IndyCar Champion Alex Palou Won’t Be Turning Up For McLaren F1 Reserve Role

Posted on September 15, 2023 | by Dre Harrison The fallout from arguably motorsport’s silliest contract dispute is already deep into its second year, and there’s been an added knock-on effect from the drama between Zak Brown and IndyCar Champion and McLaren F1 Reserve Driver Alex Palou – and that’s who fills in as back-up if McLaren need a stand-in now they’re suing Palou! Part of the dispute was the fact that Palou was already a part of McLaren’s F1 programme as its reserve driver whenever he wasn’t in IndyCar. Their 2023 season finished at Laguna Seca last weekend. Palou should now be available for the rest of McLaren’s F1 season… but it seems that won’t be happening in the wake of Palou telling CEO Zak Brown that he won’t be joining his IndyCar team in 2024.  Zak recently told media including The Race: “He’s still our reserve driver. I don’t think he’s going to show up in Singapore, which he’s obligated to. But we have had a couple of different reserve drivers during the year. So we’re now going to have to extend that.” Zak even joked that McLaren had still got Alex’s Singapore hotel room booked… but they weren’t really expecting him to be in it. Palou gave his own take on the situation to The Race’s Jack Benyon, saying he couldn’t go to Singapore anyway now he’d won another IndyCar title, as he needed to be in Los Angeles for the series’ prizegiving this weekend. “First of all, it’s because I can’t, just because of the championship,”, said Palou. “We’re going to LA now and then we have some testing for the 2024 car. “Yeah, the plan’s changed. I’m not going to go to any F1 races.” Maybe the fact Alex now has no intention of joining McLaren in IndyCar might have a bit to do with it too, as well as that diary clash… Another of Zak’s complaints was that Palou’s never spoken to him personally about his decision to – as McLaren see it – back out of joining the team for 2024 when they had a deal. When asked if it was true that he’s stop talking to Brown since, Palou admitted it was, “I don’t think I have anything that it’s going to benefit him or me to say at the moment,” he said. “I don’t have any issues with him. Like if I see him, I’m not going to look to another side, or walk to the other side. But yeah, at the moment I don’t think that we have something to talk about.” Ouch. Palou’s still potentially facing a court case after McLaren sued him for damages earlier this year, but it also leaves the team in a pickle as to who can fill in for their F1 drivers. Their other IndyCar ace Pato O’Ward can’t do it as he doesn’t have the 40 Superlicence points to race an F1 car. Given Zak was proven right by Palou’s no-show, we’ll have to see who he calls upon, just in case… Who would you like to see as McLaren’s reserve driver?