Brown denies destroying evidence as McLaren's Palou saga intensifies

MCLAREN Racing chief executive Zak Brown has found himself at the centre of a courtroom storm after being accused of instructing staff to delete messages relating to Alex Palou's aborted move to the team.

- JEHRAN NAIDOO

MCLAREN Executive Director Zak Brown.

(File)

Brown, testifying in London's Commercial Court this week, strongly denied allegations of destroying evidence, insisting that the use of WhatsApp's disappearing messages feature was "company policy" and not a deliberate attempt to withhold information.

The accusations surfaced when Palou's legal team produced messages suggesting McLaren employees had been told to use disappearing chats to "cover their ass on lawsuits."

One alleged exchange even showed Brown himself instructing team members to "keep everything on WhatsApp and then delete."

For Palou's lawyers, this behavior represented a breach of the duty to preserve evidence once litigation became likely.

Brown countered by saying the setting is used routinely across McLaren operations and that no relevant documents were intentionally destroyed.

The row over messaging has become a headline-grabbing subplot in a legal dispute that stretches back more than two years. At its heart, the case is about promises made and broken between one of IndyCar's brightest talents and one of motorsport's most famous teams.

How the saga began

In 2022, Alex Palou was locked in a messy tug-of-war between his then-employer Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) and McLaren.