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The days are growing shorter, the leaves turning brown, and the air now carries a chill… all signs of a seasonal shift we’re accustomed to: Pato O’Ward’s switch from his INDYCAR drive to his Formula 1 Reserve role.

Arrow McLaren’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES campaign wrapped at the end of August, and following a brief break, Pato is back in the UK, as part of his role as McLaren’s F1 Reserve Driver. This will see him support the team at several races in the second half of the 2025 season, and also drive in Free Practice 1 at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

After touching down on Sunday, Pato has spent Monday at the McLaren Technology Centre in briefings and on the simulator preparing for a Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) event in Imola, where he’ll drive the MCL60.

“It’s nice to see some friendly faces, plus a lot of new ones,” he says. “I see Zak through the year at our races, but I don’t see Andrea, Lando, Oscar, or any of the engineers, so it’s nice to come back and see everyone.

“[The shift] has been really smooth. It was second nature being back at the MTC on the F1 sim – that’s always a good sign, when it comes back to you naturally and you don’t have to think about it too much.”

During his visit to the McLaren factory, we sat down with Pato to reflect on the 2025 INDYCAR season and to discuss his role as an F1 Reserve, including the differences between the two teams, his upcoming appearance in Mexico City, and his love of London.  

Reflecting on 2025

2025 marked a career-best season for Pato in INDYCAR. His second-place finish is his strongest in the series to date, and the highest from a McLaren driver since Indy 500 winner Johnny Rutherford in 1976.

After a solid opening eight rounds, which included three podiums and two top 10 finishes, Pato took a step forward in the campaign's second half, ending the season with two wins and four top-five finishes in the final eight races.

“It’s been a strong year, my best season to date,” he says, smiling. “Of course, we’re always aiming to win everything, but it’s important to recognise the smaller victories that build toward the big ones, like the Indy 500 or the Championship.

“We made real progress as a team, and I’ve grown personally, too, especially in how I approach a season. It wasn’t perfect - there were weekends when we weren’t where we needed to be. But there were also races where we absolutely maximised what we had.

“My goal going into the year was to finish every lap, and we were on track until Portland, when we had an electrical failure. Still, I’m proud of the consistency and how we performed on Sundays, that’s when the points count.”

Embracing his F1 responsibilities

Pato and the team can take inspiration from their British counterparts, who, after several seasons of ‘getting closer’, are first and second in the Drivers’ standings and have just clinched a second successive Constructors’ Championship.

Before he begins to prepare for 2026, Pato will spend a chunk of his off-season with McLaren’s Formula 1 team, as part of his role as a Reserve Driver for the team.

It’s been four years since Pato first drove a McLaren Formula 1 car, at the annual post-season test in Abu Dhabi in 2021 - a reward from CEO Zak Brown for winning his first race in INDYCAR.

A lot has changed in the intervening years. Pato has driven a contemporary McLaren in each of the seasons since his debut, including in three competitive Free Practice 1 appearances. Every year, he’s stepped into a car that’s been that bit more competitive.

In the two seasons following his F1 debut in 2021, McLaren finished fifth and fourth, before winning the Constructors’ Championship in 2024. When he climbs into the cockpit of the MCL39 for FP1 at this year’s Mexico City Grand Prix, he’ll be driving the season’s leading car.

“There are changes absolutely, you can definitely see them,” says Pato on the F1 team’s improvement. “There has been a culture shift in the last decade. Andrea is the Team Principal now - I worked a lot with Andrea when he was leading the engineering side, he was always very involved in driver development, and he helped me a lot. The way his mind works is one of his best attributes.

“He has worked with some great drivers and personnel in great teams. The human side of this sport is easy to forget in this business, but Andrea and those leading this McLaren team appreciate the importance of human performance in getting the results you want.”

As the car has become more competitive, so too has Pato. As well as being one of INDYCAR’s most competitive and popular drivers, he’s embraced his role within our F1 set-up, becoming more comfortable and confident in F1 machinery.

“I better understand what the car likes now,” he explains. “Every car prefers a certain style, or a different way of bringing it into the window, the little details, and when you are learning a new car, you are trying to perfect these skills. During this learning process, you don’t know what will work, so you are exploring all of the time. I think I have a very good understanding of what it likes and enjoys.

“Once you know, it’s making sure you can robotically follow this every time, which is tricky when you aren’t in the car for long. The simulator can give you a good idea, but it can’t come close to the feelings you actually get when you are in a car. I try not to think about it when I’m in the car, I try to let my body remind itself.”

