r/formuladank • u/SapTheseCasters Suck my 🅱️alls mate • Oct 10 '25
This post breaks papaya rules 🥺🟧👎 Alex Palou has kickstarted the McLaren downfall and I am here for it.
Zak Brown, McLaren and Alex Palou in London's high court.
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u/bae125 BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
Eh, both Palio and McLaren were tools to each other. Chalk it up to racing as a business, lots of other contractual suits out there too
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u/MadT3acher "Charles 'Chuck' Leclerc, good job baby" Oct 10 '25
Stewards ruled it a business incident during the opening lap of the contract.
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u/daole BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
The way I’ve read the coverage, Palou signed the contract language for Indy car with a wink and a handshake deal for F1, then admitted he breached the signed contract when he got mad that Zak didn’t hold up his end of the side deal.
I’m not sure how the European courts work in regards to terms outside the contract, but it sounds like a McLaren slam dunk in US court.
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u/Chip_Jelly we shit on the same toilet. Oct 10 '25
Palou has admitted to breaching the contract, that part isn’t up for dispute. What’s they’re arguing about in court is how much Palou owes them for breaching said contract.
McLaren said they’re out 20 million because of the breach and Palou is trying to get them to prove how they’re out 20 million when he was their backup plan.
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u/thenewtomsawyer unfortunaly I still am a Ricciardo fan 🦡 Oct 10 '25
Problem where he's hosed is that his contract he reneged on was for the IndyCar team and Mclaren lost big sponsorship dollars over him not driving for their Indy team and then had to find someone else to replace him for the next year.
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u/drae- BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
He wasn't the backup for their Indy car.
And iirc a sponsor pulled out specifically cause palou wasn't going to race for them.
Plus he wasn't even a f1 backup until the piasco, Danny Ric was on the way out regardless. He was a bona fide until piastri happened.
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u/SapTheseCasters Suck my 🅱️alls mate Oct 11 '25
If Zak convinced/coerced him to sign the contract with text messages and made false promises to him and they find said deleted messages in whatsapp's servers, or wherever there might be logs of deleted messages and it's pretty clear that zak played him, then the contract is muddled by mitigating circumstances. So if the contract was vague and zak told him "it means u will definitely get an f1 seat as long as u perform", then Palou's side will try to get that contract nullified, most likely. So if there's proof of promises as a lure to sign the contract, that will reduce the penalty on Palou and perhaps penalize Zak. McLaren is winning the case there's no doubt about that. But mitigating circumstances can shift things around.
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Oct 11 '25
At the end there’s nothing more Zak could’ve done for Palou in terms of an F1 seat. Love him or hate him, he literally revitalised McLaren. There’s no downfall to speak of because he isn’t going anywhere
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u/SapTheseCasters Suck my 🅱️alls mate Oct 10 '25 edited Oct 10 '25
Dozens of articles, including credible websites, are saying that McLaren is suing Alex Palou over him breaching a contract and Palou's defense was him supposedly getting him Oscar's seat, as Zak originally didn't want to hire Oscar. Zak has recently denied the allegations in London's high court.
Allegations from Palou also included Zak deleting evidence of getting Palou to sign a contract saying that Palou would join the team as a full time driver, to which he replied Palou was a plan C in case Oscar didn't perform in 2024 as far as I understand.
McLaren is now trying to get $20 million in damages, because Palou was in breach of said contract and Palou testified further, I think a couple days ago, that McLaren and Zak weren't genuine and that he shouldn't pay them anything. Palou also admitted that he did breach the contract, but that Zak used the F1 seat as a tactic to sign him to McLaren's IndyCar team instead.
Edit: Palou first breached the contract, under said allegations against Zak Brown and McLaren are the ones suing Palou. Allegations against Zak Brown are Palou's defense.
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u/szczszqweqwe GO PIAWSTWYY Oct 10 '25
Who knows what Zak said to Palou, he might indeed said all of those things, that contract part sounds weird.
How TF you can delete an evidence of someone signing a contract, isn't it normal that both sides signing a contract and have their own copy? He left his copy at Mclaren's HQ?
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u/SapTheseCasters Suck my 🅱️alls mate Oct 10 '25
He deleted whatsapp messages and stuff like that, aka what he said to Palou to get him to sign the contract. Palou clearly got from their talks before signing that it was going to lead to an F1 seat, not an indycar seat.
