Palou has two finishes in the top 10 already this season. Photo: Kevin Dejewski
Alex Palou has let on that he feels his Chip Ganassi Racing team has been struggling at the start of the 2022 IndyCar season, even though he has finished in the top 10 for both races run so far.
The reigning series champion started off the season with a podium in St. Petersburg, then followed it up with a seventh-place run at Texas Motor Speedway.
Those results have left Palou sitting third in the title fight, and the best-placed Ganassi driver in the standings so far.
Despite those good results, the 25-year-old feels that his weekends have been tougher than they should be, and he is hoping to have better performing weekends going forward in order to start racking up wins.
“I think everybody saw that that it’s not like we show up and we are running super-fast since the beginning of the weekend,” said Palou. “We struggled, but we still end up with a good result.
“This series, it’s so competitive right now that if you don’t have everything together mentally, physically, the car and all the team is perfect, you cannot fight for wins. But, yeah, we struggled.
Palou has done well in recent street races, such as the one on tap this weekend. Photo: Kevin Dejewski
“I cannot wait for the races that are coming now. I think our races that we were strong last year that I have experience in, we know that we have a strong car.
“We’re still good. We’re running third in a championship without having a really good weekend. We still got the results we wanted, but I think it’s time to try and move forward and trying to find points.”
The sentiment could be seen as a message to the rest of the grid, letting them know that the #10 entry will be a formidable force if Palou can put together a weekend to his satisfaction.
His next chance to do just that will be this weekend at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, where Palou finished fourth and wrapped up his championship last season.
Keyword: Palou says team ‘struggling’ despite sitting third in championship