Nicknamed Mr. Fast Hands, Pato is known in INDYCAR for his ‘ninja hands’, referencing the Mexican’s lightning-fast reactions. This allows him to drive the car on a knife-edge, braking sharply and attacking the corners, on the threshold of control.

Of the two cars, he says the “more aggressive style” of the Dallara DW12 more naturally suits his driving style, although he believes that any racing driver worth their salt ‘can adapt to what the car needs’.

“There are ways where you find your groove,” he says of the F1 car. “In F1, there is just such a difference between the high-performance runs and high-fuel runs. There’s definitely not as much of a change in IndyCar.

“Any time you have a chance to drive these cars, it is really special. They really are works of art. A thousand people working on two cars, that is crazy.”

A hero’s welcome

After two FP1 appearances at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Pato was unleashed around his home circuit in Mexico City last year. Watched by a jubilant, packed-out home crowd, driving the MCL38 around the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez was the realisation of a childhood dream for the Monterrey native.

In the lead-up to last year’s race, Pato attended a meet and greet inside a Mexico City shopping mall that went viral when he was greeted by a frenzy of passionate supporters, who had packed out the mall and were desperate for a glimpse of their hero. He described it as “the loudest screams I’ve ever heard in my life.” 

Twelve months on, the 26-year-old is returning for another FP1 outing at this year’s Mexico City Grand Prix and is excited to be back in front of his home crowd.

“It will be great, they go crazy,” he says with a grin from ear to ear. “The fans really make you feel like you’re a superhero. Mexico City has a very special atmosphere.”

 

No words. 🥹

Mexico, your love is felt all around the world. 🇲🇽🧡 pic.twitter.com/VAnYY3l9VN

— Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team (@ArrowMcLaren) October 24, 2024

Before and after the appearance, he’ll dedicate time to soaking up the atmosphere, but during his FP1 outing, he’ll be helping our F1 team nail down the specifics of our setup ahead of Qualifying and the race.

“I try not to think about [the crowd] much when I am in the car, because the team will be telling me what I need to do and be asking for feedback, so you cannot be looking around too much. But on my in-lap, I will definitely have a look. It is really cool.

“I can remember hearing the roar when Checo [Sergio Perez] drove through the stadium section. I’m not sure if it’s like that for me – but I’ll ask my sister if it was, as she’ll be in the crowd.”

Despite his star status in Mexico, as one of the country’s leading and most recognisable athletes, Pato says he can still get around without being noticed, helped by a cap and some sunglasses.

Although sometimes, it’s even easier than that…

“There have been times where I’ve spotted people wearing my merch and I’ve gone up to them and asked where they got it from, and they’ve not realised it’s me,” he says, laughing. “Maybe they don’t have a face to the name, it’s funny… but, as soon as one person spots you, that’s it, you are done!”

Switches series

While the two share a name and a racing DNA, our American and British-based teams vary in several ways. There’s the difference in size, for a start – running a Formula 1 outfit demands a much larger team than INDYCAR - but there are also the cultural differences, such as the words each team uses.

“The general scale of a Formula 1 team is so much larger,” he says. “There are still a lot of people in INDYCAR, but in Formula 1, you really do have one person for everything.

“One is American and one is British, so the teams will speak to you about the same things, but the words they are using are different, which at first, can be a little overwhelming. You have to wrap your head around the different ways of saying the same thing.”

Understandably, it took some adjustment at first, but much like the switch between machinery, the transition from working with an American team to a British one has become second nature for Pato, who says he loves spending time in the UK - provided it’s dry.

“I’m happy it’s not raining – the weather has been fabulous this time around,” he says of his most recent visit. “I love London, I really do. I love coming here - I know the area very well now.

“London is so exotic to me, it’s so international, you meet all kinds of people – I have always thought that is very cool. I have tried a lot of restaurants in London, although when I find the ones that I like, I do stick to them, when maybe I should try and explore more. It’s hard, because sometimes you’ll go somewhere new, and wish you’d gone with the option you knew.”

Following his day at the MTC, Pato set off for Italy to continue his culinary tour. “I’d like to explore more of Europe,” he says, adding that alongside driving the historic Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola for the first time, he was looking forward to ‘eating lots of pizza and pasta’ – and maybe even discovering some new restaurants along the way. After which, it will be time to head back across the Atlantic, ready to rejoin our F1 team in time for the US and Mexico City Grands Prix.

It’s all part of a busy off-season for the Mexican racer, who will take these valuable experiences with him into 2026, as he gears up for another run at the Indy 500 and the Championship title.