When travelling from country to country, week after week, creating a family feeling amongst the team can help boost well-being and find that extra drop in personal performance. Pato O'Ward says he could sense this during his time with the McLaren Formula 1 team at the US and Mexico City Grands Prix.

The Mexican was with the team at the two races ahead of his competitive Formula 1 debut in FP1 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and said that the togetherness shone through and made him feel at home.

"The best part of the team is that it feels like home," Pato agreed. "Whenever you are travelling worldwide to all of these different places, everything is so different, and so it is wonderful to be a part of a group of people that make you feel like you are at home, like a second family. That's what I have felt with the team here.

"I am not a full race driver for the F1 side, but I am for the INDYCAR team, and being with the F1 team in Texas and Mexico felt like coming home. That is very important."

Pato has completed three full seasons with Arrow McLaren SP in INDYCAR, finishing fourth, third and seventh in the series, taking nine podiums and four wins.

The latest season concluded in September at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, where Pato finished fifth, and the new campaign is pencilled to start in March 2023.

"I am very excited to be here, supporting McLaren in Austin and Mexico," he continued. "I can learn from the people here, and I love working in this environment. These skills will help me in whatever car I am racing.

"I can learn new skills and knowledge from this team to add to the memory bank. The whole process of trying to refine a new skill can help me."

Pato has previously tested the MCL35 and MCL35M and will make his debut in our 2022 machinery at Yas Marina ahead of his fourth season in INDYCAR with Arrow McLaren SP.

Outside of driving the cars, Pato believes there's plenty he can learn from working with the F1 team on race weekends.

"I am glad to be here at a Formula 1 race," he reiterated. "I have been testing the 2021 Formula 1 car in the past couple of weeks, and that has been an absolute joy.

"I have spent time getting more familiar with what F1 weekends are like and how the engineering and the cars work. That way, when I jump into the car in Abu Dhabi, it is familiar and comes more naturally to me. I can get familiar with the procedures and ensure that it is not a shock. I have been getting stuck in and trying to build up that feeling of it being second nature."

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