How Spanish engineering and Alex Palou brought IndyCar to Barcelona

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How Spanish engineering and Alex Palou brought IndyCar to Barcelona

Joey Barnes · Motorsport

Thu, October 29, 2026 at 8:01 PM UTC ·

6 min read

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When the IndyCar Series announced last week its return to Europe with the inaugural IndyCar Grand Prix of Barcelona at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for July 16-18, 2027, it signaled a major milestone for the championship. Marking the championship's first race in Europe since 2007 and its first event outside North America since 2013, the landmark expansion brings America's premier series back to the global stage.

While the series remains fundamentally anchored in North America, a unique convergence of local high-tech manufacturing, a stable 10-year promoter framework, and five-time IndyCar champion and 2025 Indianapolis 500 winner Álex Palou turned a decade-plus of international speculation into reality.

The Genesis: An Inside Look at the Connection

The bridge across the Atlantic was initially sparked not by traditional race promotion channels, but by a high-performance engineering firm located right down the road from the circuit. BOLD Technology, based in Montmeló, Spain, which has been chosen by IndyCar to manufacture its brand-new, battery-based Energy Storage System (ESS) for the upcoming Dallara IR-28 chassis. Delivering 14 times the energy storage capacity of the current supercapacitors (co-developed by Honda and supplied by Skeleton Technologies), and contributing to a substantial weight reduction alongside an electric motor from UK-based Helix, BOLD's engineering footprint placed them in direct contact with series personnel.

In an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com's Spanish edition (Motorsport.com España), IndyCar CEO Mark Miles detailed how those local engineering ties quietly opened the door to the historic venue deal.

"I don't think I told anybody else this, but there is a company (BOLD) that is involved in the development of the energy storage system for the new car for IndyCar, that is located very, very near the track," Miles told Motorsport.com. "And they called people at IndyCar that they're working with on the development of the hybrid system in the new car, and so they believe that the people at the track would like to talk to us."

What followed was a thorough, months-long process of mutual due diligence, term sheet evaluations, and intensive legal drafting. Miles noted that negotiations came right down to the wire before the official announcement.

"We went into the phase of the work where you're trying to work out all the specifics in a term sheet, we call it, which is like a summary of a contract," Miles added. "And then when that was finished, we went into the negotiating, the drafting of a long form contract, which is the final step, which happened, I think it was signed on the Tuesday before our announcement in Spain on Friday. So we used all the available time."

Strategic Expansion and Promoter Logistics

During a separate roundtable discussion that included other select media outlets alongside Motorsport.com, Miles shed light on how the international calendar integration, TV production, and financial structures were settled.

In the past, IndyCar had actively explored international concepts like an off-season, non-points exhibition race in Argentina at the Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo. However, series stakeholders—particularly team owners and drivers—made it clear that overseas trips need to carry real stakes as part of the official championship schedule.

"We've thought about all a number of different ways we could approach racing outside the U.S. I think maybe not surprisingly, the drivers and the team owners really want races that count," Miles said. "The idea of non-championship races didn't have a lot of traction in the paddock. And certainly, if you're going to be a promoter, you'd rather be part of the championship. So I think that's just the strength of it.

"What I often wondered about was what it would do to our schedule. While being fundamentally a North American championship, we didn't want to be gone for, just to make the point, for six weeks in the middle of our summer. So we found a time, I think, in July that works here. Basically, as you see in the calendar, we'll be off the week before, we'll be here (in Barcelona), we'll be off the week after, and otherwise, every other week we're racing."

Under the traditional promoter agreement, local event organizers assume the financial responsibility for key logistics, including funding travel expenses for roughly 900 paddock personnel, blocking and paying for local hotels, and covering cargo transport by air and sea.

Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya overview

Addressing television arrangements, Miles clarified that the broadcast production will align seamlessly with U.S. network requirements while opening up new domestic media opportunities in Europe. Because massive production trucks will not be shipped overseas, specific logistical details include renting necessary equipment locally.

"Fox is completely on board," Miles said. "The production for the U.S. feed will be Fox, just as you would expect, like they would expect, and we've been talking with them for months about that, so no issue there. … Some things won't be shipped, they'll be rented over here, so there's some changing of the specific logistical details.

"I can tell you that our promoter has the right to license or sell the rights to this race in Spain, but they know our broadcaster very well. As IndyCar had a chat with Movistar, they're excited about the possibility of getting those rights... The promoter has the rights, but we'll be side by side with them to see what the best arrangements for the objective is the biggest audience."

The commitment is further underscored by a 10-year contract term designed to establish a permanent European anchor for the championship.

"Now the contract is 10 years and I think that signifies that we all want to make this work," Miles said. "We want this to be a fixture on the IndyCar series... our focus is absolutely on making this kind of the home base of IndyCar in Europe."

The Ultimate Catalyst

Ultimately, while advanced battery engineering and solid commercial logistics provided the framework, leadership acknowledged that the deal crossed the finish line because of one towering local figure. Speaking further on what propelled the agreement, Miles pointed directly to Catalonia's own racing icon, Palou.

"Unequivocally, the answer is this guy (Palou)," Miles said. "We could race, I believe, in short order, in a few different countries. We wanted to start with one that we think we can have enormous confidence in. So look around, right? Takuma's (Sato) not going to race his whole life, but this guy is."