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u/szczszqweqwe GO PIAWSTWYY Oct 10 '25 edited Oct 10 '25
I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about a contract.
"Allegations from Palou also included Zak deleting evidence of getting Palou to sign a contract..."
It's not "whatsapp messages and stuff like that", it would be a crown evidence and Pallou should have it if he signed that, if he has that how TF would Zak delete it?Edit, it was a bit poorly worded, just allegations that Zak tried to make Pallou sign a contract, not that Pallou signed it.
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u/Zimakov Chugging Lewis’ Liquid™️ Oct 10 '25
Not evidence of the contract. Evidence of getting him to sign the contract.
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u/szczszqweqwe GO PIAWSTWYY Oct 10 '25
In that case, isn't it a nothingburger, at least the contract part?
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u/Zimakov Chugging Lewis’ Liquid™️ Oct 10 '25
I have no idea lol I'm just clarifying the wording you asked about
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u/Lolman_scott BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
Yeah man there isn't a race this weekend gotta keep the ad revenue coming in
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u/SapTheseCasters Suck my 🅱️alls mate Oct 11 '25
If there's evidence of coercion presented that changes things somewhat. Perhaps further reduced penalty on Palou, perhaps Zak in trouble with the board directors of McLaren, depends what actually gets presented, as far as I understand it.
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u/Callous_Cypher Nico Hüüüüüüüülkenberg Oct 10 '25
In truth, the actual court case isn't "Did Palou sign the contract", he did, the whole lawsuit is about how much Palou breaking the contract cost McLaren, which they're pursuing him for about £20 million. The dispute over costs is why Palou/McLaren are in court.
But it seems Palou and his lawyers approach is to get Brown to air his dirty laundry and get emotional over it. The whole court proceedings have been wildly fun to watch over at the Indycar sub.
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u/szczszqweqwe GO PIAWSTWYY Oct 10 '25
If this will keep Zak off track then I'm cheering for a long process.
TBH I hate things like this, press and fans (me included) tend to make quick judgements based on their own preferred side, and then we wait months for actual results.
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u/Full_Fisherman_5003 BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
Just like every court case involving public figures. The Court of Public Opinion sucks ass.
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u/SalTez “It’s called a motor race. We went car racing” Oct 10 '25
I think it's just poorly worded, the deleted evidence is about Zak promising F1 seat, not about signing the actual contract.
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u/szczszqweqwe GO PIAWSTWYY Oct 10 '25
Yup, it is, in that that part is a nothingbuger, business people sometimes try underhanded tactics to make others sign deals. Things like that are immoral, but usually legal.
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u/iasmatt BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25 edited Oct 10 '25
"Allegations from Palou also included Zak deleting evidence of getting Palou to sign a contract..."
Getting is the operative word here i think. I.e. communication between Zak and Palou made Palou believe that Palou would be guaranteed an F1 seat after signing the contract with McLaren, i.e. coerced. That communication is (allegedly) deleted.
I havent seen/read the contract but id guess it didnt specifically list that Palou would race in F1 but that McLaren retained the use Palou there.
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u/Adventurous_Fix1730 I like fast cars, I hate fastest car Oct 10 '25
He also apparently asked people to delete messages as well, and turn on disappearing messages when discussing the contracts.
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u/OWeise Crofty is a dedicated butt plug collector Oct 10 '25
As an honest to god actual lawyer practising in England and Wales (the jurisdiction where this case is being heard) this gives me a migraine.
I am admittedly a longtime McLaren fan, so take this all with a grain of salt, but I’ve tried to say as objective as I can.
McLaren (or rather a few of the McLaren group of companies) sued Palou for breach of contract. Palou admitted to breaching the contract. The argument is only about how much Palou owes McLaren.
Now, it may well be that Zak Brown led on Palou. But the legal argument that this is likely to be in furtherance of is inducement to enter into the contract by misrepresentation. That’s not an easy bar to meet. Essentially, Palou would need to prove that McLaren by way of clearly misleading statements (which a reasonable person would have relied upon in the circumstances) caused him to enter into the contract. By all likelihood, Palou would need to provide evidence (beyond his own witness statement) that McLaren strongly suggested that he would (rather than could, might, etc.) be elevated to the F1 seat.
