Op-ed on Palou's shock move from Ganassi to McLaren, and its implications across the IndyCar driver market
I have lamented many times about how, in motorsport, silly-season gossip about the future tends to distract from the here and now. In the case of, say, the top class in WEC over the past four years and the interminable internecine Toyota battle, it would be understandable if the focus was pulled away from on-track action and turned instead to ever-brightening prospects with new regs and new manufacturers.
And then the world turned upside down. A few hours after Chip Ganassi Racing confirmed it had taken up its option on Alex Palou’s services for 2023 – the press release replete with the usual “Happy to stay with such a great team”-style quote from the 25-year-old Spaniard – the driver himself hit his social media channels to call bullshit, say that the quote was fake and to announce he will be leaving Ganassi at season’s end.
In May and early June, Motorsport.com had contact with some interesting and credible sources – a couple by chance, one very intentionally – and all three concurred that while Palou’s Formula 1 ambitions have been far less overt than those of O’Ward and Herta, he too has his eyes full of grand prix racing. All three sources needed reassurance that I wouldn’t identify them, and all three also admitted they weren’t in possession of all the facts.
Soon, because he is who he is, Chip finds out about this talk and is understandably furious. Palou’s contract supposedly prevents him talking to rival teams at this point, let alone reaching a verbal agreement. He’s on a two-year-plus-option deal, and until a new contract is drawn up or Chip does/doesn’t take up the option, Palou isn’t at liberty to negotiate with others. Certainly not in April of the second year.
One of the crucial questions is whether Palou’s current contract with Ganassi states that he cannot negotiate specifically with another IndyCar team. If so, that would suggest that McLaren and Palou have abided by the letter of the law: Palou’s initial public welcome on Tuesday came from the Woking wizards, McLaren Racing ‘as a whole’, and not specifically from the Arrow McLaren SP team.
So what kind of driver is so confident in his future that he would spurn and enrage the owner of one of the finest teams on the planet? Again, an interesting theory has bobbed to the surface: that Palou is not intending to make racing his career for the long haul, or at least, not from the cockpit, and that he’ll retire from driving by the time he’s 30. Not sure how much credence to give that one.
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