Lawsuit-free Palou ‘relieved’ ahead of IndyCar four-peat attempt
- Archie O’Reilly
- 1 hour ago
- 6 min read
One month from the start of the 2026 season, defending IndyCar champion and Indianapolis 500 winner Álex Palou is feeling a freedom he has seldom felt since 2022.
It was announced last Friday that McLaren Racing had been awarded over $12 million in damages relating to a breach of an IndyCar contract from Palou, who failed to honour an agreement to race for the Arrow McLaren team in 2024.
McLaren had initially announced that Palou would join their IndyCar lineup for the 2023 season, before Palou was ultimately required to see out the remainder of his Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) contract. Still, with a view to switching to Formula One, Palou became McLaren’s F1 reserve driver in 2023 having made his Free Practice debut in late 2022.
But when McLaren signed Oscar Piastri to their F1 lineup for 2024 and it became clear no opportunity would arise to race full-time in the series, as Palou intended, he walked back on his McLaren deal to remain with CGR, who he went on to win the IndyCar title with in 2023.
While McLaren were awarded $12 million over losses relating to Palou’s IndyCar deal, the F1-related portion of the lawsuit, which had stood at almost $15 million being sought after by McLaren, was dismissed after the court’s judgement.
“The court’s decision shows the claims against me were completely overblown,” Palou said in a statement last week. “It’s disappointing that so much time and cost was spent fighting these claims, some of which the court found had no value, simply because I chose not to drive for McLaren after I learned they wouldn’t be able to give me an F1 drive.
“I’m disappointed that any damages have been awarded to McLaren. They have not suffered any loss because of what they have gained from the driver who replaced me. I am considering my options with my advisors and have no further comments to make at this stage.”
The reaching of a judgement ends a period of dispute which commenced on 12th July 2022, when Palou was first announced as an Arrow McLaren driver hours before CGR unveiled his return for 2023. A little over one year later, Palou’s decision to remain with CGR turned the saga McLaren-versus-Palou.
While he sees no sense in making any in-depth comments at this stage, Palou revealed on IndyCar’s second pre-season media day on Wednesday that he hopes to open up about the case in the future.
“I wish I could really elaborate a lot, as I do on all other questions,” he insisted. “But it’s probably a bit too early to go and give a lot more comments than what I’ve already given on the statement. I promise that one day I will - and I will explain all my thought process before, during and after. But I don’t think it’s probably good now.”
The 2022 campaign remains Palou’s only season without a title since joining CGR in 2021, largely owing to the turbulence off-track, which saw him at loggerheads with his own team at that point. To have then remained onboard in 2023 and, despite the conflict, to win the title in the penultimate round - the first driver to do so in 16 years - was extremely impressive.
While he is reluctant to delve into the minutiae of the period, Palou has lifted the lid on the toll that the disputes - even before reneging on his McLaren commitments - had on him.
“I feel like 2022 was really rough,” he admitted. “It was new for everybody. It was new for me. It was a lot of drama involved - 2023 as well, but it was towards, let’s say, the beginning or mid-season.
“It’s tough. I don’t wish that for anybody, the pressure that you feel on yourself, your mind. Although you just want to think about racing, you cannot only think about that. You have calls with lawyers here and there. It’s not nice. It’s something that I don’t wish for anybody.
“But it is what it is; it’s the position I put myself into.”
With legal proceedings ongoing and unresolved, Palou still went on to back up his 2023 IndyCar title - his second in three seasons with CGR - by becoming only the fourth-ever driver to ‘three-peat’ by also winning the 2024 and 2025 championships.
One could argue it is ominous for the rest of the field that, after a ruthlessly dominant eight-win campaign last year, Palou now moves forward without a court case looming. And while he wishes the situation never happened, he has grown from the tumultuous times.
“I learned a lot from that,” he declared. “Once I was in that position, I just had to learn as much as possible and try and take the benefits or the positive sides from it, which is being under extreme pressure. That’s extreme pressure - not driving cars around. It’s that.
“Now that it’s over, it’s for sure a relief of knowing, okay, it’s over. That’s it. It’s in the past. It’s been in the past already last year; although it wasn’t going, it was already: ‘Hey, I’m just focusing on racing.’ It was true - I was only focusing on racing. But now it’s like: ‘Hey, I don’t have anything else.’”
Even with trips to the UK High Court through the extensive IndyCar off-season, Palou was still able to give time to appreciate a 2025 season which put him in rarefied air.
Joining a club of only five other drivers with four IndyCar crowns, Palou’s remarkable eight-win, 13-podium season - clinching with two races to spare and by an eventual 196 points - made him the youngest four-time champion in history.
As the campaign unfolded, there was an insistence from Palou and his No.10 CGR team that they enjoyed the historic success as it unfolded. That mantra carried into the post-season, when the festivities continued in the early stages of IndyCar’s six-month hiatus.
But soon enough, attention reverted to the next challenge again: a champion’s mentality. There will be time to bathe in the glory in retirement, whenever that may come.
“I got to celebrate with my family back in Spain and with the team here in the US,” Palou detailed. “But I would say two months after the season finished, you need to close that chapter and start preparing for the new one, start preparing for the new season because everybody starts with zero points on the board in St. Pete.
“If I finish 18th, you guys are going to write about 18th and not how I won eight races in 2025. That’s the truth. It’s very cool to win but it’s more for when I retire one day and I look back and I’m like: ‘Oh, I won four IndyCar championships.’ Or hopefully seven or eight or whatever. You guys and myself, I’m not going to care much about 2025 [in 2026].”
Such was the emphatic nature of his success last year, Palou acknowledges repeating that kind of season will be extremely difficult. After all, he became only the fourth individual in history to achieve eight wins in a single campaign.
Especially considering May brought a maiden Indy 500 crown as one of those victories, it is not lost on him how unprecedented 2025 was.
“I think 2025 was so strange; so good, so magical for the No.10 car that everybody understands it’s very hard to get there,” Palou acknowledged. “That doesn’t mean nobody can or I cannot do it again, but you need so many things to go right to get eight wins, to win the 500, to win the championship.
“What, if we win six now, it’s going to feel like a failure? Because I [had] never won six before; 2023, which felt like an amazing season, we won five there and it felt like it was impossible to do it again. Although I would love to have another season like 2025, I am pretty certain that it’s probably not going to happen again for me.
“But I’ll try. I’ll try. I don’t think I have added pressure for that. That’s why they pay us, to win.”
To put into perspective the standards set last year within one of the most competitive fields of all-time, Palou won the 2024 title with only two wins and six podiums. As he said himself, his five-win campaign the season prior to that had felt largely unbeatable.
But alongside his No.10 crew, he continues to raise the bar and inexplicably strengthen further as the competition scrambles to figure out how to close an ever-broadening gap.
“I know we can deliver really, really good, consistent results and a lot of wins,” Palou rallied. “Now that we know it’s doable to make [a season like 2025], we know it’s very tough but that’s what we need to chase. We need to chase that, trying to get those amount of podiums, those amount of wins and trying to get both the 500 and the championship.
“I’ve had the same group of people since I started. We have all the tools we need. That doesn’t mean that the recipe is not going to change; we need to keep on evolving and keep on trying to improve.”
And if 2025 is anything to go by, there can be no ruling out more fresh ways for Palou - now broken free from the shackles of any off-track drama - to break new ground once more.
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