Palou preparing to lead post-Dixon era at Ganassi

Alex Palou is about to find out what life is like at Chip Ganassi Racing without the presence and support of Scott Dixon.

“It's sad, and it makes you realize even more, since day one, I always knew and understood that I had an incredible opportunity sharing teams with him and being able to learn from him and ask him questions and just see how he worked,” Palou told RACER.

“It's sad that that's going to come to an end in seven races.”

The four-time champion arrived with the Ganassi team at the age of 23. With a single season of experience at Dale Coyne Racing, where his 'veteran' was Santino Ferrucci – who possessed all of one year and a handful of races as his base of IndyCar knowledge – Palou’s full immersion among veterans came at Ganassi.

Dixon, Jimmie Johnson, Marcus Ericsson, and coaches Dario Franchitti and Scott Pruett accelerated his growth to a point where the Spaniard become an IndyCar champion on his first try with the team.

Today, at 29, Palou’s about to learn whether he’s ready to take the baton from Dixon and serve as the team’s lead driver in every area – on and off the track – where the outgoing six-time champion has been instrumental to the team’s success for 25 seasons.

“The good thing is that I've been able to be with the team for six years, and see how the culture or the way of working has been with Scott,” said Palou. “And also having Kyffin [Simpson], that also has been part of it, and [Marcus] Armstrong [at affiliate Meyer Shank Racing], I feel like the core remains, and nothing else, hopefully, is going to change.

“It would be very different if suddenly Kyffin leaves, Scott leaves, Armstrong leaves, Felix [Rosenqvist] leaves [MSR], and then I'm just here alone. I feel like it'll be very easy when there's only one (new)person coming in. The only thing that would feel very weird is if the new person that joins the team is younger than me, because that'll be the first time I'll be the oldest in the room!”

Palou doesn’t expect the departure of Dixon to fundamentally alter the competition side of the program. At least for what he’s experienced from the inside, he says Ganassi’s working style has placed the priority on who’s best on that day, and not whose voice is the loudest or most tenured.

“In terms of the leader, honestly, I've never felt like he was the leader of the team, or that I was the leader of the team,” Palou said. “I've always felt like the culture of the team is whoever is fastest this session or this weekend takes the lead. I've never felt there was an order of who was the person with the biggest words with with Marcus Ericsson, Jimmie Johnson, and Scott Dixon. On my first debrief, I never felt like what I was saying was less than them, or I never felt like there was one driver that was leading the team.

“Everybody was listening to whoever was fastest, and it's the same today; nothing has changed. After I won my first race, the team didn't listen to me more or less than before. If we go to Road America or Long Beach, and Felix has been the fastest, he's the leader and we all try and get as much as we can from him to try and replicate whatever he’s doing.

“So I don't feel like anything in that sense is going to change in terms of leader. Obviously, not having Scott Dixon is going to change, but in terms of how we're going to work on the cars or the team, I feel that's not going to change at all.”