Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...
Porsche Penske Motorsport made history with its third consecutive 24 Hours of Daytona victory thanks to the #7 Porsche of Felipe Nasr, Julien Andlauer and Laurin Heinrich. Formula One teams have started revealing their 2026 cars. Mercedes' livery looks like it is honoring New Zealand. Williams has announced it will miss the Barcelona test. A number of Daytona 500 one-offs have been announced. Hailie Deegan's career has literally gone full circle. The World Rally Championship season opened from Monaco. The F1 movie was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Ed Carpenter Racing has promoted Matt Barnes to vice president of competition with Quentin Montigaud the new lead engineer for Alexander Rossi. Raul Prados will be Scott McLaughlin's engineer. However, IndyCar's biggest news of the week came from a London courtroom, and it involved the series champion.
The Price of Being Álex Palou
$12 million. Plus potential legal expenses.
At the moment, that is the price of being Álex Palou after a London court awarded just over $12 million in damages to McLaren from Palou over a break of contract dating back to Palou's agreement to join the team after the 2023 season.
Palou does have the right to appeal.
So ends the three-and-a-half-year saga that started on July 12, 2022 when Palou publicly dismissed an announcement earlier that day from Chip Ganassi Racing that the team and Palou had agreed upon a contract extension. Palou had his sights on McLaren and was hoping to leave the team where he won the 2021 championship for an organization with a Formula One program, and that is where Palou thought he was ultimately heading. Palou could not get out of his Ganassi deal that went through the 2023 season, but all indication pointed to him heading to McLaren once 2024 rolled around.
While on his way to his second championship in August 2023, Palou announced he would not be joining McLaren but rather stay at Chip Ganassi Racing, setting in motion the legal dispute that was decided this past Friday.
Actions have consequences and the contractual gymnastics Palou pulled for a three-year period are going to cost him dearly. Indecisiveness and dishonesty put Palou in this position. Each step was a downfall because he was not clear with the parties he was working him, from the first conflict with Ganassi to the ultimate decision to turn his back on the McLaren he had previously wanted. What led to McLaren's pay day was also foolishness, because Palou thought he could get away with it twice. While he had to honor his final year at Ganassi, he did get what he wanted in the McLaren contract, but when he found himself wishing to stay with Ganassi, he thought he could break a deal for a second time without it harming him.
Think again.
Yet, there is empathy for Palou.
During this trial, Palou has said he felt he had been misled with the McLaren when it would lead to a Formula One opportunity, only for McLaren to hear Oscar Piastri to join the Formula One program at the same time. He even said, "The only attraction to me in the approach from McLaren was the chance to go to F1."
Palou was never going to end up driving for McLaren's F1 program, especially after Piastri was signed. A year as a Formula One reserve driver while still competing in IndyCar before a full-time switch was off the table. It didn't matter how dominated Palou was, it was a career move down a col-du-sac. He was going to become a McLaren IndyCar driver and a permanent Formula One reserve if he was lucky to even get that.
But we will never know if that was the case, the same way we never will know if Palou would have been successful driving for McLaren's IndyCar program, unless you are Judge Simon Picken, who ruled in McLaren's favor and determined the payment in relation to performance-based prize money it would have earned had Palou driven for McLaren.
It is a stretch to believe Palou would have won no matter which team he was driving for, and if he had been with McLaren for the past two seasons, he would have won both championships and an Indianapolis 500. We all know it is not that simply, and motorsports is more than just the driver. A number of those victories came down to strategy calls from Barry Wanser and setups from engineer Julian Robertson.
Would McLaren have been able to match what Ganassi had?
Need one be reminded of the number of strategy flubs McLaren had over the last two seasons, from Alexander Rossi needing to save fuel at the end of races when other didn't (see the 2024 Indianapolis 500 and the second Iowa race), or the wrong tire strategy for last year's Thermal Club race? Let's also not forget McLaren went winless in 2023 despite having O'Ward, Rossi and Felix Rosenqvist on the team, three past IndyCar race winners.
McLaren likely would have done well, but that doesn't mean Palou would have achieved the exact same success. Seeing how McLaren performed, it is difficult to imagine Palou would have done better than he did competing for Ganassi, the team that is tied for most championships in IndyCar history.
However, Palou's hemming and hawing over which team he would drive for did hurt McLaren. Sponsors signed with McLaren under the guise that Palou would be driving for the team. That cannot be ignored, and as we are seeing with NTT, McLaren had to renegotiate a deal that sees the sponsorship ending at the conclusion of this season, two years earlier than the original deal. McLaren is likely going to be fine, but it now has to do more work to generate the sponsorship for the 2027 and 2028 seasons that it previously had arranged.
Were the damages really worth $12 million?
Probably not, and while Palou can appeal, he is going to be paying back something in all likelihood. Some type of agreement will be reached. There is a chance Palou will be paying McLaren back for the rest of his career, especially if he has to cover the legal costs. At worst, he is paying about $1.5 million a year from his salary for the next ten to 15 years. He is only 28 years old. He will be around that long and, if he keeps winning at the rate he is, Palou isn't going to be struggling with money.
It is still going to sting.
The strange thought about all this is based on his on-track success, if Palou was asked if he could go back and do anything different about the contract situation, there is a probably chance he wouldn't. He has won the last three championships. He won an Indianapolis 500. He has had some of the best seasons in IndyCar history and must already be considered one of the all-time greats. It could all be worth it in his eyes. Even if he is able to pay it, you must think it is an eye-opener for him. He might be doing well, but few feel comfortable losing $12 million.
Not many make a fortune in IndyCar, but many lose it. Palou might have found a new way. Add that to his legacy.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Porsche, but did you know...
The #04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Oreca of George Kurtz, Malthe Jakobsen, Alex Quinn and Toby Sowery won the LMP2 class at the 24 Hours of Daytona. The #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW of Connor De Phillippi, Neil Verhagen, Dan Harper and Max Hesse won in GTD Pro. The #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG of Philip Ellis, Russell Ward, Lucas Auer and Indy Dontje won in GTD.
Oliver Solberg won the 94th Rallye Monte-Carlo.
Chase Sexton won the Supercross race from Anaheim. Haiden Deegan won the 250cc race, his second consecutive victory.
Coming Up This Weekend
NASCAR hold the Clash at Bowman-Gray Stadium.
The Asian Le Mans Series runs two races at Dubai.
Supercross makes it way to Houston, and it is a Triple Crown round.
Formula E will race at the Miami International Autrodrome.
