Alex Palou is set to begin his third season driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, and he has claimed that the relationship with his team is now completely repaired.
The driver and team had a falling out in the middle of last season, when there was a dispute about the future of the young driver’s career. Palou attempted to sign up to drive for McLaren, but CGR simultaneously attempted to exercise a clause in the Spaniard’s contract that would keep him at the team for 2023.
The dispute led to a lengthy court battle, and it was eventually agreed that Palou would continue driving the #10 entry while simultaneously being allowed to explore F1 testing opportunities with McLaren.
Despite the few months of drama that distracted him while he contested the latter half of last year’s races, the 25-year-old is ready to put that all behind him and work with his team once again as he hunts for a second championship.
“It’s been good since everything was set the week after Laguna,” said Palou, referencing the resolution of his dispute which came just after the season concluded. “The relationship has been back to 100%, like it was before from both sides.
“Yeah, I had full access since then. Been at the workshop many, many times before I left for Europe for Christmas, once we’ve been back to prepare all the pre-season and stuff. Yeah, I don’t expect anything.”
During the dispute, Palou’s access to his own car’s data was reportedly limited to times when he was physically present in the Ganassi shop or at the track.
The team did not want him to be in possession of data that could potentially compromise the team while their relationship was in flux.
With all the other distractions and disputes seemingly behind him as well, Palou is happy with the way he navigated his troubles and is looking forward to the season at hand.
“Yeah, it was a tough year,” continued Palou. “Could have been a lot worse, for sure, than what we had, but also could have been a little bit better if we didn’t have anything around in our minds.
“I’m just happy that now we know that even with things in our minds, we were able to be successful. Hopefully we can be back to 2021 things during this season. I think we have a great team.
“There’s always some moments where you’re like, ‘Oh, no, my God, this is not going the direction I wanted.’ But there was things that were out of my control, obviously. Some things that I could control, as well.
“But at the end of the day, I had all the information from my side, from other sides. I knew that everything could be settled, and it did. So, yeah, I’m just happy it did.”
