Common Sense Prevails In Alex Palou-CGR IndyCar Drama

Finally, after almost two months of back-and-forth with lawsuits filed by both sides, common sense has finally won in the case of Alex Palou and Chip Ganassi Racing with the announcement that Palou will drive for the team in the NTT IndyCar Series in 2023 after all.

To make a long story short, in mid-July, CGR announced that the Spaniard would be returning to the IndyCar operation, with the then defending series champion quoted in the press release. A couple of hours later, Palou sent these tweets out:

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I did not approve that press release, and I did not author or approve that quote.  As I have recently informed CGR, for personal reasons, I do not intend to continue with the team after 2022.

— Alex Palou Montalbo (@AlexPalou) July 12, 2022

A few minutes later, McLaren announced that they had signed Palou in a since deleted press release on their website. Then, a few weeks after this mess, an even bigger but somewhat similar incident happened in the world of F1, in which Alpine announced that Oscar Piastri would drive for them in 2023 before Piastri came out in almost the exact same fashion as Palou and announced on Twitter that wouldn’t be happening either.

Piastri was linked to McLaren almost immediately after this tweet came out.

I understand that, without my agreement, Alpine F1 have put out a press release late this afternoon that I am driving for them next year. This is wrong and I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not be driving for Alpine next year.

— Oscar Piastri (@OscarPiastri) August 2, 2022

There was plenty of heat on McLaren for having been at the center of not one, but two different contract controversies, with it creating a third one after the revelation that Piastri had a signed deal to take Daniel Ricciardo’s seat with the team almost two weeks prior to Ricciardo announcing that he would still drive for the team in 2023.

The reality, however, is that the Piastri situation, it turned out, was almost entirely due to Alpine not having any deal with Piastri whatsoever in 2023, with his 2022 contract a rush-job. The team didn’t realize Piastri wasn’t under contract as a reserve driver until four days before the first race of the season. You know it’s a bad situation when Alpine had to pay all legal fees in the case due to wasting everybody’s time.

Meanwhile, while it’s unclear how Palou’s contract with CGR was structured, clearly it is much more valid for 2023 than Alpine’s proposal…