The legal battle between McLaren and IndyCar champion Alex Palou continues to unfold, with the British team seeking around $20 million in damages following the driver’s decision not to join McLaren and allegedly breaching his contract in 2023.
After an intense hearing yesterday, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown returned to the witness stand at the High Court, where he faced a series of WhatsApp messages submitted at the last minute by Palou’s legal team.
Among these messages was a conversation involving former McLaren IndyCar team manager Gavin Ward, who allegedly told a contact that the team used WhatsApp’s disappearing message function to “cover their backs in legal cases.”
The court also reviewed another exchange in which Zak Brown appeared to encourage the use of the encrypted messaging platform in August 2023—just before Alex Palou’s decision to remain with Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) became public. In that message, Zak Brown also advised team members to delete their chats.
Another message, this time from Lauren Gaudion, McLaren’s vice president of marketing and communications for the IndyCar division, reportedly mentioned a password-protected document labeled “Palou.”
The courtroom exchange
After presenting the screenshots of these messages, Palou’s lawyer, De Marco, addressed Zak Brown directly, saying:
“You said this because you were eager to destroy the evidence related to Palou, knowing he was about to breach his contract,” De Marco argued.
He continued pressing the issue: “You destroyed the evidence in this case. You activated disappearing messages after being told not to, because you were worried about the potential consequences. Even after your lawyers instructed you not to use the deletion feature, you continued to do so and told your staff to follow suit.”
Zak Brown defended himself by stating that he followed company policy regarding the use of WhatsApp’s disappearing message function, noting that the feature sometimes deactivates unexpectedly. “Sometimes it turns off by itself… it can happen unintentionally,” he said, adding that he had complied with the order to preserve evidence for the case.
De Marco then asked whether Brown recognized the messages shown in court: “Is this connected to the case?”
“It seems so, but I don’t have it,” replied the McLaren CEO.
“You don’t have it because you told everyone to destroy it!” De Marco shot back.
Zak Brown again insisted that he had merely followed McLaren’s internal communication policy regarding message retention. “Sometimes it turns off by itself… it can happen unintentionally,” he reiterated, emphasizing once more that he had respected the court’s preservation order.
The trial continues, with the High Court expected to review additional communications and testimonies in the coming days as McLaren seeks to recover damages from the Spanish driver’s broken contract.
Leave a Reply