| What a tangled web motorsport contracts can weave. Earlier this month, McLaren was successful in prising Oscar Piastri from Alpine to drive its Formula 1 car next year. Today, it failed to wrench Alex Palou away from Ganassi for its IndyCar squad. McLaren Racing boss Zak Brown admits that the two totally separate issues “unfortunately came together at the same time”, which painted it as some kind of driver-grabbing caricature team. However, he was just doing his job of trying to assemble the best line-up he could – and if it ruffled some feathers of rivals, especially a disliked one, then so be it. Palou did well to stay classy in his end-of-season races amidst the noise, and to claim victory in the season-closer at Laguna Seca. Chip likes winners, so maybe he’ll forgive him. Eventually... By: Charles Bradley, Global Editor in Chief
Motorsport.com | 
