Pato O’Ward scored his first IndyCar win of his career a year ago at Texas Motor Speedway and rewarded it with a Formula One test with McLaren.
Now that he’s back on his actual track for Sunday’s race, O’Ward’s bright future is suddenly looking very bleak. He already has a contract with Arrow McLaren SP that runs until 2024, but the young Mexican driver admits he is actively looking for the job market.
What did you say?
“To be honest with you, I’m completely focused on what I’m doing right now, which is pushing and trying to do the best season that I can,” O’Ward told The Associated Press as was asked on Wednesday about his future. . “My group of people are just figuring out what my future will look like. Yeah, that’s pretty much what I have right now for you.”
O’Ward was dubious when asked what had changed in the 22-year-old driver’s affair with McLaren – “it’s a great question”, he said – but his sudden interest in The freelance market seems odd. Sunday’s race in Texas is only the second in a 17-race season in which O’Ward is expected to be a championship contender.
He has been with McLaren since the team attracted him in late 2020 after Red Bull Racing removed O’Ward from its junior driver program. Hiring is a steal for McLaren boss Zak Brown, who removed the famous veteran James Hinchcliffe to give O’Ward a seat on his IndyCar team.
For two full seasons, O’Ward helped Arrow McLaren SP elevate its program to compete with IndyCar’s elite teams. O’Ward, who splits his time between Monterrey, Mexico and San Antonio, last year won a race pair and finished third in the championship standings.
But O’Ward openly longs for an F1 trip and McLaren could finally land him in the top motorsport series – but last weekend the team signed the American driver Colton Herta into its test program. Herta and O’Ward are friends, former teammates and current rivals for the IndyCar championship.
And perhaps now a rival for time in the F1 seat with McLaren.
Is that what has depressed O’Ward in his current trade?
“I think we’ll all have to wait and see what that answer is, to be honest with you. I don’t want to lie to you,” he said. “I don’t want to lie to people and say, ‘No, no, no,’ or, ‘Yes, yes, yes.’ We’ll see how things go. I think it’s too early in the season to really see what’s going on.”
The signing of Herta did not put Herta ahead of O’Ward in the McLaren test programme, and Brown said at the season’s inaugural IndyCar race last month that he would like to evaluate some young drivers. He also said that he will not use O’Ward in F1 because it is harmful to the IndyCar program.
“What we’re not going to do is harm the IndyCar team,” Brown said in St. Pete. “I would never take Pato out of IndyCar into F1 without a great solution because IndyCar is as important as the Extreme as it is to Formula 1. This is not a training ground for Formula One.”
Brown promised O’Ward an F1 test when he won his first IndyCar race, and victory in Texas last May got him a day in the car in Abu Dhabi on December last year. O’Ward has no further contract with the F1 team, and McLaren reserves the right to accommodate any offer O’Ward may receive from another team.
But currently no IndyCar team offers a path to F1, and only a few are constantly racing for wins and championships. O’Ward said Wednesday he’s not sure where he fits in the puzzle.
“I think anything could be a possibility. Right now, I don’t know that I’m part of that,” he said of McLaren’s test programme. “I’m currently under contract with McLaren. As with anything, there are situations where I could stay where I am, or maybe there are scenarios where I could be somewhere else.”
In theory, O’Ward could move to another team as early as next season if McLaren chooses not to match any potential offers. However, McLaren could also keep him through an existing 2024 contract and the team want to extend his current contract.
Either way, O’Ward’s current unhappiness and unhappiness doesn’t bode well for a potential IndyCar run.
Taylor Kiel, president of the IndyCar team and O’Ward race day strategist, said Wednesday they will resolve the conflict.
“Look, it’s a blip on the radar, in my opinion. We’ve addressed any rumors or otherwise internally within the team,” Kiel said. “Outside noise, everything around situations like this, what it is, it’s part of sport. We have to make sure we have our house in order, when the news needs it. given, it will come from us and we go from there.”
