Since partnering with FOX, the IndyCar Series has been pushing its drivers more prominently into the spotlight. Alex Palou, Josef Newgarden and Pato O’Ward are often presented as the series’ biggest stars, but Google search data tells a different story. We analyzed worldwide and country-by-country search volume for IndyCar drivers and found some surprising results!

The short answer is no: Palou, Newgarden and O’Ward are not the most searched IndyCar drivers on Google. In fact, the most popular three drivers are competitors who aren't even in the top 20 of the championship standings!

Schumacher is three times more popular than Alex Palou

When looking at worldwide Google search volume, Mick Schumacher is by far the most popular IndyCar driver. The son of Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher is searched for more than three times as often as the second-ranked driver, fellow former Formula 1 racer Romain Grosjean. Katherine Legge ranks third, as the only female driver to start an IndyCar race in 2026.

Legge is most searched driver in the USA; Kirkwood barely registers

When we zoom in on search volume from the United States, Schumacher remains highly popular. However, three drivers rank ahead of him. Katherine Legge is the most popular IndyCar driver in the USA, followed by David Malukas and Felix Rosenqvist, the two drivers who finished the Indianapolis 500 just fractions of a second apart.

Palou won't be taking home the popularity award in America this year either, as he shares fourth place with Schumacher. It is also striking that relatively few searches are made for Americans Josef Newgarden and Kyle Kirkwood. Kirkwood's ranking is particularly surprising. Despite being an American and sitting currently inside the top three of the championship standings, he fails to crack the top 15 most-searched IndyCar drivers in any country, including his own.

Schumacher enjoys worldwide popularity

In the more Formula 1-oriented countries like Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, Schumacher is also by far the most popular IndyCar driver. In the United Kingdom, it is particularly notable that the only full-time British driver, Louis Foster, has relatively little name recognition. He ranks well behind both Jack Harvey and Katherine Legge, who each only competed in the Indianapolis 500.

Australia also provides an interesting result, with Scott McLaughlin proving more popular than the only Australian full-time IndyCar driver, Will Power. This is likely due to McLaughlin winning three Australian Supercars championships between 2018 and 2020. In addition, the New Zealander grew up in Australia from the age of nine.

In New Zealand, the homegrown drivers fare much better. Six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon is the country's most popular driver, followed by McLaughlin. Marcus Armstrong also performs well, ranking fourth.

How IndyCar compares to Formula 1 and NASCAR stars

To put the IndyCar drivers' numbers into perspective, we compared them with the biggest stars in Formula 1 and the NASCAR Cup Series. The results show that IndyCar still has a long way to go when it comes to the popularity of its drivers.

Max Verstappen is by far Formula 1's most popular driver, averaging five million Google monthly searches per month worldwide. Lewis Hamilton also performs exceptionally well, averaging 3.35 million monthly searches.

The gap to NASCAR Cup Series stars is smaller, but still significant when Mick Schumacher is excluded. Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace are the series' most popular drivers, averaging 165,000 monthly searches each. They narrowly outperform Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, who average 135,000 monthly searches.

Monthly Google search volume for IndyCar drivers

The data is based on the average monthly Google search volume during the first half of 2026. Search volume was analyzed for each IndyCar driver's name and broken down by country. The figures are sourced from Google Keyword Planner and represent rounded averages.