Palou did not respond to a message left seeking comment on Tuesday. He previously confirmed to the Associated Press last month that he’s not had any conversation with Brown or McLaren representatives since before the team was informed he was not honouring the McLaren contract. Palou also severed ties with the management group that brokered the deal with McLaren.
The nearly US$23 million in damages McLaren is seeking is broken down in future sponsorship tied to Palou joining McLaren, the costs of using him as a reserve F1 driver, how much McLaren spent developing Palou for F1 and a US$400,000 advance on his 2024 salary. McLaren is not seeking repayment of legal fees it says it covered for Palou in last year’s fight with Ganassi.
The filing states that after McLaren had already been informed Palou was not honouring his contract with the team, a second letter from attorneys representing Palou incorrectly claimed he had been promised a full-time seat in F1 and that because he was only going to be a reserve driver “a complete severing of the relationship (was) in order”.
McLaren held a hotel room in Singapore two weeks ago for Palou in anticipation of him being the team’s reserve driver that F1 weekend. Palou did not attend the race for McLaren.
Citing pending litigation, Palou has repeatedly declined to comment on the situation this year but attempted to explain his silence last month at a media event ahead of the IndyCar season finale.
He indicated he’d never expressed interest in F1 until after he’d won his 2021 IndyCar title and an opportunity to at least try to make it to the top racing series in the world presented itself. But with only a reserve driver role available, he said, he would prefer to stay in IndyCar. McLaren has both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri signed through at least 2025.
“If you look at my interviews until 2021, I would say I was not focused on F1 at all, and that was totally true. But things changed when I won the championship,” Palou said last month. “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 One.”
McLaren contends Palou signed two contracts: the first with McLaren Racing as the F1 reserve driver and a separate deal with Arrow McLaren to compete in IndyCar for the team while also serving as the F1 backup.
Among the damages McLaren is seeking is nearly US$15.5 million in lost revenue under official partner agreements with sponsors that anticipated Palou would be the driver. The team said it also lost some US$3.5 million expected from third parties surrounding Palou’s participation in its testing program.
McLaren also wants to recoup all money spent on Palou when he was the test driver, both on track and in the simulator, and money it is spending seeking a replacement for Palou.
