IndyCar, Fox, Penske, Should Pay for Alex Palou’s Rumored Red Bull Formula 1 Seat

I usually stick to commenting on confirmed news stories rather than rumors, but I’ll make an exception for the reports coming out of the motorsport world today, August 25th 2025.

The story itself is exceptional, but what I find more compelling is that it sits right at the heart of a dynamic that I’ve written about often: the lackluster performance of IndyCar relative to the juggernaut that F1 has become.

Red Bull Racing’s reported interest in Alex Palou, IndyCar’s four-time champion could be seen as zero-sum, a potential loss for the the defection of IndyCar’s brightest star to Formula 1, thus weakening the former even further in favor of the latter.

The contract situation is messy: Palou is locked into Ganassi through 2026 with out clauses, McLaren’s lawsuit over a broken deal is still in play, and generally the financial hurdles to release him would be significant.

But let’s step back and think big, on a scale as big and crazy as the possibility of Max Verstappen and Alex Palou would be.

Instead of resisting the move, IndyCar should embrace it.