Marred by yet another contract saga McLaren CEO defends 'elbows out' strategy

McLaren CEO Zak Brown defended his decision to get Alex Palou from Chip Ganassi Racing in the IndyCar series.

The American has signed the former IndyCar champion in 2022 to drive for the Arrow-McLaren team in the series from 2023 onwards. But after Chip Ganassi took their own driver to court, they eventually succeeded in keeping him for another season. Recently, Palou announced that he would be staying with the team for 2024 as well and not joining McLaren.

Speaking with The Race, Zak Brown claimed that he won't change his approach to signing the best drivers despite the transfer saga. He said:

“You’ve got to get your elbows out. And I think every racing series has to start with getting the best drivers in the car, and to do what it takes. It’s funny, the people that are sometimes critical, it’s exactly what they’ve done to get to where they are."

He added:

“We’ve kind of broken into the top three and four in IndyCar, from a team that was not there previously, and we’ve had to make some aggressive moves to get Gavin Ward in, to get these drivers in. But I can tell you growing up watching these guys, they’ve done the same thing over the years themselves, and it’s just kind of when the new kid on the block shows up, that’s it."

McLaren CEO on the need for signing the best drivers in Indy

Zak Brown stated that the IndyCar series is a duopoly and currently only three to four teams are in the position to buy the best talent out there.

He explained:

“The establishment is kind of like a duopoly. And now it’s three or four teams in there. You have to do it with talent. Good news is I think once you build it, you don’t have to do it every day. You’ve just got to kind of do it to get to that level. I don’t get my elbows out just for the sake of getting elbows out. But we’ve got to have the best driver line-ups in each racing series, the best talent in each racing series."

He continued:

“Once you kind of get that set, then you don’t need to do it on a daily basis. But we’re having to elevate ourselves in IndyCar and we’re having to catch up here. And it’s something that hopefully we don’t have to [do constantly]. It’s not always fun. Sometimes it’s fun! But it’s all done with a purpose, to get McLaren to the front.”

It will be interesting to see which driver will Brown go for now that Palou is not driving for them in 2024.