Piastri’s 2022 signature redraws the Palou battleground at McLaren
Newly surfaced details from the 2022 Contract Recognition Board saga don’t just tidy up the history of Oscar Piastri’s arrival at McLaren — they also sharpen the focus on Alex Palou’s legal fight with the team.
The paperwork sets Piastri’s McLaren “Driving Agreement” in stone on June 3, 2022. That’s the date he put his name on a deal specifically for Formula 1, and it’s key because McLaren is now pursuing Palou for breach of contract while the IndyCar champion argues he was misled about his path to a race seat in F1.
The context matters. Piastri, then the most coveted junior in the sport after title runs through Formula Renault, F3 and F2, had been lingering in Alpine’s system while the team hesitated. Alpine’s solution finally arrived in May 2022: a four-year roadmap that would park him at Williams for 2023 and possibly 2024, then bring him back to the factory team in 2025–26. It didn’t land well. The CRB summary paints the French camp as dithering for months, and that was the opening McLaren needed.
McLaren moved quickly. The June 3 document — later ruled by the CRB to be the only valid contract for Piastri — covered a two‑year stint as an F1 race driver. As per the protocol, it went to the CRB, Alpine protested, and the world watched the saga play out across August. When the board ruled in McLaren’s favor on September 1, 2022, the Australian’s future was no longer a rumor; it was on the record.
Now drop that date into the Palou timeline and the picture looks very different from the one he says he was sold.
On July 12, 2022, McLaren announced Palou as part of its IndyCar roster for 2023 — hours after Chip Ganassi Racing insisted he was staying put. The crossfire calmed with a deal: Palou would finish 2023 with Ganassi while testing an old-spec McLaren F1 car and taking some Friday runs, then go all-in with McLaren in 2024. Somewhere within all of that, Palou says, he was given the impression he’d be in the frame for a grand prix seat.
He later told the court he was “very upset, worried and angry that McLaren had signed another rookie driver other than me,” and said his camp went back to Zak Brown for clarity. According to Palou, Brown said the team needed someone fast for 2023 but that it wouldn’t interfere with the Spaniard’s chances of making it to F1.
Brown’s version is cooler: he says he explained possible opportunities but never promised — or even stated — that Palou would be under consideration for a McLaren F1 race drive. The gulf between “a chance” and “a seat” is where much of this case lives.
And that’s where Piastri’s contract date bites. With Lando Norris entrenched and Piastri signed as of early June, McLaren’s 2023–24 race lineup was effectively locked long before the public saw it. Add in the CRB’s September ruling, and by the time Palou says he had a clarifying conversation on September 22, any window in Woking’s F1 team looked nailed shut.
McLaren is now seeking $20 million in lost profits over Palou walking away. Palou insists he owes nothing, arguing he was induced into signing on faulty assumptions about his Formula 1 trajectory. The team rejects allegations of “lies and false impressions,” while Palou leans on tone, timing and intent — the gray areas that often get brighter under cross-examination.
Zoom out and it’s another reminder of McLaren’s sprawling, multi-series talent strategy during that era. The organization was hoovering up elite drivers across IndyCar and F1, building a pipeline that looked clever until calendars collided and expectations weren’t managed to the millimeter. It’s easy to see how an IndyCar champion, offered tests and FP1 appearances, might read momentum as destiny. It’s also easy to see how a team, with a signed F1 rookie already in the drawer, would disagree.
The CRB papers don’t decide Palou vs. McLaren. They do, however, narrow the lanes. If Piastri’s signature was dry on June 3, the story isn’t whether there was “room” for Palou — it’s whether anyone at McLaren ever told him there would be. The verdict will come down to words and dates. The dates we now have. The words are still on trial.
