Álex Palou

Álex Palou
Nationality	Spanish
Born	1 April 1997 Sant Antoni de Vilamajor, Spain
GP3 Series career
Debut season	2015
Current team	Campos Racing
Car no.	24
Starts	18
Wins	1
Poles	0
Fastest laps	1
Best finish	10th in 2015
Previous series
2014 2014	Euroformula Open Championship BRDC Formula 4 Championship

Álex Palou Montalbo (born 1 April 1997) is a Spanish racing driver born in Sant Antoni de Vilajamajor, Spain. As of 2015, he drives for Campos Racing in the GP3 Series. He became the first Spanish racing driver to win a GP3 race when he took the victory of the final round of his debut season, held at the Yas Marina Circuit of Abu Dhabi.

Starting in racing

Karting

Born in Sant Antoni de Vilamajor, Palou began karting in 2003.^[1] His biggest karting achievement was the championship title in the WSK Euro Series in 2012.^[2]

Euroformula Open

Palou made his open-wheel racing debut, competing in the Euroformula Open Championship with Campos Racing in 2014.^[3] He bookended the season, winning the opening race at the Nürburgring and the final race at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. He also won a race at the Hungaroring to finish third in the series standings, missing out on the runner-up placing by just one point to Artur Janosz.^[4]

GP3 Series

Campos Racing

2015: constant learning and the first victory

In 2015, Palou graduated to the GP3 Series with Campos Racing. During the first half of the season he suffered major reliability issues as well as some driving mistakes due to his lack of experience, but his results improved along the season and he closed the year with a victory at Abu Dhabi.

At the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya of Spain,^[5] Palou qualified fourth for the first race, but he slipped the clutch at the start and lost any opportunity to fight for the points. He made another bad start at the second race.

At the Red Bull Ring of Austria,^[6] Palou had another bad weekend. Starting from third, he stalled the engine at the start. He later admitted he felt nervous after the mistakes from Barcelona and that that might have contributed to those new errors. He did not finish the second race because of a crash at the first lap.

At the Silverstone Circuit of England,^[7] a gear-box sensor failed when Palou was driving fifth. He was forced to retire and subsequently had to start the second race from the last place of the grid. He managed to overtake eleven cars, eight of them in the first lap, to finish 13th.

At the Hungaroring from Hungary,^[8] Palou started seventh and moved up to fifth until a car hit hin from behind. He suffered a puncture and was forced to pit. Starting from the bottom of the grid for the second race, he wrapped up the weekend with an 18th place.

At the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit from Belgium,^[9] Palou scored his first points in GP3 as the season passed its halfway point. Struggling with tyre wear and lack of speed, the Campos Racing driver finished in 7th place in the first race. He led most part of the second race, but eventually fell back to fifth because of the lack of top speed. He later argued that Esteban Ocon was scrapping 0,5 seconds par lap just in the first sector, where the Kemmel Straight was found.

At the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza^[10] from Italy, Palou had another difficult weekend because of the lack of top speed. Using the same engine he raced in Belgium, he managed to finish seventh in the first race and subsequently started the second one from the front row. He made "The Great Mistake" (as he wrote in his column) when during the warm-up lap he spun at the main straight and nearly hit the wall. Although his car was not damaged, he fell back to tenth.

At the Sochi Autodrom from Russia,^[11] Palou received a new engine that solved the top speed problems he suffered in Belgium and Italy. Because of Carlos Sainz crash during Russian Grand Prix Free Practice 3, the first race of the weekend was moved to Sunday. Palou qualified just a tenth away from Pole Position and scored a provisional season high in the first race when he crossed the line in fourth place. He immediately scored a provisional season high when he crossed the line in fourth place. He was ninth in the second one.

At the Bahrain International Circuit of Bahrain,^[12] Palou suffered yet again more reliability issues. He started from fourth, but during the warm-up lap a gas sensor failed and the car kept on accelerating when the driver lifted the throttle. He decided to enter the Pit-Lane and retire. Because of this, he started the second race from the last place. He gained 14 positions, but ended up tenth and outside from the points.