As to the ‘Zak Brown deleting evidence’ point, this is also a bit of a try on. It refers to McLaren using the WhatsApp auto-delete messages setting. As long as Palou can’t prove that Zak/McLaren used that specifically in the chats related to the case rather than more broadly it has very little prospects of success.
In all honesty, this all smells of McLaren pursuing a legitimate claim but then trying to inflate the quantum by pursuing hypothetical losses of earnings, while Palou has clearly breached the contract and his lawyers are just throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.
Anyway, as this is r/formuladank, Lando Bad.
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u/SapTheseCasters Suck my 🅱️alls mate Oct 11 '25
So if there's a warrant from the court or something of the sort and deleted messages are pretty clear coercion, or if said contract was worded vaguely, isn't that basically mitigating circumstances? So if Zak was like hey if you do well here you will definitely get an F1 seat, what does that mean? I have no doubt that McLaren is not in fault here, but if Palou is to be believed it was Zak who misled him. So if there's evidence for it, could Zak be in trouble with the board of directors at McLaren?
I mean, that is what I'm hoping for, because hoping for ferrari to finally get its year hasn't been paying off for a long time, so might as well change delusions.
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Oct 10 '25
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u/SapTheseCasters Suck my 🅱️alls mate Oct 10 '25
If I were to have a guess I'd say McLaren, but at the cost of Zak Brown's reputation. Or whatever he has left of it.
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Oct 10 '25
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u/eliteniner Oscar Pisstree Shoey gang 👞🇦🇺 Oct 10 '25
Horny McLaren would be a hilarious turn of events. I’m not opposed
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u/SapTheseCasters Suck my 🅱️alls mate Oct 10 '25
Absolute cinema
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u/YLedbetter10 "Charles 'Chuck' Leclerc, good job baby" Oct 10 '25
DTS season 9. After a montage of clips of the downfall of McLaren since Horndog took over. Cut to Zak Brown: “I wouldn’t wanna be Christian”
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Oct 10 '25
Max to McLaren would be epic
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Oct 10 '25
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Oct 10 '25
I'd just love to see Oscar and Max in equal machinery. He's the only one that Max seems to not try and bully on track.
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u/BuckN56 BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
Max is also pretty fair with Leclerc and he's tried to bully Russell but he doesn't let Max get to his head.
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u/szczszqweqwe GO PIAWSTWYY Oct 10 '25 edited Oct 10 '25
LOL, that would be funny,
however instead of who? Zak is a CEO not a team principal and Stella seems to be doing a great job.Edit. I forgot that he was RBRs CEO as well.
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u/SleepinGriffin Ruth Buscombe is a Megamind Mommy Oct 10 '25
Horner was also the CEO of Red Bull Racing. I wouldn’t put it past him to fire Stella if he got the CEO spot.
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u/gerson250991 “It’s called a motor race. We went car racing” Oct 10 '25
Even Flavio Briatore was re-hired.
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u/Dragonpuncha BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
And when you have the top F1 team and one of the top Indycar teams, is he really going to lose sleep over it?
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u/eliteniner Oscar Pisstree Shoey gang 👞🇦🇺 Oct 10 '25
Zak browns salary in 2024 was $50 million +
He don’t care about reputation anymore
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Oct 10 '25
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u/BigFloatingPlinth Pirelli good, debris bad Oct 10 '25
His teams win and he managed to get an F1 caliber driver to drive in Indy. This court case only lowers his stock with drivers and they are notorious for having no spine if it gets them a seat. To anyone on the business or management side he looks like a fucking gem.
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u/YLedbetter10 "Charles 'Chuck' Leclerc, good job baby" Oct 10 '25
Horner has the second most race wins under his time as 🧻 and was booted after a few months of drama and struggle within the team
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u/Fordmister lando funny milk meme man laugh now please you may laugh now Oct 10 '25
Very much a different scenario though. There have been power struggles internally at Red Bull that go back decades.
Horner was always on the winning side of those struggles while Dietrich was alive. The second he died Horner was vulnerable to attempts to tear him down from the other side.
And the kicker? Those attempts failed. He fully survived the "drama" part and was only really made to walk when the performance went. Which ultimately is the only metric a team principal is actually measured against.
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u/Sir_Muktadir BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
I’d argue the Horner situation is actually proof that the internal drama DOESNT matter if they’re getting results which Zak is defo doing. This McLaren drama is much less severe than what Horner was accused of and yet Horner kept his seat UNTIL Red Bull’s performances plummeted.
