Report claims IndyCar champ is on Red Bull\u2019s radar<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\nThat \u201copportunity\u201d Ganassi is referring to is when McLaren came calling. Palou backflipped on a decision to join the team and stayed with Ganassi, which led to a length legal battle.<\/p>\n
When pushed to clarify Palou\u2019s status, Ganassi said he had \u201cno other expectation\u201d than for the Spaniard be driving the #10 car in the 2026 IndyCar Series.<\/p>\n
Ganassi was asked whether he saw Formula 1 as an imminent threat and reaffirmed his view that Palou has no interest in leaving IndyCar.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, let me say this. Everybody wants a driver that everybody else wants to have,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat means you have something that\u2019s really valuable, okay?<\/p>\n
\u201cDo I think Formula 1\u2019s the biggest threat? You know what I think the biggest threat is, the biggest threat is ourselves, each of us. Each of us is our biggest threat, okay?<\/p>\n
\u201cI work to create the best possible environment for our people. It\u2019s the same for our drivers. I work to give them the best possible environment. That\u2019s all I know how to do. It seems to be working.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike I said, Alex had an opportunity to leave and he didn\u2019t. I don\u2019t know what else to tell you. I take him at his word when he says he likes it here and he\u2019s having a great time.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Chip](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Chip-Ganassi-and-Alex-Palou-BITNILE_com-Grand-Prix-of-Portland-By_-Joe-Skibinski_Large-Image-Without.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Chip Ganassi celebrates victory at Portland with Alex Palou and the Chip Ganassi Racing team. Image: Joe Skibinski<\/p>\n
Ganassi said the allure of Formula 1 perhaps was not as great as it used to be.<\/p>\n
He said he thought Palou playing second fiddle to another driver wouldn\u2019t be all that exciting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are two or three coveted seats there. Outside of that, I wouldn\u2019t want to see him go to be a number two driver anywhere,\u201d said Ganassi.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t stop people from doing those kinds of things. Every time I get a call from a Formula 1 driver, I don\u2019t call the press up and say, \u2018I got a phone call from somebody, they want to come drive IndyCars\u2019. We get calls all the time from Formula 1 drivers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey go this way, that way. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s as interesting a thing as it used to be, the draw one way or the other for that matter. I think they\u2019re both very specialised. I don\u2019t know how you go from winning the biggest race in the world to one that\u2019s not. I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
IndyCar concludes on September 1 at Nashville Superspeedway, where Palou will officially be crowned a four-time champion.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yuki Tsunoda during the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring. Image: Simon Galloway\/LAT Images Palou has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[71844,64,63,72308,817,813,816,918,946,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-98859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-alex-palou","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-chip-ganassi","12":"tag-f1","13":"tag-formula-1","14":"tag-formula1","15":"tag-red-bull","16":"tag-red-bull-racing","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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