Palou: Relationship with Ganassi “back to 100 percent”

Palou tried to extract himself from his contract with the legendary team last year and make a move to Arrow McLaren, with a medium-term goal of testing for the McLaren Formula 1 team.

However, team owner Chip Ganassi held him to his contract, obliging him to race for the 14-time IndyCar champions, although Palou is able to blend this with test days in the McLaren F1 car.

Palou, who dominated the final round of 2022 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, days before the contractual tug-of-war was resolved, says that his interactions with the team are as healthy as in 2021, his title year, and that he has full access to engineering data.

“It's been good since everything was set a week after Laguna,” he said. “The relationship has been back to 100 percent like it was before from both sides. I’ve had full access since then. Been at the workshop many, many times before I left for Europe for Christmas, once we've been back to prepare all the pre-season and stuff.

“In regards to sharing time between both parties, we set it in the way that will be focused on IndyCar during the IndyCar season, then once it's done and once we try and get to 100 percent, then I'll be focused on the other side.

“But if there’s no conflict, but there's only three days in between races; it's better to focus on IndyCar. As long as it doesn't take crazy commitments to fly and stuff, yeah, we will be focused on the IndyCar side.”

Palou described 2022 was a “tough year” results-wise, adding just four other podiums to his victory, and admitted some of that could be attributed to the mental conflict.

“Yeah, it was a tough year,” he said. “Could have been a lot worse, for sure, than what we had, but also could have been a little bit better if we didn't have anything around in our minds. It's a part of racing.

“After Laguna but before Laguna and during Laguna, it was like everything coming together… I'm just happy that now we know that even with things in our minds, we were able to be successful. Hopefully we can be back to 2021 things during this season.”

Asked about the difficulty of separating his on-track efforts and consultation with engineers from the discussions and negotiations over his future, Palou responded: “Yeah, obviously there's always some moments where you're like, ‘Oh, no, my God, this is not going the direction I wanted!

“But there were things that were out of my control, obviously. Some things that I could control, as well. But at the end of the day I had all the information from my side, from other sides. I knew that everything could be settled, and it did. So, yeah, I'm just happy it did.”