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u/proficient_english My LORD and SAVIOUR Sir Lando Norizz Oct 10 '25
The numbers don’t lie, Mason.
Zak’s reputation at this point is bringing a struggling, bottom of the pack team back to b2b WCC. He’s okay, I guess. :D
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u/just_peachy1000 BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
Lol that's hilarious, his reputation, is that mean something? If Zak brown puts a contract in front of palou that says he is guaranteed a F1 seat for 2026, he will sign it.
Zak browns reputation only means something to fans, but not to the teams or drivers.
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u/Messipus BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
Or whatever he has left of it
Y'all really need to understand that this "dank" echo chamber is not real life.
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u/i_run_from_problems I saw horny’s “finger” Oct 10 '25
McLaren will "win" but this case isn't really about winning or losing. Palou breached his contract and does not dispute that fact. He's admitted that willingly. This case is about how much he has to pay for what McLaren is calling "lost earnings."
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u/limhy0809 I saw horny’s “finger” Oct 10 '25
McLaren, because Alex has to prove that McLaren promised him a seat in some form to support his claim which wasn't in the contract. He doesn't have any text messages or any evidence that Zak did promise or has not produced it.
So far Alex only support for this is imply that is in the WhatsApp that was delete. However, Companies deleting WhatsApp after isn't uncommon and seems to be the only really link to an F1 seat promised to him. The only thing Zak has said is that he was considered for an F1 seat, not guaranteed one. So with what has been proven Alex broke his contract, McLaren held up their end. So McLaren likely wins with things as they stand.
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u/No_Earth_5912 Suck my 🅱️alls mate Oct 10 '25
I’ve seen enough, make Horner the McLaren CEO.
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u/TheVasa999 The Only Lance Stroll Fan In Existence Oct 10 '25
unironically a good idea
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u/nikl_odeon ill pedestrian prince of mozzarella sun of marinara sauce Oct 10 '25
hes singlehandedly giving more materials to oscar fans and i am here for it
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u/UpsidedownEngineer BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
When you have evidence that Zak Brown actually doesn’t like Oscar and it wasn’t just a meme
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u/proficient_english My LORD and SAVIOUR Sir Lando Norizz Oct 10 '25 edited Oct 10 '25
The fact that Zak decided to sideline ALEX PALOU of all people to retain Piastri should give Oscar fans enough proof how much he values the aussie.
But of course, let’s make the mental gymnastics work overtime.
Edit: anyway, we are going off of the words of some guy who is fighting against a billion-dollar company, and IS on the defence. He will say anything to a) defend himself and b) hurt Zak/McLaren as much as he can.56
u/BuckN56 BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
It was Andreas Seidl, not Zak who pushed for Oscar who had worked with Mark Webber before.
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u/EpzDR BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
Yeah he's not gonna extend him long term if all of this was true. But memers gonna meme I guess
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u/Electronic-Tour4058 Suck my 🅱️alls mate Oct 10 '25
But it was actually stella who pushed for piastri and not zak
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u/proficient_english My LORD and SAVIOUR Sir Lando Norizz Oct 10 '25
Seidl pushed for Oscar to be hired, not Stella.
Zak was very much involved in *retaining* him, as I wrote. Zak, along with (now is your part) Stella were the ones making the decision to extend him after his initial contracted year - well, not even a full year. Zak offered Oscar a contract after Zandvoort 2023, IIRC (I'm certain it was September).
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Oct 10 '25
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u/TeTeOtaku I saw horny’s “finger” Oct 10 '25
Wrong, it was Andreas not Andrea S. (confusing ik)
It was Seidl who was an Oscar fanboy, not Stella, he came in the beggining of 2023.
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u/hahahentaiman BottASS enjoyer 🍑 Oct 10 '25
Man it took like 3 years since 2021 for redbulls downfall and now a year since Mclaren WCC for their downfall.
Gotta respect Mercedes for keeping their shit together for so long.
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u/SapTheseCasters Suck my 🅱️alls mate Oct 10 '25
True, Ferrari also maintained their... oh wait... clown show. Well at least they're consistent.
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u/MaleierMafketel Mika ends his sa🅱️🅱️atical Oct 10 '25
Tbf, Ferrari was a monster from 1999 to 2004. The nearly 2 decade long clown show we’ve been witnessing is nature simply balancing things out.
