Alex Palou will not go to ‘any F1 races’ as legal battle with McLaren continues

IndyCar Championship winner, Alex Palou, stated that he will not go to any F1 races despite being needed in Singapore.

The legal saga involving McLaren and Alex Palou has taken another step. It was announced over summer that McLaren was suing Palou for a breach of contract. This was in relation to Palou accepting an advanced salary for the 2024 IndyCar season. This signing was then refuted by his current team Chip Ganassi Racing.

After these events, many beleived this would be the end of the relationship between Palou and McLaren. However, it was forgotten that Palou still had F1 reserve drive duties to fulfill until the end of the 2023 season. Despite the legal action that McLaren have taken against the (now) 2023 IndyCar Champion, Palou still had contractual obligations for this year.

The Singapore Grand Prix

Palou, a two time championship winner, is expected at the Singapore Grand Prix this weekend. Although Palou should technically be there, McLaren CEO Zak Brown has stated that he doesn’e expect him to show up.

As reported by TheRace.com.

“I don’t think he’s going to show up in Singapore, which he’s obligated to.”

“We have had a couple of different reserve drivers during the year. So we’re now going to have to extend that.”

Brown saw the funny side to the situation and joked that if Palou was to come, McLaren would be able to put him up.

“We’ve got his hotel room booked”

Palou’s Side

When asked whether Brown’s comments were correct, the recently crowned champion confirmed. He did say he would not be attending the Singpore Grand Prix. Despite the obvious bad blood, Palou revealed he coudltn attend due to IndyCar commitments and that he was simply ‘busy’.

“Yeah. First of all, it’s because I can’t, just because of the championship [victory] and we’re going to LA now [for the end of season prizegiving next Sunday] and then we have some testing for the ’24 car “.

He did bluntly say “I’m not going to go to any F1 races”.

What now for McLaren?

The Woking based team did have access to Stoffell Vandoorne and Felipe Drugovich for the first 15 races of the season. However, as we weneter the final starught, those two drivers are solely with Aston Martin.

Luckily for McLaren, they have an agreement with Mercedes in which they can access Mick Schumacher if they need a reserve driver.

Feature Image Credit: Indycar.com