sh*t moving up, you know, who knows? But that's it. I mean, it's a perfect example of why racing is kind of a dumb sport. It's not fair, right? Like the best golfer in the world will play in the PGA, right?” (1:17:30 onwards)

“The sport is cyclical, right? I mean, there was a time not that long ago in the grand scheme of things when F1 was dying, and they were just taking drivers with tens of millions of dollars in government money and chucking them in the car, and this whole best 20 was just like a complete farce,” he added

Hinchcliffe went on to detail how F1 has again become competitive and healthy, with deserving drivers getting the seat. However, he mentioned how there are only two seats available per team, which is exactly why Alex Palou was not able to make it to McLaren's F1 team.

James Hinchcliffe on how Alex Palou would fare as Alex Albon’s teammate at Williams

The host of the Red Flags podcast questioned James Hinchcliffe on how Alex Palou would stack up in F1. The former IndyCar driver then asked the host to pick a team and driver that Palou would replace, and then he'd stack him up against that teammate.

The host chose to replace Carlos Sainz with Palou and partner Alex Albon at Williams. Hinchcliffe replied,

“He would be, he would be actually very well matched with Albon because Albon’s a very like really technical guy, like he's really into the details, which is what makes Palou so good. So I think they'd be great teammates.”

“And I think he could be, you know, matching and beating him by year two, like no problem. Like a year to learn the tires, the cars, the tracks. And he would be besting him probably more often than not by year two,” added Hinchcliffe

Alex Palou won his fourth IndyCar title at the 2025 Grand Prix of Portland and equalled Mario Andretti, Sebastian Bourdais, and Dario Franchitti as the four-time champion. Only Scott Dixon and AJ Foyt have more titles than the Spaniard now.