‘We are capable of going out and driving in F1’: 2021 IndyCar champion Alex Palou feels FIA super license points allocation is ‘unfair’ on IndyCar drivers
Follow Us
Alex Palou
2021 IndyCar champion Alex Palou recently participated in FP1 with McLaren. Fellow IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward is also scheduled to make his own FP1 debut with McLaren in Abu Dhabi. The pair of them have been testing the 2021 McLaren MCL35M, but this was their first time in the 2022 car.
After Colton Herta’s move to AlphaTauri fell through due to the super license problem, there was quite a bit of outrage over how F1 doesn’t value IndyCar experience enough. Palou doesn’t think that it’s likely to change in the future, and as per RaceFans, he said: “I don’t think that’s going to change at all. I have my super licence, I’m happy, I don’t care what happens.”
But he did concede that it is ‘unfair’: “But I think it’s very unfair that there’s some series that they don’t get enough licence points. Pato doesn’t have [enough super license points], and he finished third in the championship, fourth in the championship, and seventh. A guy that is like that doing 17 weekends racing against people that have ten or fifteen years of experience in IndyCar – that guy is capable of doing a lot in F1.”
Alex Palou: “I think you should give a little bit more importance in IndyCar,”
After his super license exemption plea was declined, Colton Herta himself stated that although he feels IndyCar is underrepresented, he did not want to be an ‘exception’: “I can understand the FIA’s position. I just feel that IndyCar is underrepresented in the super licence points structure. But from their (FIA) point of view, with the current points structure, I get it. And I don’t want to come in as ‘an exception’.”
Alex Palou echoed a similar view as Herta: “But that’s a rule, so hopefully they change it in the future. I understand that also the FIA, they want everybody to go through Europe and through other places, but it’s true that you could get more points by racing in a winter series in Thailand and winning that than finishing fifth in IndyCar. I don’t know if that’s fair.”
He further added: “I think you should give a little bit more importance in IndyCar, basically because of the level of the drivers and also how long our season is. I mean, the track time we get, it’s massive compared to an F2 driver. And I’m not saying that we are better, but we are capable of going out and driving in F1.”
The ‘winter series’ is the Formula Regional Asian Championship’s Winter version, winning which provided 10 points, 2 more than finishing fifth in IndyCar does, but the results will expire with 2022, as the last ‘winter series’ was in 2019. As for the main F3 championship, winning it also provides 8 more points (18) than finishing fourth (10) in IndyCar.
Stay Updated!
Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)