Zak Brown accused of lies by Alex Palou as latest twist unfolds in McLaren contract case

Alex Palou has emphatically denied "stringing McLaren along" as he took to the stand at London’s High Court to give evidence in his ongoing trial.

McLaren Indy LLC is suing Palou and his management company APA Racing USA LLC for nearly $20 million after he admitted breaching a contract to drive for the team in IndyCar from 2023, with McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown giving evidence earlier in the week.

Palou initially signed a contract with McLaren on March 4th, 2022, covering the period of 2023-2025 with an option, but not an obligation, to place him in F1 for '24 after a year as a reserve driver to build up his experience.

However, in August 2022, and then confirmed by the Contract Recognition Board, which was exclusively reported by RacingNews365, in September, McLaren signed rookie Oscar Piastri to partner Lando Norris as Daniel Ricciardo’s replacement.

In his witness statement, Palou claimed that upon signing a fresh contract for 2024-2026 on October 1st, he was informed by Brown that "it was not his decision to hire Oscar" and that it had been "the decision of [then] team manager, Andreas Seidl."

Palou claimed in his statement that Brown had informed him that "Oscar’s performance would be evaluated against mine for the 2024 seat" and that "from his point of view, my chance of getting the F1 seat in 2024 was not affected by Oscar."

It was at this point, Palou claimed, that "I knew everything had changed, and from that point on, I started to be more willing to stay with CGR in the future."

Being examined by McLaren's barrister, Paul Goulding KC, Palou was asked if he had "misled McLaren" about driving for its IndyCar team as a means to an end, to simply land a 2024 F1 seat.

Palou, the reigning Indy 500 and now four-time IndyCar champion with Chip Ganassi Racing, emphatically denied this, saying he was "totally fine to drive IndyCar" and then, when further pushed on whether he had "strung McLaren along" through the negotiations, about never intending to drive for its IndyCar team, Palou responded by saying Goulding was "twisting the story."

In May 2023, as per his witness statement, Palou held conversations with senior figures from Chip Ganassi Racing, who signalled their interest in him staying with the team, and who would not block him from F1 testing opportunities.

However, Palou then recalled a talk with Brown, who was in court to hear Palou’s evidence in person, in which he claimed his "understanding from the conversations I had with Zak was that I was going to get a chance in F1, and that is what I wanted at that moment."

Palou claimed that he was not aware of a clause in his Ganassi contract — one that his lawyers were seemingly aware of — that meant he could not sign the October 1st 2022 contract with McLaren, of which Brown, who was in attendance in court to hear Palou’s evidence, was.

It remains unclear whether this was also the case for the initial McLaren contract Palou signed on March 4th 2022.

After this, Palou claimed that "I had to take a decision to get out of a contract with someone who had never lied to me [Ganassi] or someone who had done the opposite [McLaren]," under his belief that a 2024 F1 seat had been promised.

The trial continues.