McLaren at centre of legal action against former driver as London court case begins

Seeking around $20million in its lawsuit against Alex Palou, McLaren’s court hearing against the four-time IndyCar champion began in London on Monday.

McLaren Racing is seeking damages against Palou after signing the IndyCar star only for him to renege on the deal.

Alex Palou vs McLaren Racing court case begins

Back in 2022, Palou had signed a three-year contract with McLaren that would have seen him join the outfit’s IndyCar program, with a suggestion that McLaren would be keeping Palou in line for a potential Formula 1 seat in the future.

The Spanish driver initially attempted to free himself of his Chip Ganassi Racing deal midway through the 2022 IndyCar season, only for CGR to activate its option to retain Palou for 2023.

That was resolved behind closed doors with Palou staying on with his IndyCar team in a new one-year deal, while also taking up McLaren reserve driver duties in F1.

Despite McLaren paying him a $400,000 ‘signing bonus’ in January 2023 to join the team in a deal that would run from 2024 to 2026, Palou went on to renege on the deal.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown told the media including PlanetF1.com at the time that Palou had “informed us that he has no intention of honouring his contract with us in IndyCar or Formula 1.”

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McLaren filed against the driver but made it clear that it wasn’t seeking to force the driver to race for the team. Rather, it wanted to recoup financial losses.

That court case began on Monday in London.

As a number of depositions took place in the build-up, Palou and his lawyers reportedly claimed that a significant element of the McLaren deal centered around Palou’s belief that it would culminate in a Formula 1 drive.

But with McLaren signing Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to multi-year contracts, that would not be possible.

Palou, therefore, felt he was better placed remaining in IndyCar with CGR.

McLaren Racing, however, wants $20 million to cover lost revenue, the signing fee as well as losing ‘some $3.5 million expected from third parties surrounding Palou’s participation in its testing program.’

The Spanish driver’s lawyers on Monday argued that Palou owed McLaren nothing as while Palou did breach his contract, McLaren’s alleged losses have been vastly inflated and that McLaren has mitigated any losses.

His legal team have accused McLaren of trying to “take Mr Palou to the cleaners.”

The court case is expected to run through to November with Palou and McLaren CEO Zak Brown giving evidence.

Palou spoke about the pending legal action in 2023, and while he couldn’t go into detail, did imply that a race seat was part of the reason he was keen on joining McLaren.

“If you look at my interviews until 2021, I would say I was not focused on F1 at all, and that was totally true,” he said. “But things changed when I won the championship.

“I was 24. I had just won my first big championship and what if I try something and it goes sideways, then I can come back when I’m 27 and still super young and can still do it for 10 or 15 years.

“The door opened a little bit with McLaren. It was amazing. The opportunity was great, but there was nothing else there of, ‘You will have a car.’

“Maybe if I was 20, I would have waited, but I’m not 20. I’m 26. I don’t know of anyone who waited until 30 that got into Formula 1.”

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