At the Yas Marina Circuit from Abu Dhabi,^[13] Palou won his race in GP3 and became the first Spanish driver to ever get a victory in the series. After being eighth in the first race, he held Pole Position for the second one. Worried about tyre wear, he targeted for a podium finish. He held the lead at the start and slowly started to pull away from the field. He crossed the line with a 4.4 second margin to Carlin's Antonio Fuoco.

Even though he was not satisfied with his overall season, he felt that the Yas Marina victory was a good sign ahead of the 2016 season.

2016

Alex Palou will continue to race for Campos Racing for a second season in GP3.

Comparations with Fernando Alonso

Alex Palou started in open-wheel racing thanks to Adrian Campos' team Campos Racing, that offered him a drive in the Euroformula Open Championship in 2014 and later promoted him to the GP3 Series in 2015. Racing with very little personal sponsors, Adrián Campos became his patron as he saw in him a resemblance with Fernando Alonso, a driver Adrian himself promoted from karting to single-seaters. He said Palou had Antonio Garcia's mental strength and Fernando Alonso's maturity. In 2015, Campos was not worried with Alex's troubled start in GP3 as he remembered that Alonso did have a difficult start in the Formula 3000. He predicted Palou would start to get good results before the end of the season. Palou would finish the year with a victory in Abu Dhabi.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2014	Euroformula Open Championship	Campos Racing	16	3	3	4	11	242	3rd
	Spanish Formula Three Championship		6	1	1	1	5	105	2nd
	Macau Grand Prix	Fortec Motorsports	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	16th
	BRDC Formula 4 Championship	Sean Walkinshaw Racing	3	0	0	0	0	48	23rd
2015	GP3 Series	Campos Racing	18	1	0	1	1	51	10th

Complete GP3 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Pos	Points
2015	Campos Racing	ESP FEA 12	ESP SPR 20	AUT FEA 14	AUT SPR Ret	GBR FEA Ret	GBR SPR 13	HUN FEA 19	HUN SPR 18	BEL FEA 7	BEL SPR 5	ITA FEA 7	ITA SPR 10	RUS FEA 4	RUS SPR 9	BHR FEA Ret	BHR SPR 10	ABU FEA 8	ABU SPR 1	10th	51

References

1. "About Alex". alexpalou.com. Alex Palou. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
2. "WSK Euro Series — KF3 2012 standings". driverdb.com. Driver Database. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
3. David, Gruz (22 April 2014). "Palou secures full-time drive with Campos Racing". Paddock Scout. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
4. David, Gruz (2 November 2014). "Palou wins to end Euroformula Open season in style". Paddock Scout. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
5. "La columna de Alex Palou: Banderas y decepciones". LaF1.es. Retrieved 2016-01-17.
6. "La columna de Alex Palou: Toca hacer autocrítica tras Austria". LaF1.es. Retrieved 2016-01-17.
7. "La columna de Alex Palou: La remontada de Silverstone". LaF1.es. Retrieved 2016-01-17.
8. "La columna de Alex Palou: Motivación intacta pese a todo". LaF1.es. Retrieved 2016-01-17.
9. "La columna de Alex Palou: Puntos en Spa, fuerza para Campos Racing". LaF1.es. Retrieved 2016-01-17.
10. "La columna de Alex Palou: Luchar en Monza sin velocidad punta". LaF1.es. Retrieved 2016-01-17.
11. "La columna de Alex Palou: Ahora sí que vamos por el camino correcto". LaF1.es. Retrieved 2016-01-17.
12. "La columna de Alex Palou: Calma ante todos los problemas de 2015". LaF1.es. Retrieved 2016-01-17.
13. "La columna de Alex Palou: Una victoria para todo el mundo". LaF1.es. Retrieved 2016-01-17.

External links

• Official website
• Álex Palou's columns of his first year in GP3
• Álex Palou career summary at DriverDB.com