Monaco Increase Management driver and reigning Indycar champ Alex Palou wanted to share his impressions from the Rolex Daytona 24 Hours he raced with Chip Ganassi’s Cadillac last weekend. Here are his comments on the race: “It was my first Daytona 24 Hours and also my maiden endurance race, as my racing background mostly comprises open-wheel racing, apart from a few outings in the Japanese Super GT. Overall, I had a rather good impression from this experience, racing for the first time in a sportscar prototype and with different racing car categories on track.

In fact, it was a lot of fun! But it was also useful for me to learn a different way of driving, apart from the Indycar I race all year. We had a good car in Daytona, victory was up for grabs. We had led the pack on various occasions until about hallway through the race, and actually we were in the lead when (I think it was hour 12 or 13) a component broke in the alternator of our Cadillac, which forced us to a prolonged stop in the pits for repairs and made us lose more than forty laps! It was a shame, considering the overall result which could have been so much better.

Obviously, we had wanted to win and we were no longer able to do so, but we tried to extract all the best from our situation and managed the fastest lap in the race, besides gaining a lot of experience… And speaking of experience, what difference did I find from racing in the Rolex 24 compared to the Indycar series? Well, I think the biggest difference lies in being on track at the same time with cars that lap five to ten seconds slower. You really need to manage your race out there, because you are aware that they are racing in their own league and you need to find a gap to pass. I would say it was rather… entertaining and, above all, it’s a non-stop effort all the way through! That’s part of multi-class racing anyway… Overall, apart from the technical failure that cost us so much, I am really satisfied for our performance, for the experience we collected and for all the good things this will bring to us. Of course, the Indycar season remains my main focus, but I am happy to have raced my first Daytona together with all the staff at Monaco Increase Management! We keep making progress and we are not going to stop, we’re always finding ways to improve… and I do hope that we’ll land on other opportunities like this one in the future!”.