Zak Brown addresses million-dollar ruling in McLaren court case

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has labelled the UK High Court's verdict in McLaren's court case against Alex Palou as "entirely appropriate."

McLaren was suing Palou for a breach of contract after the Spanish racer broke his contract to drive for the team in IndyCar, doing so in 2023 after it dawned on Palou that he would not receive an F1 race seat for 2024.

He believed that this had been promised to him during talks with McLaren chief Brown, who denied such an arrangement, and insisted Palou was simply told it was a possiblity whilst he conducted TPC running and FP1 outings.

Ultimately, McLaren sued Palou for nearly $20 million in London's High Court, with the trial taking place in October 2025, attended by RacingNews365. 

Mr Justice Picken, in his verdict dismissed McLaren's claims for loss of F1 monies, but did award the team a total of $10,194,844, made up of driver salary, loss of IndyCar earnings and other sponsor losses.

Another claim worth between $2 million and $2.5 million is to be decided in respect of another sponsor claim, potentially pushing the total up to $12.6 million, over half of what McLaren was seeking.

Responding to the verdict, available to read here, Brown issued the following statement. 

"This is an entirely appropriate result for McLaren Racing," he said.

"As the ruling shows, we clearly demonstrated that we fulfilled every single contractual obligation towards Alex and fully honoured what had been agreed. 

"We thank the court for recognising the very significant commercial impact and disruption our business suffered as a result of Alex’s breach of contract with the team."