Michael Andretti has praised Alex Palou as one of the best drivers in the world after the Spanish driver finished second in Toronto despite his stricken Chip Ganassi car.
Palou started 15th and finished second after being overtaken by Christian Lundgaard on Lap 61 of 85.
The Spanish driver put up a valiant effort to hold a faster Lundgaard behind, with a lapped car in front of him, but the Danish driver eventually slipped by at Turn 3 to drive off to victory.
Despite the broken front wing, which was hanging lopsided on the right-hand side and skimming the road, Palou demonstrated excellent pace and good race-craft while ensuring that the wing held on, as any contact would have surely caused it to fail.
Lundgaard won by 11 seconds after leading the most laps by a long way, but many of the plaudits went to Palou in second place, who managed to extend his championship lead to 117 points over Scott Dixon.
“He is very, very good.” Andretti said to media. “He is one of the best drivers in the world, I am convinced of that. Right now, he is the most dominant driver in IndyCar.
“I missed the opportunity to sign him a few years ago, I felt he was a very talented driver and we talked, and we were about to make the deal, but then something happened that stopped everything.
“Chip [Ganassi] then spoke to him and he preferred to go down that road, but I think there is no doubt that he could be very competitive in a Formula 1 car.”
Palou to Formula 1?
Palou is on course to win his second IndyCar championship and could then begin to look for a new challenge, with F1 appearing to call his name.
The Spanish driver has raced in Europe previously, competing in Formula 2 in 2017 and Formula 3 in 2018 and after a few years away might want to return to the European scene.
He has been linked with a move to the Red Bull set-up, perhaps initially joining AlphaTauri to acclimatise to F1 before moving up to partner with Max Verstappen but maybe there is another path.
The Andretti love affair with F1 rages on, as the team is closer to joining the grid after recently being approved to establish a team.
So perhaps Michael Andretti could finally partner-up with the driver from Barcelona as the pair could look to establish themselves in the F1 world.
