Zak Brown Has Found Himself In The Middle Of McLaren Contract Drama Yet Again

Posted on August 12, 2023 | by Charley Williams Zak Brown hasn’t had the easiest time regarding contracts for his McLaren team, has he? And now, IndyCar championship leader Alex Palou has u-turned on a contract to race for the Arrow McLaren team next year. Ooft.  In July 2022, Palou announced his intention to leave Chip Ganassi Racing to join McLaren in 2023, but Ganassi filed a lawsuit stating he had to honour his contract with them. This ended with a settlement where Alex remained with the team for 2023, but they agreed on his taking up a reserve F1 driver role with McLaren – with everyone assuming he’d join the Arrow McLaren squad for 2024. However, Associated Press reported that Brown sent a letter to McLaren employees detailing that Palou has “no intention of honouring his contract” for next year, despite McLaren having already paid Palou a portion of his 2024 earnings, in addition to the millions of dollars toward developing him for F1. What’s that saying, ‘take the money and run?’ ???? Alex’s management firm also confirmed the news, saying they were “bitterly disappointed” to learn about his decision to break an existing agreement. They implied they were parting ways with the driver, wishing him all the best for the future. This isn’t the first or second time Brown has had issues regarding contracts within the McLaren family. In 2022, a domino effect of retirements and driver moves meant Alpine announced Oscar Piastri as their driver for 2023 – which he took to Twitter to completely deny. This was because he had already signed with McLaren to replace Daniel Ricciardo after the team agreed to pay Ricciardo out of his contract. Alpine and McLaren went to the Contract Recognition Board to discuss the case, ruling that Piastri was to drive in papaya for 2023. Quite an odd thought that Zak Brown has potentially paid two drivers millions of dollars not to It’s unknown what Palou’s plans for 2024 are yet, but there has been a lot of speculation he could be joining AlphaTauri or Williams in Formula 1 –  we guess we’ll wait and see! Another year, another Zak Brown contract drama!