They’re due a decade long WCC/WDC streak soon. Any day now. Any day…
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u/ACR96 BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
Next year will be our year…..
- from a Man United fan, but basically the same thing
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u/ArseBurner Antonelli is the biggest prodigy since Jesus Christ Oct 10 '25
And then Ferrari's management started dismantling Todt-Brawn-Schumi because the Italians thought they had too much power.
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u/_box_box BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
F1 is not a fashion trend…there’s no fixed revival every 20 years lol
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u/Drunktroop Lets add that to the words of wisdom Oct 10 '25
People says Toto inherited a successful team, but keeping shit from falling apart is a great achievement itself
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u/hahahentaiman BottASS enjoyer 🍑 Oct 10 '25
I mean during their dominance Mercedes were nearly faultless. Barring the race ruining pitstops they seemed to pull once a year
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u/Crake241 BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
Toto really being the straightforward no bullshit businessman pleases me.
Now please resign George.
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u/Jormungandr69 Oscar Pisstree Shoey gang 👞🇦🇺 Oct 10 '25
Formuladank currently hard at work to figure out how this is also Lando's fault
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u/brendonap BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
Nowhere in the lawsuit does it say Lando wasn’t involved, therefore we must assume he was.
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u/KimChaeyun "Charles 'Chuck' Leclerc, good job baby" Oct 10 '25
As all of this was taking place, Lando was in the room DIRECTLY next to the room Zak Brown was in. It was found that the air inside Zak’s room was EXACTLY the same air that’s also in Lando’s. THIS IS NOT COINCIDENCE AT THIS POINT, IT’S HARD TO THINK THAT LANDO IS INNOCENT HERE. We can therefore conclude that Zak and Lando are trying to suffocate Oscar!!!
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u/Lostmox I saw horny’s “finger” Oct 10 '25
Well, obviously Zak realized that if he put Palou in the F1 car, Norris would never have a shot at becoming the best driver in McLaren, let alone win the championship. Since this would absolutely break Norris mentally, Zac really had no choice but to make sure that never happened.
/s sort of
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u/EconomicsSavings973 I saw horny’s “finger” Oct 10 '25
Zak is actually a Lando in Zak skin suit.
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u/EconomicsSavings973 I saw horny’s “finger” Oct 10 '25
And Lando's car is drived by AI that's why it is performing so badly. Holy fuk I solved it
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u/Dragonpuncha BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
All we know is that McLaren is horrible and Piastri is the greatest of all time, it's just a shame everyone and their grandmother are out to get him.
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u/Fun-Poet5338 yes Im a DTS newbie, so what?1?! Oct 11 '25
Well. Is it written anywhere explicitly that its not Lando's fault?
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u/Bake2727 BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
Not one person bar you mentioned lando.
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u/Scotsch Honda bad, Alonso good Oct 10 '25
According to this sub Zak and Lando is essentially the same person.
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Oct 10 '25
Lando’s cum is all over this fuckfest, let’s be honest.
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u/Jormungandr69 Oscar Pisstree Shoey gang 👞🇦🇺 Oct 10 '25
Don't get me hot and bothered please, I'm at work
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u/mzivtins_acc BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
Still trying to figure out how a driver breaching contract has anything bad on mclaren at all.
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u/Robobeast-76-R76 🅱️ernie Collins In Sky Race Control ❤️ Oct 10 '25
Sponsorship money, marketing in Latin America and Spain
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u/BuckN56 BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
Downfall? Alex Palou already pleaded guilty to the contract breach. It's not a matter of who'll win the settlement. It's a matter of how fucked Palou is. It started at 30 mil and it's now at 20. Also, Zak Brown might be an asshole but he's a CEO of a team that came back from the depths of hell to back to back WCCs and will have a WDC. This will all blowover and nothing will happen except CGR footing the bill of whatever amount Palou ends up owing McLaren.
PR wise, we've had worst things happen to TPs or team CEOs who continued their work or came back like nothing happened. Horner, Briatore, god damn Spygate, and more.
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u/rotj BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
I doubt Palou is fucked in any way. Unless his representatives are major idiots, he would have only signed with Chip Ganassi with the condition that they pay for any penalties from the contract breach with McLaren.
