IndyCar champion Palou not going to McLaren after contract confusion

After the Oscar Piastri saga at McLaren, the situation surrounding Alex Palou's contract has now been resolved. The IndyCar champion will not join McLaren's team in 2023, but will instead remain with his current team Chip Ganassi Racing.

In July, Ganassi announced Palou's contract signing on social media. A few hours later, however, McLaren announced that the Spaniard would drive for its IndyCar team in 2023. Palou himself also announced on Twitter that he had not approved Ganassi's press release and that the quotes did not come from him.

It did not stop there for McLaren, however, as a similar situation occurred a month later in Formula 1 with Piastri. Alpine announced the Australian for 2023, but Piastri himself announced that he would not drive for the team. It later emerged that the young driver already had an agreement with McLaren.

While Lando Norris' team did manage to bring Piastri to the team, the same is not true for Palou in IndyCar. On Twitter the driver writes the following: "I’m excited to announce that and I have come to an agreement and I’ll be back in the No. 10 car next season!"

Felix Rosenqvist will now remain active in McLaren's IndyCar team alongside Alex Rossi and Pato O'ward. Palou does get the chance to test a McLaren F1 car during a private test at the Barcelona circuit this week.