the unpleasant Open war between Álex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing and McLaren Racing Due to the validity of his contract with the Spanish pilot for 2023, he continues to advance chapters in a way that seemed inevitable: through the courts. According to documents released by the Marion County Superior Court, Indiana, Chip Ganassi Racing has filed a personal lawsuit against Palouas well as against the limited company ‘ALPA Racing‘ which belongs to the Spanish pilot.
Ganassi He presented the complaint this same Monday, July 25, and has requested that the judicial summons take place before September, these being the few public details that are known. The content of the lawsuit, both in its main appeal and in the four statements it contains, still remains under gag order, although the team itself has confirmed that the main reason for the legal process is the saga of events that took place on July 12. That night, Álex Palou was announced as the future McLaren Racing driver for 2023, without specifying the destination category, hours after Ganassi confirm his renewal with the current champion through an automatic clause.
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Neither Palou nor his representatives have yet ruled on the matter, but Ganassi has done so through a note to the media: «Álex Palou has a valid contract with Chip Ganassi Racing until the end of 2023. You are a valued member of our teamand we will continue to support you to achieve wins, podiums and IndyCar championships. Because a rival team has improperly tried to sign a contract with him despite the clear terms of our contract, we have initiated legal proceedings under the contract. Any question in this regard will be addressed by our legal team.
This complaint is the last of the measures adopted to date by Ganassi, who for the moment continues to count on the services of Palou at the wheel of car #10 for the remaining five races, including the Grand Prix that will take place this Saturday in Indianapolis. Ahead of last weekend’s event at the Iowa oval, Palou confirmed that his working relationship with the road team remains the same, but that Ganassi has removed remote access to team data, this being information that can only be consulted in person. In the weekend’s two races, Palou finished 6th and 13th, dropping to sixth overall 44 points off the lead from teammate Marcus Ericsson.
Despite indirectly referring to McLaren Racing or its American branch Arrow McLaren SP, this specific legal process does not include in the first instance the British formation. In statements published by the newspaper IndyStar, Zak Brown commented that Palou’s representative team, Monaco Increase Management, guaranteed him that the Spaniard had a free hand to sign for his team: «I can’t speak for others because what I don’t know, I don’t know. What I can do is confirm that we have signed a multi-year contract and that your rep team told me i was free to do so. Obviously, I am aware of what has been announced, and that all this is not what I have been told, but that’s something they have to fix on their own».
In fact, various information within the paddock ensure that, if the eventuality arises, McLaren would not be willing to buy Palou’s contract or to pay the compensation resulting from a unilateral rupture by the Spanish pilot. Added to all this is the fact that, in similar situations within the motor world, such as David Coulthard’s with Williams in 1994 or Jenson Button’s with BAR in 2004, the courts agreed with the teams, whose renewal clauses took precedence over any other contract. In this case, Ganassi would legally retain Palou’s services in 2023, although it would be necessary to see if that would be transferred to the track.