Zak Brown and Alex Palou at odds over McLaren announcement in driver contract case

Alex Palou has denied ever speaking with Zak Brown about a potential announcement of his move to McLaren in IndyCar as he finished giving evidence at London’s High Court.

Palou is being sued by McLaren Indy LLC for breach of contract, something he has admitted to after backing out of a commitment to drive for the team’s US operation after an F1 seat fell through.

Called as a witness on Friday morning, Palou emphatically denied “stringing McLaren along” and insisted he would have been happy to fulfil his IndyCar project if an F1 seat did not materialise.

Palou signed an initial contract with McLaren on March 4th, 2022, with the option but not an obligation for an F1 seat in 2024, which ultimately went to Oscar Piastri in 2023, causing Palou to have doubts about the project.

On October 1st, 2022 he signed another contract that covered 2024 to 2026, with an option for 2027 from McLaren.

Palou held talks with McLaren Racing CEO Brown, who was in attendance to hear Palou’s evidence in-person, the day after the 2023 Indy 500.

Explaining this meeting under cross-examination from McLaren’s barrister Paul Goulding KC, Palou claimed he informed Brown he was after a “fair-market value” salary, after being offered a fresh contract to stay with Ganassi.

As the summer developed, at the Nashville race on August 6th, Brown was keen to organise a press conference with NTT Data, the primary sponsor of Palou’s #10 Chip Ganassi machine, announcing that the Spanish racer was joining McLaren for 2024, on a three-year deal with the option on the team’s side for a further year.

However, under questioning from Goulding, Palou insisted that “I never had that conversation about joining the press conference,” and rejected Brown’s evidence from his witness statement that “Alex was excited to talk about the announcement with his parents”, who were visiting the race.

Palou claimed “this never happened” to which Brown, sitting in the row in front of RacingNews365 in the High Court, laughed and shook his head.

Palou did concede that he had cancelled a meeting with Brown over the weekend as he was trying to allow enough time for his lawyers to formally inform Brown that he was set to breach his contract and not join McLaren.

According to Goulding’s cross-examination, this message was transmitted to Brown from Palou’s lawyers on Tuesday, August 8th, 2023.

Goulding then pressed Palou on whether Brown had attempted to help him find an alternate seat in F1, and the four-time IndyCar champion stated that Brown had called Williams boss James Vowles, but also spoke with Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko, who, in Palou’s own words, “was interested” in a deal.

However, Palou then claimed that following the Brown-Marko call, the veteran Austrian was “no longer interested.”

Towards the end of his evidence and cross-examination, Palou was asked about the preparations and work McLaren had provided him to get up ready to drive in F1 – including simulator sessions and TPC running in Barcelona, Hungary and Austria.

Palou was asked five times by Goulding if he had received any “benefit” from the extensive programme, to which he replied that it helped him to learn McLaren’s systems ahead of an FP1 outing at the 2022 United States GP – but that it was “not beneficial for me as a racing driver.”

Palou eventually answered the question following a prompt from the presiding judge, Mr Justice Picken.

Chip Ganassi Racing managing director Mike Hull was also called to give evidence, and refused to answer under questioning from Goulding if a letter sent from Ganassi’s lawyers to McLaren was threatening, saying: “I really don’t know how to answer that question.”

Mr Justice Picken then waved the question away, adding that he believed Hull’s response was an adequate answer.

The case is set to rise for a week from Monday 13th October, with the trial resuming on Monday 20th October, with final arguments expected the week beginning Monday 3rd November.