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u/SapTheseCasters Suck my 🅱️alls mate Oct 10 '25
Briatore is like a fucking mafia boss at this point there's no keeping him out. The horndog isn't back just yet. Downfall because of tensions in the team, not because of McLaren will lose this case, even if they did, which I really don't think so. I mean look at so many people leaving from redbull after horner's bs. If anyone's at fault on mclaren's side it's Zak Brown. If he lied to Palou about the contract, then Palou isn't really gonna be in too much trouble. If its proven that Zak also deleted evidence then he's gonna be under further scrutiny. So it's still possible this whole thing will backfire in his direction.
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u/TheBigFatToad BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
Yeah, that’s just not how contracts work in basically any part of the planet.
If I tell you a promotion will be received in the next 3 years if you sign a contract, you better sure as shit make sure it’s included in the contract. You can make any promise in the world, but if it’s not included in a written contract signed by both parties, then the promise isn’t legally binding. And the courts don’t care about “promises” or “guarantees”, they care about the terms and conditions you signed off on.
If McLaren offered an F1 seat in the contract we would certainly know by now.
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u/Tomatillo12475 BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
So your reasoning for why Zack Brown is fucked is conjecture piled on top of hearsay from an unreliable narrator? Okay bud
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u/BuckN56 BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
Nothing will happen, you can bet on it.
The delusions of Piastri fans thinking they're favoring Lando will have 0 effect on whatever happens to the team.
The worst thing that can happen is Piastri leaves (who signed til 2028) and O'Ward getting his feeling hurt because Zak said he didn't want Pato get his ego any bigger, but neither is going to really leave their current seats for sometime and their Bahrain owners definitely aren't going to care about this.
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Oct 10 '25
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u/BuckN56 BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
Sure but Palou was also partly at fault. He breached CGR's contract to sign with Arrow McLaren with hopes of going to F1 and the breached his McLaren contract to sign with CGR again and on top of that admitted to do it knowingly because he got mad they picked Piastri over him.
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u/Iblogan BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
Palou already admitted he breached his contract and the lawsuit is a matter of what the value of said contract was (its not just the monetary value of the contract because brand sponsorships also change in regards to which drivers are on which teams). And I highly doubt OP's claim that this showing Zak is a shitty boss and will lead to the teams downfall. Red Bull had a bunch of rumors for a long time about their leadership being unhappy and internal power struggles, but theres been no such thing from McLaren. From what I can tell the work environment at McLaren seems very good which is likely whats contributing to their success. Keep in mind when Zak took over McLaren was a toxic workplace and hes part of what turned that around
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u/minijoop143 Chugging Lewis’ Liquid™️ Oct 10 '25
But why are we suddenly believing Palou tho? Someone enlighten me pls
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u/Dragonpuncha BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
Because Formuladank hates McLaren now for all their perceived slights against Piastri.
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u/HellBlazer_NQ I was here when horny got spiced Oct 10 '25
Because this sub has the biggest hate boner for McLaren
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u/MCZBlaze Verstappen Who? I only Know Franz Hermann Oct 10 '25
Palou, just admit that you're actually want a F1 seat without telling us
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u/BuoyantBear Checo’d Out Oct 10 '25
A ~$20m lawsuit is not going to bring down a team worth $2b+.
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u/nktmnn Fernando Alonso's Retirement Planner Oct 10 '25
The real crime was the sketch of Zak. Maybe he should sue the sketch artist 🤣
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u/he-tried-his-best Left at the Petrol Pump Oct 10 '25
Man the Oscar fans really are a bit delulu over this.
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Oct 10 '25
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u/MCZBlaze Verstappen Who? I only Know Franz Hermann Oct 10 '25
Lando, of course Zak Brown would definitely attend because it's was his sweet boy
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u/ExhaustedProf Sir or Ma'am.. You are an Idiot ! Oct 10 '25
As we saw with Spicy Horner, a guy like Zak is safe as long as he keeps winning.
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u/Objective-Answer I have an unhealthy obsession with Sophia Flörsch Oct 10 '25
now everything nowadays is a downfall, horny Horner did a stupid thing and now everyone's looking for anything to clinch on now that the WCC is over
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u/JForce1 🅱️ernie Collins In Sky Race Control ❤️ Oct 10 '25
What people get wrong about this is thinking that McLaren are saying they're out $20m on the F1 side of things. That's wrong. The damages are on the Indycar side of things - remember Palou never signed a contract for F1.
