Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward is Chilling
Photo by Matt Fraser, Penske Entertainment
He finished second in last year’s Indianapolis 500. He’s finished second three times already this season, including Saturday’s GMR Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. But instead of being frustrated, driver Pato O’Ward is chilling.
Maybe a younger Pato O’Ward would’ve been frustrated by finishing 13-seconds behind Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou Saturday. But, instead, the 24-year-old Mexican accepted it wasn’t his day, and was excited about the performance of the entire Arrow McLaren team, with new teammate Alexander Rossi placing third and Felix Rosenqvist coming in fifth.
“Super stoked for the team. We put three cars in the top five. Fricking hard to do in this series with how competitive it is. Just stoked for everybody in the organization, for our 5 crew.
“We made our strategy really work, right? I just think today Palou and Ganassi were very, very strong, so we couldn't quite get them there in the end.
“Historically this hasn't been the best of tracks for us. So this is awesome to see just the massive step forward we've taken here in race pace. Super happy to see that.
“Rolling with some great momentum into our Super Bowl.”
That Super Bowl is the Indianapolis 500. And after coming so close last year, O’Ward has plenty of confidence coming out of the grand prix.
“I mean, I think confidence comes with -- what I'm getting at, it's a different beast, right? Indy is different. We're not really going to know what we've got up until we put all the fast bits on the car, we see where we stack up.
“Obviously last year the Ganassis were the different benchmark. They're the ones that we're chasing. We've been putting so much hard work. I know the engineers have spent endless hours of just time in all the different ways that we can find lap time for Indy.
“I'm just so excited to see what we can do. We've continuously put ourselves into good positions there past few years. I think I can do it again for all of us at the 5 stand. Hopefully we get that opportunity and go that one more step that we want to do.”
Photo by Walt Kuhn, Penske Entertainment
The Arrow McLaren team expanded to a full-time three-car effort for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season and has added a fourth car for Tony Kanaan for the 500. With Rossi and Kanaan, both 500 winners, part of the effort this month, O’Ward will have plenty of experience to draw upon.
“I mean, obviously there's so much that you can tap into, chat with them in certain scenarios, right?
“Indy is a different beast in its own where I feel in my experience I've always been on my island. We know we've had (Juan Pablo) Montoya, (Fernando) Alonzo. Everybody usually just goes with what they're comfortable with. If you keep chasing something that maybe your teammate likes, you need to find what works for you. When you find what works for you, that's how you are going to put yourself in positions to win the race.
“You're not going to get there by trying to chase someone else's setup and hope you can drive it the same way. Everybody drives differently. So I think it's all about maximizing what you need from your car, trying to help the whole team while you're doing that, right?
“A lot of the times my car, my teammates never liked my car. Montoya was on the other stratosphere of setups. Yeah, it doesn't mean one's better than the other. We just drive very differently.
“When you're going 230, 240 miles an hour, you need something that you're comfortable with.”
“Man, I’m flowing. I know my wins will come. I’m chilling.”
Also making O’Ward more comfortable is Gavin Ward, the new racing director for the Arrow McLaren Indycar team. According to O’Ward, Ward’s not only helped him in the car, but out of it as well.
“I think his approach. He has a very humored approach to everything. I can say he's not only helped the team, but I have improved outside of the race car because of Gavin, just kind of having a different set of eyes that looks at things in a different way.
“At the end of the day this is all a human sport. None of us are robots. We're all the ones that are putting in the work. That's what it takes.
“Sometimes it's important to know that we all need some rest and recharge sometimes. You can't always go full on. What you need is you need to make sure you're in the position to do it when it counts, right?
“Just hats off to everybody that worked so hard in the off-season. There's countless guys and gals in the team that spend many hours in the off-season to find more lap time.”
O’Ward’s three runner-up finishes so far this season have put him, you guessed it, second in the season standings. While he appears comfortable with that now, at what point does second place become a frustrated first loser if that win doesn’t come along?
“It won't. I mean, honestly, if we're second for the rest of the season, we're chilling. Yeah, they will fall. Is it going to fall the next one, in two, three, four, five? Who knows. Is it going to fall until next year? You never know.
“I sure know that what we've been doing, we've been knocking on the door every single weekend. Like, there hasn't been one weekend where we're lost, no. There's been some weekends where we haven't started off that strong. We make changes and we're right there.
“I'm just really enjoying it. We're growing massively as a team. We get to work with some pretty cool people. I mean, I know Zak (Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing) is having a total fan moment right now over there. I know he's pumped to get to the 500. There's been so much going into not just that race but for all three cars, all four cars for the 500, but all three cars for a full season.
“Yeah, we just got to keep doing what we're doing.”
In the meantime, O’Ward’s chilling.
“Man, I'm flowing. I know my wins will come. I'm chilling.”