McLaren has broken down its claim into a number of areas, one being $703,000 (£520,000) of “wasted expenditure” it claims to have spent on two F1 TPC sessions for Palou, who also took part in an FP1 session at the 2022 United States Grand Prix.

Palou was due to take part in further sessions until he announced that he would breach his contract with the team in August 2023.

Lawyers for this year’s Indy 500 winner argued that McLaren’s claim should be reduced because it received a fee for selling an October 2023 TPC slot allocated to Palou.

Written evidence shows that Hirakawa and Toyota paid $1,068,917 (£805,000) for one TPC event, almost £300,000 more than McLaren says it cost to run Palou in two TPC events.

The cost was part of a $3.5m package that included a further TPC run, and the Yas Marina FP1 session.

The financial details form part of Palou’s defence against McLaren’s damages claim. His legal team says that the Spaniard should not have to pay the team for the testing sessions because they benefitted McLaren.

“This expenditure was not ‘wasted’,” say documents submitted by the defence. “McLaren got precisely what it expected to: an F1 reserve driver from October 2022 to August 2023, and an opportunity to assess his potential in an F1 car […] any such claim is reduced by reason of the $3.5m which McLaren Racing has or will receive for granting Mr Ryo Hirakawa the opportunity to take Mr Palou’s place in its ‘Testing Previous Car’ programme and participate in an FP1 test session at the Abu Dhabi GP in 2024.

“McLaren Racing accepts that it must give credit for $1,068,917 of Hirakawa payments; it denies that it must give credit for the remainder.”

The case has shone more light on to the costs involved for even the most talented drivers to reach Formula 1. While not all drivers pay the same level of fees as Hirakawa to take part in testing and practice sessions, they will typically need to fund themselves through junior ranks, whether or not they are part of a team’s academy scheme.

Team boss Zak Brown said under cross-examination that “even Lando Norris” paid to be part of the F1 team until his promotion to a full time race drive in 2019.

As well as deep pockets, drivers taking part in FP1 sessions must have a free practice superlicence, which requires 25 points. These are awarded by dozens of championships, and, as an example, could be achieved in three years by finishing second in a senior karting series, then runner-up in a national F4 championship and then second in the Euroformula Open series.

The McLaren and Palou case, which continues next week, saw both sides vociferously argue over the dispute, with Palou saying his McLaren contract was based on “lies and false impressions”.

Brown denied this in cross-examination, as well as being accused of destroying evidence in relation to the case, which he also refutes. The case continues next week.