McLaren has secured over $12 million from its lawsuit against four-time IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou.
As previously noted by The Athletic, the conflict originates from October 2022, when Palou agreed to join McLaren’s IndyCar team, Arrow McLaren.
As part of this arrangement, Palou was set to become McLaren’s reserve Formula 1 driver in 2023, with the chance of promotion, while also racing for the IndyCar team in 2024, 2025, and 2026 seasons. He would continue to race for his current team, Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR), during the 2023 season.
However, in August 2023, Palou decided not to make the switch and opted to remain with CGR.
Palou, who clinched the IndyCar championship in 2021 with CGR, went on to win additional titles in 2023, 2024, and 2025. Justice Simon Picken remarked in his ruling: “He is viewed as a generational talent — potentially what is known as the ‘G.O.A.T’ or ‘greatest of all time’.”
Following this, McLaren filed a lawsuit against Palou, claiming over $20 million in damages, as detailed in Friday’s ruling. Ultimately, McLaren was awarded $10.2 million, plus an additional amount ranging from $2 million to $2.5 million based on the outcome of expert evidence.
In earlier proceedings at London’s High Court, McLaren’s representative, Paul Goulding KC, asserted that the financial losses were due to the need to renegotiate sponsorship agreements, lost performance-related earnings, and increased costs for salaries of current drivers following Palou’s breach. While Palou acknowledged his contract violation, his legal team contended that the claimed damages were “vastly inflated” and that no compensatory damages were warranted.
