![\"Zak](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Zak-Brown-in-court-2025-800x450.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nMcLaren boss Zak Brown has denied \u201cstringing along\u201d current and prospective IndyCar drivers with promises of an F1 seat, as the court case between the team and current IndyCar champion Alex Palou continues.<\/p>\n
Brown began giving evidence today as part of his team\u2019s $20.7m (\u00a315.43m) claim against Palou and his associated management companies for reneging on an IndyCar contract that would have seem him switch from Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) to McLaren.<\/p>\n
In heated exchanges at London\u2019s Royal Courts of Justice,\u00a0Palou\u2019s barrister,\u00a0Nick De Marco KC accused Brown of having a habit of \u201cencouraging people with words on the one hand, then shafting them on the other\u201d.<\/p>\n
Four-time IndyCar champion and this year\u2019s Indy 500 winner Palou admits breaching the McLaren contract to remain with CGR, but disputes the damages claimed, and alleges that Brown misled him over the prospect of moving to F1.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Brown appears in court having left his team\u2019s 2025 F1 celebrations early<\/p>\n
\n James Elson\n <\/p>\n
The court has heard that Palou lost faith when Oscar Piastri was signed to the grand prix team.<\/p>\n
Brown, who missed some of his F1 team\u2019s 2025 constructors\u2019 champions celebrations after Sunday\u2019s Singapore Grand Prix to fly back to London, was initially congratulated on the success by De Marco before being cross-examined and accused of being \u201cevasive and dishonest\u201d with his evidence, a claim that he refuted.<\/p>\n
Brown\u2019s dealings with other drivers, including Pato O\u2019Ward and Alexander were brought up as examples where he was economical with the truth. He was also questioned about the seemingly inconsistent deletion of potentially relevant WhatsApp messages. In all cases, Brown insisted that he had followed standard procedures.<\/p>\n
A suited Palou, sitting at the back of the court was seen shaking his head in reaction to some of the answers given by the McLaren chief about his first contact with the driver.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only reason he\u2019s [Palou] joining would be to get into F1,\u201d said De Marco, who had previously explained how McLaren was seen as a \u201csecond-class\u201d IndyCar team compared with CGR. \u201cHe puts a Tweet out [about joining McLaren] then reads a Tweet from Oscar Piastri that he would be joining McLaren in August 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll that time you have been stringing Mr Palou along.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Alex-Palou-IndyCar-800x450.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Palou, with CGR, has become the dominant force in US open-wheel racing<\/p>\n
\n IndyCar\n <\/p>\n
\u201cI never strung along Alex,\u201d Brown replied. \u201cI told him what the opportunities would be in F1. I never told him he would be under consideration for 2023\u2026 there was some optionality to join F1.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown denied that Piastri\u2019s signing had made Palou \u201cdisillusioned\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe never communicated that to me once,\u201d said Brown. \u201cNever once did he ever communicate any concern.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe he was seduced [into re-signing] by his current racing team\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown was accused of trivialising driver negotiations, with documents relating to Alexander Rossi\u2019s prospective contract extension with McLaren\u2019s IndyCar team (which ultimately never came to pass).<\/p>\n
The court heard that Brown and McLaren\u2019s current team principal Tony Kanaan agreed during mid-2024 to replace the American with young Danish star Christian Lundgaard, but at the same time continued correspondence with Rossi\u2019s father (who is also his manager) about a potential renewal for the 2016 Indy 500 winner.<\/p>\n
An email from Brown to Kanaan was read out to the courtroom, where he said that the protracted contract negotiations with Rossi would be a \u201cfun one to exit\u201d, adding a laughing emoji symbol. De Marco accused Brown of joking about the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I think you are taking that out of context,\u201d replied Brown. \u201cI was saying it would be difficult to exit. I was saying that in jest.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren boss Zak Brown has denied \u201cstringing along\u201d current and prospective IndyCar drivers with promises of an F1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-195203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}