Pato Craves Consistency

Pato O’Ward signs autographs for fans

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — The word Pato O’Ward uses to describe him and his Arrow McLaren team in 2024 is “inconsistent.”

“I would say performance-wise, good days were great, bad days were horrible,” O’Ward said. “It just seems to be the name of the game for us the last few years because I just don’t think we’re at the level where we need to be yet in terms of reliability. I’ve still made my fair share of mistakes.”

At 25 years old, O’Ward is now firmly the seasoned veteran of McLaren’s IndyCar stable. He is entering his eighth season in the series and his sixth with Arrow McLaren. In his time with McLaren O’Ward has finished in the top five of the championship in four of the last five seasons and won seven races. This included a runner-up finish in the Indianapolis 500 after a last-lap pass from Josef Newgarden who went on to win the race for the second year in a row.

Last season O’Ward finished in the top ten in 10 of the 18 races on the calendar. However, he finished outside the top fifteen in the remaining eight races. The numbers certainly support O’Ward’s assessment of last season.

“There hasn’t been one thing that it’s like, hey, let’s just fix that. It’s not that simple,” said O’Ward. “But I just think for us, we’ve had too many of those instances where we’re just throwing away points really. Cleaning that up and making our bad days better will have a significant impact on how we’re looking at the end of the season really.”

The inconsistencies with the team were apparent beyond the raw performance on the track. McLaren had a total of three different drivers race in the team’s third full-time entry last season with Callum Illot, Theo Pourchaire, and Nolan Siegel.

Siegel was signed for the long haul by the team in the back half of the season despite that same thing having been announced for Pourchaire a week before the Indianapolis 500.

2025 will mark a significant flexion point for Arrow McLaren. The team parted ways with its team principal of the last two seasons in Gavin Ward. Former IndyCar driver and 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan has since been promoted to that role.

Kanaan had been a technical advisor and driver coach for the team ever since retiring from full-time driving. He was also the reserve driver last season for Kyle Larson’s ride in the Indianapolis 500.

“I think Tony is as qualified as anybody to be leading this group of people,” O’Ward said. “He is and has knowledge, experience of everything. He can dip his toes into marketing and communications. He can dip his toes with all the partners. He can dip his toes with his opinions with the drivers, especially with Nolan (Siegel), now that he’s coming into the team.”

Christian Lundgaard also joins the McLaren stable coming over from Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan.

The change within Arrow McLaren has run even deeper this off-season. Along with a change in the technical leadership of the team, McLaren Racing has also bought out Sam Schmidt and Mike Peterson of their ownership stakes in the team. You may recall McLaren bought a majority stake in the old Schmidt-Peterson Racing team in 2019. With the latest transaction finalized, McLaren is the sole owner of the team.

“I trust the decisions that have been made,” O’Ward said. “I told Zak (Brown, McLaren Racing CEO) I’m completely behind everything that has been done, and I’m always up to take on something else if there is an area that needs a little bit of attention and help.”