Leading contender warned against signing for Cadillac's F1 team

Alex Palou has been warned against finally moving to F1 if Cadillac should make an approach for the Indy 500 winner.

Palou is dominating IndyCar in 2025, winning five of the seven races so far, finishing second in another and was rammed into a barrier by another car in Detroit, one week after winning the Indy 500 for the first time. 

Already a three-time champion, Palou has become the dominant force in IndyCar, and was previously set to join McLaren from Chip Ganassi before going back on his deal to stay with Ganassi. That breach of contract is still going through court proceedings. 

Cadillac is joining the F1 grid in 2026, but its driver line-up is still yet to be confirmed. The likes of Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas, and Colton Herta have been linked with the drive, although Herta still does not qualify for a super-licence. 

As IndyCar champion, Palou automatically earned the 40 points required to get the licence, but Renger van der Zande, who has served as Palou's team-mate at the Daytona 24 Hours has warned the Spanish racer from moving across into F1 with Cadillac.

"Yes, definitely," Van der Zande says in an interview with RacingNews365 when asked if Palou should be a target for Cadillac. 

"If I were Palou, I wouldn't sign for Cadillac, as it won't be at the front. 

"If I were Chip Ganassi, I wouldn't let Palou go, but if I were Cadillac, I would go for Palou. But he and Chip Ganassi should say: 'Thank you for the offer, but I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing.'"

"He's very economical on the tyres and very calculating, almost boring. As a result, he strikes at the right time. He has a lot of capacity, but he also just has speed.

"I think Alex is actually a bit of the Max Verstappen of American racing at the moment, nobody knows exactly how he does it, but he does it. 

"He's just incredibly talented and also went incredibly hard in a Formula 1 test with McLaren.

"He's just one of the biggest talents in the world right now, next to Verstappen, I think."