McLaren Burns Millions On Alex Palou, And The Rest Of Racing’s Silly Season

Photo: Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket (Getty Images)

The silly season’s biggest bombshell is the presumptive 2023 IndyCar Series Champion Alex Palou backing out of an alleged deal with Arrow McLaren. Last Saturday, the Associated Press reported that team boss Zak Brown sent a letter to McLaren employees that Palou has “no intention of honoring his contract.”

McLaren covered Palou’s legal fees last year when the driver was sued by his current team Chip Ganassi Racing after he attempted to jump ship to McLaren for 2023. The compromise had the Spaniard seeing out his deal with Ganassi and serving as McLaren’s F1 reserve driver.

Brown also claims in the letter, “we have paid him a significant first payment toward his 2024 season in addition to the millions of dollars toward developing him in our Formula 1 testing program and in his reserve driver role with a potential drive in F1 in the future.”

Palou seems set on remaining at Ganassi as champion while McLaren hasn’t recorded an IndyCar race win since July 2022.