Alex Palou has claimed his fifth pole position of the season ahead of Sunday’s GP of Monterey. Leading the championship, this strong qualifying performance brings him a step closer to victory and further extends his advantage over rival and championship contender Pato O’Ward.
Setup changes and confidence in the team
Palou was absolutely thrilled with his P1 result: “[…] It’s been an awesome weekend, an awesome year,” said the Spaniard.
With just one practice session before qualifying and uncertain track conditions, Palou and Chip Ganassi Racing committed to significant setup adjustments.
“Yeah, honestly, the car was really good already in practice 1. Nobody did practice 2. But we didn’t really know what was going to happen today. Just didn’t know what the track conditions were going to be. We made some changes on the car, and we just kept them. We trusted that they were going to be in the right direction.”
Trusting in his team and their adjustments, Palou noted the extent of changes made to the car setup: “Everything, honestly. Front springs, rear springs, ride heights. We’ve changed a lot of stuff. You wouldn’t believe it. It was a big job list.”
Driving with the new hybrid engine for the first time at Laguna Seca added to the unpredictability.
“Honestly, I didn’t know. Like I knew we had speed, and yesterday you could see, you could get an idea of the speed we had. We didn’t know about everybody else because especially group 2 on the alternates, there was only, I think, Colton that got a really good lap. The rest was like six-tenths or seven-tenths off, and I think it’s just because of how the red flags fell off.
“With the changes we did, I had confidence because I’ve been experiencing awesome things from this team whenever we make changes, and I know they’re normally in the right direction. But you never know. You never know what the track is going to do. You never know what your changes are going to do.
“Although I was confident, I did not know.”
In the end, Palou was very pleased with how qualifying turned out.
“Yeah, super happy that we got to fight for pole, we got the pole, and starting on the best spot tomorrow.”
New surface – old Laguna Seca characteristics
Although repaved a few years ago, Laguna Seca’s surface is gradually reverting to its old, tyre-wearing characteristics. Grip levels are dropping again, forcing patches to be applied to even out the track.
Palou explained that the track has changed “big time”. He described howthe track evolved compared to last year – most notably in its declining grip levels, which he says are reducing overall speed and making driving more challenging.
“[…] It changed a lot, honestly, how the car feels. I think last year already changed a little bit, but there was still, I would say, just a second off, maybe a bit less, and we were able to still carry a lot of speed on slow-speed corners, while today or this weekend it just feels like the track lost a ton of grip.”
Palou remained enthusiastic about Laguna Seca, calling it more challenging. The Spanish driver noted that the evolving conditions could lead to more exciting and dynamic racing.
“There’s different patches in 2, 3, and just low speed in general, which — it’s honestly good. It’s still super fast, it’s still a super cool track, but it’s making it more challenging. I think it’s going to open up different lines in the race, and hopefully we’re going to see lots of overtakes.”
Current surface pushes drivers to their limits
The current surface makes the track very challenging, requiring drivers to maintain intense focus at all times since any mistake can be costly. With many drivers, including Palou, running off during practice and qualifying, he highlighted that this tricky surface, combined with tyre degradation, will make the race especially demanding.
“Yeah, honestly, I think everybody saw what’s been happening in practice and in qualifying. I went out and I saw a couple more cars going out. I think it’s one of those tracks that rewards a lot when you push it, but it’s waiting for you to make a mistake everywhere, and also the sand makes it really challenging. Like you cannot even touch that. It just gets you. It just sucks you whenever you touch it.
“I think tomorrow is going to be challenging. I think it’s going to be even more challenging with tire deg, and I think there’s going to be a lot of tire deg for everybody, so it’s going to be a tough race for sure.”
Light rain fails to shake up qualifying
Despite light moisture before qualifying, Palou said the car’s behaviour remained consistent and the track didn’t feel noticeably different.
“No, honestly, we expected a little bit more change losing all the rubber. But I think as it was not raining, it was just, like, mist, I think it would have been a different story if it was proper rain, hard rain.
“At least for us, we didn’t feel like it was massively different. We were able to still use all the track. I didn’t feel like there was any corner that was worse. I would say that overall there was even more grip than yesterday. So yeah, it was good.”
Ready to battle at the front
Palou secured pole by a sizable margin, expressing confidence and comfort in his No. 10 car despite a brief moment going wide in Fast 12.
“Yeah, honestly, I was super comfortable and super happy with my lap, especially the start of the lap. I guess everybody saw, I went out on Fast 12 when I was going a little bit faster, so I was like, man, there’s not much room for error. But this time in Fast Six, I was able to stick it, and it stayed on the black. It was great.
“Honestly, I guess they had small mistakes or whatever, but our lap was really good. There was not much margin, at least from my side.”
Although his main rival will line up right behind him in second, Palou isn’t fazed. On the contrary, the Spaniard welcomes the challenge. He pointed out that starting together at the front increases the likelihood of running similar strategies – meaning the real battle will happen on track. And in that fight, Palou is confident in his ability to come out on top.
“I honestly, I’ve said it to the team, and I always think that it’s better to have your closest competitor close. You want to be on the same — kind of same strategy and you want to know — yeah, I think when you have somebody starting on like 17th, it might look good on paper today, but then suddenly they do a crazy strategy and they cycle to the front and you have, like, no chance to fight for it on track.
“I think it’s great. I think it’s good. It’s for sure making it more challenging and more interesting for everybody. I like it. Honestly, I like it.”
Managing the start: Learning from last year
Starting at the front of the grid gives Palou a theoretical advantage over his competitors. However, as he explained, he lost that edge quickly last year to Kirkwood. For Palou, the difference between starting first or second isn’t significant. Yet Palou was determined to improve his race start this time around.
“Look, I started on pole last year, and I only led for Turn 1, like not even Turn 2. Kirkwood caught me there on the outside, and I think it’s one of those tracks that maybe it’s not a huge, huge difference between first and second. I didn’t do a great job last year on the start, so hopefully I can do a better job this year.”
Focus on the win after Toronto strategy gamble didn’t pay off
Although hindsight makes it clearer, Palou admitted that Toronto’s unconventional tyre strategy didn’t pay off. Reflecting on last weekend’s race, he acknowledged that their aggressive approach backfired. Tomorrow’s strategy will depend on the weather, but Palou remains focused on going for the win.
“Well, it depends. If it’s wet, I’ll start on wets. If it’s not wet, there’s no way we’ll do that.
“Look, we thought last week — obviously looking back it’s super easy to say that we made a mistake. I didn’t want to get trapped in traffic. I thought we had a lot of pace. We thought that one caution was going to be okay for our strategy and maybe two, but we got like four during the first stint.
“It was the wrong decision, but ultimately we were trying to win. I don’t know what we’re going to do tomorrow, but we’re going to try and go for the win. We don’t want to give that up and just try and get points.”