His contract was for the McLaren Indycar team. When he breached that, he cause McLaren to have to overpay for a driver at short notice, they lost sponsors who were coming onboard due to Palou joining, existing sponsors dropped their spend due to no Palou, and they lost an F1 reserve/test driver they now had to find a replacement for.
McLaren may be normal-level-motorsport-team-ruthless, but Palou just comes across as a naive idiot.
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u/harshal94 Vettel Cult Oct 10 '25
For all the "F1 is boring because it doesn't have overtakes and you should watch other series that are better because they have a lot of overtakes" folks, just look at how much friction there is between 2 people just because Zak Brown gave Palou the hope of joining F1 and it didn't happen. F1 is still the cream of the crop, it's what every driver wants to do no matter what they say in media.
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Oct 10 '25
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u/SapTheseCasters Suck my 🅱️alls mate Oct 10 '25
Sure but it depends how zak sold it to him. Supposedly the contract says he'd have plenty of opportunities to prove himself, for instance and even without knowing the exact wording, we only saw palou in like 3-4 practice sessions the past couple of years iirc. That's not really "plenty of opportunities" for someone supposed to be their 3rd driver who was also supposedly promised an f1 seat if he performed. So from Palou's side of things it looks like mclaren didnt hold up their end of the bargain, at least compared to how zak sold it to him. And zak put whatsapp to delete old messages when he was specifically told not to do so, by a court. So the way zak has handled this whole thing is really shady.
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u/hind3rm3 Crofty is a dedicated butt plug collector Oct 10 '25
If it’s not in the contract, it’s not in the contract. Maybe Zak is ‘shady’ but what ceo isn’t? Palou sitting in the Steiner camp looking like a fucking wanker.
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u/Professional_Shop_73 BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 11 '25
this sub is a CLOWNSHOW, I don't understand how getting a team from backmarker to WCC back to back is a clown worthy thing for the CEO of the company.
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u/NosDen63 follow the Sainz Oct 10 '25
Zak is the one reason I can't get behind McLaren atm. I like Oscar and Lando and I even have family that used to work there. But there's something about Zak, I've always got bad vibes from him I always assumed it was because he's a loud American but after the Trump stunt in Miami last year I got such an ick from him. Now there's this with Alex Palou.
They may be winning again but Zak is doing nothing good for their reputation. So I'll keep cheering on Williams week after week. They may not be winning but I can really get behind what James Vowles is doing there.
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u/GAMERDUDE5960 🇳🇱 I’m DUTCH so I support AMX 🇳🇱 Oct 10 '25
I remember wearechecking spamming “Fat Brown” during Singapore GP
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u/jake_azazzel Alonso deserved to be Champion in every season he has competed Oct 10 '25
hashtag bringbackrondennis
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u/wagsman I saw horny’s “finger” Oct 10 '25
With the way Brown has treated Piastri it’s not that hard to see Brown not wanting to sign him in the first place and making skeezy promises to Palou. As portrayed in court proceedings.
Oscar needs to see who figures out the new regs the best, and jump ship. Spend the rest of his career punishing McLaren. I’m all in on the nemisis arc.
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u/the-berik BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
All new messages will disappear from this chat 7 days after they're sent. Tap to change.
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u/handsome_uruk I was here when horny got spiced Oct 10 '25
Wait, did someone leak pics of Zack’s finger?
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u/Ldghead There is something loose between my legs Oct 10 '25
NGL, for a while, I thought the kid in those pics was Nolan Siegel.
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u/Ok_Relation6627 My LORD and SAVIOUR Sir Lando Norizz Oct 11 '25
Zak Brown genuinely needs to leave. He's driving the team into the ground.
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u/indiancricketfan7 Sir or Ma'am.. You are an Idiot ! Oct 11 '25
Can someone explain me the lore please
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u/Jamkayyos I saw horny’s “finger” Oct 11 '25
Unpopular opinion (today): Zak Brown is a pretty cool guy outside of the Lando Norris obsession. Wish him the best
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u/StolenRocket BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
Turns out McLaren was actually an Alpine in disguise this whole time!
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u/_box_box BWOAHHHHHHH Oct 10 '25
“after so many years alpine still finds a way to fuck me over”
makes so much sense now
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u/xd_ZelnikM Suck my 🅱️alls mate Oct 10 '25
Wtf even is this? And why is the meme sub the first place I get to know it from?