McLaren deny Alex Palou ‘lies and false impressions’ claim in ongoing lawsuit

Alex Palou was cross-examined before the London High Court on Friday, 10 October as part of an ongoing lawsuit brought against the driver by McLaren in which the team seeks financial damages that resulted from Palou reneging on a contract he inked with the IndyCar team.

Palou claimed that his McLaren contract was founded on “lies and false impressions,” and that he will “have to pay” for the ongoing suit by taking a reduced salary.

Alex Palou takes the stand in McLaren lawsuit

Alex Palou took the stand in a lawsuit brought against him by McLaren in the High Court of London, where he was cross-examined by McLaren lawyer Paul Goulding.

The lawsuit brought by McLaren centers on the company seeking financial damages after Alex Palou backed out of a contract that he had signed with the team promising to compete for McLaren’s IndyCar program.

It is a complex situation; in 2022, Chip Ganassi Racing announced that it would be retaining Alex Palou through the 2023 season, at which point Palou announced that he had instead inked a contract to compete with McLaren. CGR challenged this in court, where it was determined that Palou was contractually obligated to CGR. As such, Palou severed ties with McLaren.

McLaren alleges that Palou’s reneging on the contract has cost the team an estimated $20.7 million in financial damages, which include sponsor losses, promotions for drivers to replace Palou, and the sign-on bonus paid to Palou following the inking of the contract.

Palou alleges that he only signed the contract with McLaren due to the team’s promise that it would ultimately promote him to its Formula 1 program, and that he should not be held liable for damages because the basis for his signing of the contract was not met.

McLaren denies that Palou was promised an F1 seat, instead arguing that it intended to use Palou as a reserve driver and that there was a “possibility” that the Spanish driver could be promoted to F1 in the event of a McLaren driver’s injury or in the event that Oscar Piastri did not compete to the team’s standard.

More from the McLaren v. Palou lawsuit:

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? Alex Palou reveals ‘upset and angry’ reaction to Piastri news in ongoing McLaren lawsuit

Palou took the stand to allege that he will “have to pay for” the lawsuit in the future, and that he has taken a reduction in pay from Chip Ganassi Racing — which has agreed to cover the cost of the trial and any damages in exchange for a reduced salary — as a result of the proceedings.

“As we have seen the big numbers that have been claimed in this matter is something that I do not have as a person, as a driver,” Palou stated.

“There is no way I would have had the amount of money and expenses just to be here today.

“Although there is that indemnity, as a driver, I know I am not being paid the amount of other drivers. I am not in the top three of the highest paid drivers, and I am not going to be for the foreseeable future… for this indemnity.

“I am going to have to pay for it with my base salary in the future, and I am already doing it.”

While being cross-examined by McLaren lawyer Goulding, Palou claimed that McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown painted a picture of Palou as the next Mario Andretti.

“He wanted to get an IndyCar driver into Formula 1 and be successful,” the driver stated.

“That is something that had been done a long time ago with Mario Andretti.

“He was a big fan of IndyCar and motorsports. It’s the only team in the IndyCar series that has the ability to take a driver from IndyCar and put them into Formula 1. That is what he told me the idea was.

“It was all referenced in the F1 contract. If you see the salary, it is the salary for the first season. The season here was going to be doing F1 testing, F1 reserve. Then, in the following years, it says, ‘in case the F1 option was not done’.”

In Palou’s understanding, this language suggested that the “goal” was to move Palou to the Formula 1 team. However, McLaren and Brown deny that this was the case.

As Brown described to the court earlier this week, McLaren primarily intended Palou to compete with the IndyCar team on a three-year deal, during which period he would serve as F1 reserve and have the opportunity to drive McLaren F1 machinery during Testing of Previous Cars programs.

Brown acknowledged that there was a “possibility” that Palou could have advanced to F1, though he characterized them as backup plans, in which “Plan B” represented Palou stepping into the F1 cockpit as a replacement for one of its injured or ill full-time drivers, and where “Plan C” represented a situation in which Oscar Piastri was dropped after his rookie season for failing to perform up to standard.

Palou characterized McLaren’s signing of Piastri as being “when things first changed” in his dealings with the team during his testimony before the court on Friday.

In his witness statement, he notes that Brown told him not to worry about Piastri, a signing pushed by then-team principal Andreas Seidl. During Friday’s testimony, Palou stated, “Why Oscar’s name never appeared in our conversations? Why sign another rookie? Someone experienced I could understand.

“If you say that is from Andreas, that is not going to interfere with my chances, I am believing it.

“From what I have heard in the last days, apparently he [Brown] makes all the choices. That was not what he told me.”

According to Motor Sport Magazine, Brown “gave a short shake of the head” in response to the above statement from Palou.

Palou initially signed a contract with McLaren on 4 March, 2022 which covered a three-year period between 2023 and 2025 in IndyCar with an option to place him in Formula 1 following a year as a reserve driver. Palou inked a fresh contract for 2024-2026 in October of 2022, two months after Piastri was announced to be joining McLaren as an F1 driver.

This trial is ongoing.

Read next: Why Oscar Piastri is second-best F1 driver – explained by Bernie Ecclestone