Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou has said that the different mindset required for endurance racing is “tough”, due to his extensive single seater experience.
“It’s tough for me,” said the Spaniard when asked about needing to take less risks while racing the Cadillac V-Series.R in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship.
“I have the mindset of sprint races and Indycar — as soon as you get a chance, you need to attack because you don’t know when it’s gonna be your next.
“So I’ve been trying to dial my mindset down a little bit. it’s a long race and and also the stints I’ll be doing, you don’t really need to take risk, it’s all about maintaining position, maintaining lead lap, and just keeping the car in one piece.
As I said, different mindset having two different categories on track, with very different speeds. There’s the GTs, they are like 12 seconds slower than us. So the closing rate is it’s really different. But it’s fun. It’s a lot of fun.
The 2021 and 2023 IndyCar champion will drive the #1 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R alongside Chip Ganassi’s regular IMSA drivers, Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais, plus Scott Dixon, the team’s driver for the IMSA Endurance Cup rounds.
Palou, then, was a late addition to the squad — so much so that he had prior IndyCar testing commitments that kept him away from Daytona for a few days this week. However, the fact it’s one off doesn’t diminish his competitive spirit.
“So far, I’m not treating this as less important because it’s a one-off — but it is a one off. I’m just trying to get the experience that I didn’t get in when the other teams and drivers were testing in December.
“Just trying to maximise all the opportunities that we have during the amount of time that we have on track, which is not much. So yeah, just getting as comfortable as possible for the race,” said the 26-year-old.
As we’ve heard previously from other drivers, the driving characteristic differences between an Indycar Dallara IR-18 and a GTP are not that pronounced, which has helped Palou to learn the car.
“It’s not too difficult,” he told MotorsportWeek.com when asked how easy it is to switch from driving one to the other in such quick succession.
“In terms of speed they are pretty similar, in terms of engine and downforce, maybe not that much. But honestly, it’s it’s very similar. It’s not like jumping from IndyCar to a GT car, that maybe would be a lot of difference. But it was, it was quite easy.
“The biggest difference, basically, is you see a lot more in the Indycar, and you have a lot more control. There’s no power steering. There’s no TC. There’s no hybrid system. So it’s all a lot more raw. You can be a little more aggressive because of the weight and the size of the car.
“The tyre as well. It’s more like a sprint tyre that we have in IndyCar so the grip is a lot better in the car and, and it’s a single seater. So, yeah, they’re both fun but obviously you have a lot more control in the Indycar than you do here in the GTP.”
