IndyCar champ Alex Palou disses Zak Brown's "Piranha" nature as verdict awaited in $20M McLaren lawsuit

Four-time champion Alex Palou was sued by McLaren following the Spaniard's decision not to fulfil the IndyCar contract with the Papaya team. The same led to a lawsuit with a blown-out trial with McLaren demanding $20M in damages following Palou's decision not to join the team. Amid this, the CGR star came out and slammed Zak Brown as a “Piranha”.

Alex Palou signed a contract with Arrow McLaren to join the team in 2023, which included the F1 reserve role, which, after negotiations with Chip Ganassi Racing, was postponed to 2024. However, ahead of the 2024 season, Palou refused to honour the contract as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were signed by the F1 team on long-term contracts.

McLaren filed a lawsuit against the same, which went through the court with a trial taking place after the 2025 IndyCar season ended. The decision is being awaited by both the involved parties.

The Chip Ganassi Racing driver recently spoke with MundoDeportivo and was questioned about all things IndyCar and F1. Alex Palou was questioned about whether he copied with the McLaren trial, to which he replied,

“I've already done it, I've already been through it. So…”

When asked if he was optimistic, Palou suggested that such things cannot be predicted and that he's awaiting the results. He added,

“From my point of view, it went much better than we expected. A lot of things came up that, well, we may have done better or worse, but we don't know. The truth is, we'll just have to wait and see what happens.”

Alex Palou was then asked whether he was disappointed with Zak Brown, who was crucial to the negotiations of the Spaniard's Arrow McLaren contract & decision, to which he replied,

“Has Zak Brown disappointed me? Yes. Is F1 a piranha pool and is he one of them? A big one.”

F1 Grand Prix Of Qatar 2025 Sprint And Qualifying - Source: Getty

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Alex Palou shares his take on the Papaya rules and their implications on Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s title fight

With McLaren coming out as the superior team in the performance index, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri went toe to toe for the title, which will be decided at the season finale this weekend in Abu Dhabi. With the Woking-based team wanting to not favour a single driver, they brought the Papaya rules, which included hindsight, but backfired. Detailing the same, Alex Palou said,

“I think it's blown out of proportion. I think that ultimately they were in a position where they had the best car by far, and they wanted to be the 'friendly' team, the team that does everything perfectly and takes care of its drivers. And in trying to do that, they've achieved the exact opposite, making everyone see that one driver is favored over the other, and asking why this and not that.”

Oscar Piastri trails Lando Norris by 16 points going into the Abu Dhabi GP, with Max Verstappen trailing the championship leader by 12 points.