#10– Alex Palou, 1st in the championship standings (656 points) – 17 races
#9 – Scott Dixon, 2nd in the championship standings (578 points) – 17 races
#8 – Marcus Ericsson, 6th in the championship standings (438 points) – 17 races
#11 – Marcus Armstrong, 20th in the championship standings (214 points) - 12 races
#11 – Takuma Sato, 29th in the championship standings (70 points) – 5 races
Joey Barnes: Filthy. That’s how I would describe the season that Alex Palou had in 2023.
To not only capture top 10s in every race, but to nothing lower than eighth and only four results outside the top five is just staggering. By now, considering the drama away from the track over the past two years – and will likely be ongoing for some time in future – it just shows the mental toughness of the Spaniard. In many ways, it’s a cut above the nickname of ‘The Iceman’ given to team-mate Scott Dixon.
The scary thing is Palou is only 26 years old and has now scored two titles in only four years in IndyCar, which means that barring a scenario that sees him eventually go to Formula 1 (kidding, kind of), he will be a problem for the field for many years to come.
Scott Dixon’s season was a bit weird to me. A good chunk of the season it was wondering if he would end up winless, and then he closes out the year in typical Dixon fashion by winning three of four and making a massively late push in the championship.
If not for the Long Beach incident with Pato O’Ward, that was very likely a race that could have been won. Instead, it proved to be the dagger as it was his only result outside the top 10 all year and left him chasing his team-mate and the championship. I’ll be curious to see if there’s a change in urgency at the start of the season, especially knowing what Palou is capable of putting together.
Going into the 2023 season, it felt like the year that Marcus Ericsson would take another step and become a big-time player in the title picture. And it looked promising after winning in St. Petersburg and starting the year with eight consecutive top 10s, which included another two podiums. Obviously, the outcome at the Indianapolis 500 was a gut punch.
Getting caught up in a mess at the start at Mid-Ohio delivered a 27th-place finish the Swede couldn’t really afford. One could argue it kickstarted an underwhelming second half of the year that featured one top five and zero podiums. Moving to Andretti Global for next season will be interesting to see if that extracts more from Ericsson.
Marcus Armstrong was a pleasant surprise, taking top rookie honours despite running a partial season. Oddly enough, he scored the same amount of points as AJ Foyt Racing's Santino Ferrucci, who ran all 17 rounds. The only reason Ferrucci ended up 19th to Armstrong's 20th was the tie-breaker of best finish, which the former held with a third-place finish in the Indy 500.
Source: Autosport