Álex Palou, Indy 500 pole sitter and defending champ, on how he stays motivated: 12 Questions

"For me, the only thing that matters is the (Indy) 500," Palou says. "That's my race now. I don't care if I won Long Beach or the 500 last year." Jeffrey Brown / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Share articleEach week, The Athletic asks the same 12 questions to a different race car driver. Up next: Álex Palou, the defending Indianapolis 500 winner, this year’s pole sitter, four-time IndyCar Series champion and current IndyCar points leader for Chip Ganassi Racing. This interview, conducted before Palou won the pole, has been lightly edited for clarity. 1. Do you typically arrive for things early, late or on time, and why? It depends what kind of thing it is. If it’s media, normally late. If it’s a sponsor event, on time toward late. If it’s some family stuff, early. 2. What is the pettiest thing that annoys you during a race weekend? Normally, when I’m racing, I’m pretty happy. I just don’t like when the race is very late. It annoys me a little bit because I cannot really eat lunch at the time I normally eat lunch, and then we finish very late. That’s the only thing that annoys me. The rest, normally, I like it. I love it. 3. What is something you’ve learned to stop explaining to people? I learned to stop explaining a lot of the details in motorsport. Sometimes fans or sponsors used to ask me stuff, and I would get too much into detail, and they would not understand what I was talking about — the grip, the downforce, the amount of drag, ride height and all that. Now I just make it very simple so they can understand and have more fun. 4. If you could go back to the early days before you reached IndyCar, what is one different decision you wish you had made in your career? None. It’s very easy to look back now and change stuff. Would I change things now knowing what I know now? Yes, of course, I would probably take some different decisions. But I don’t think it’s fair. I took all the best decisions I could with the information I had at that time. Now it’s super easy (to look back). I’m so happy with my situation right now that I would not change anything, because maybe that would make me a little bit less happy nowadays. 5. What is it like to be in a debrief after a bad race? It normally sucks. It’s not fun. It depends if it’s a bad race because you’ve done something wrong, because you were missing pace or just because you were unlucky. When you’re missing pace, that’s the worst. When you’ve done a mistake, that’s fine. It is what it is. As long as you have speed, everything is quite easy to fix. But when you’re missing speed, and you don’t understand why, that’s difficult. 6. I’m asking each driver one question about the past and one about the present. Looking back now, what did your Super Formula experience in Japan (in 2019, before going to IndyCar) do to prepare you for where you are today? Oh, the competition there is insane. We don’t know those tracks, and we don’t know those drivers, but those are drivers who have been racing at those same tracks since they were kids. There’s only like six tracks on the calendar, and that’s all they know. So their skills and precision at those tracks are insane. You need to wake up once you get there and start pushing to new limits. It was also the first series where we had refueling, two different compounds of tires — it was very similar to IndyCar with the way you race and the strategies. So yeah, that taught me a lot. 7. I know winning never gets old, but after you’ve won so much, do you have to set bigger career goals for yourself to chase, or is it more of a week-to-week approach? I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing, but I have a really short-term memory. Not that I forget about the wins, but I just don’t think about them. I don’t think about Indy road course at all (where he finished fifth last week) or Long Beach (last month). We won at Long Beach? OK. We celebrated, it’s done, it’s in the past. I don’t spend much time thinking about it, so I cannot really feel comfortable with the situation right now. For me, the only thing that matters is the 500. That’s my race now. I don’t care if I won Long Beach or the 500 last year — I just care about this. That’s been very good for me because I just never feel like the job is done. I don’t need goals to push more or work more or have motivation for more. I just like waking up and working toward the next race. My short memory helps me a lot. I don’t think too much about the past. 8. If you could get any driver’s helmet in the history of motorsports, whose would it be? Michael Schumacher. I’ve only done like three or four helmet swaps in my career, not because I don’t need other people’s helmets, but because I really like to keep my own helmets, too. You can see the progression. Nowadays, we don’t get as many helmets as we used to because of the aeroscreen and stuff. I’ve swapped with Jimmie Johnson, (Josef) Newgarden, (Scott) McLaughlin, (Will) Power. Going to do one soon with Scott (Dixon). I’ve done some that are meaningful because we shared cool battles or championships or teams together. But I’d love to do a lot more. At the same time, I’d love to have everybody’s. 9. When things are not going well, do you prefer people leave you alone or check in on you? External people, I prefer they leave me alone. My people — my wife, my family — I prefer that they check on me, and they do. Those are my support people. Those are the people really there for me when stuff doesn’t work out. But externally, I think it’s better if they leave me alone. 10. What is something about yourself that would surprise people who think they “know” you? A lot of people don’t realize how much I love this sport and these fans. Some people see me differently, but I’m just a race fan who got very lucky, and I’m enjoying every single day. People don’t realize how happy I am. 11. What is something you laugh about now that was absolutely not funny at the time? I laugh about me losing hair now. It used to bother me, but not anymore. I just don’t have much stuff that I take too seriously. Listen, you’re talking to somebody who’s bald now, so … I know, I’m chasing you, so don’t worry. 12. Each week, I ask a driver to give me a question for the next person. Last week was Shane van Gisbergen, and he talked about how he used to sim race with you all the time. He asked: How much did sim racing help your driving, and did you do it for fun or to improve as a driver? I would say a little bit of both. I did it for fun and because it was motivating me, but at the same time I got so serious about it — checking data, being on teams like Redline — now Verstappen Sim Racing team — with great drivers like Max, SVG, Dani Juncadella. So many good drivers, real and sim drivers. It definitely got me better as a driver, but I purely started because it was very, very fun for me. I don’t do as much anymore because I don’t have as much time as I used to, and that’s basically because I’m a dad now. When I have a couple hours now, I spend it with (my) daughter. And then after spending some time with my daughter, I just need to recover and relax. I’ve got two of them, I understand that. You understand. I still (sim race), just not as much. I used to do like five hours a day. It was something crazy. The next interview is with Riley Herbst. Do you have a question I can ask him? What does he think is the best way to save tires on short tracks, and would he like to try racing an IndyCar on a short oval? Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms