A 2018 Indy Lights champion who became a regular IndyCar race winner for Arrow McLaren, and a McLaren Formula One reserve driver.
Pato O'Ward is a Mexican driver who won the 2018 Indy Lights title and races full-time in IndyCar for Arrow McLaren. He has finished second at the Indianapolis 500 twice, won his first IndyCar race in 2021, and works as a McLaren Formula One reserve driver.
Pato O'Ward is a Mexican racer who races full-time in the IndyCar Series for Arrow McLaren. He won the 2018 Indy Lights championship, finished second at the Indianapolis 500 in both 2022 and 2024, and has been a McLaren Formula One reserve driver since 2024. Since joining McLaren's IndyCar team in 2020, he has been a regular contender for race wins and the championship.
Who is Pato O'Ward and where did his racing start?
Patricio O'Ward Junco was born on 6 May 1999 in Monterrey, Mexico, to parents Patricio O'Ward and Elba Junco. He spent his high school years in San Antonio, Texas, and has explained that his surname comes from an Irish great-grandfather, although he considers himself fully Mexican. He began karting at the end of 2005 and stayed in karting until 2012.
In 2013 he moved into open-wheel racing in Latam Formula 2000, Renault 1.6 NEC and Pacific F2000 championships. In 2014 he competed in the French F4 Championship. His first real breakthrough came in the Pro Mazda Championship, where he debuted with Team Pelfrey in 2015 and finished sixth.
He returned to Team Pelfrey for 2016 and finished the season as runner-up in the Pro Mazda championship. He then signed with Andretti Autosport for the 2018 Indy Lights season.
A 2018 Indy Lights champion who became one of IndyCar's most consistent race winners, and a McLaren reserve driver.
How did O'Ward win the Indy Lights title?
O'Ward won the 2018 Indy Lights championship with Andretti Autosport, taking nine wins from seventeen races and winning the Rookie of the Year award. He clinched the title at the penultimate round in Portland, beating runner-up Colton Herta to the championship.
The title led directly to an IndyCar debut. Two weeks after clinching the championship he drove a second Harding Racing entry at Sonoma Raceway, qualifying fifth and finishing ninth. That result tied David Martinez for the best debut finish for a Mexican driver in US open-wheel racing.
His 2019 plans were less smooth. He was scheduled to move up to a full-time IndyCar ride with Harding Steinbrenner Racing, but sponsorship issues led to his release in February 2019. He joined Carlin on a part-time deal instead, racing in thirteen events and finishing 26th in the standings with a best result of eighth at the Circuit of the Americas.
How did O'Ward's IndyCar results build from 2020 to 2023?
O'Ward returned to IndyCar on 30 October 2019 with a deal to race for Arrow McLaren SP in 2020. In that first season he clinched pole position and finished second at Road America, and he went on to take sixth in his first Indianapolis 500 start.
That performance earned him the Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year honour, and he finished fourth in the championship.
His 2021 season made him a title contender. He won his first race in the second Texas event after finishing third in the first, becoming the first Mexican to take an IndyCar victory since Adrian Fernandez in 2004. He won again at the Detroit street circuit, the first street course victory of his career, and later took the A.J. Foyt Cup as the top oval driver of the season.
He finished third in the 2021 championship behind Alex Palou and Josef Newgarden. His title hopes ended at Long Beach, where he was taken out by Ed Jones early and retired with a broken driveshaft after failing to advance to the Firestone Fast Six.
In 2022 he won his first permanent road course race at Barber and finished second in the 106th Indianapolis 500, briefly moving ahead of Marcus Ericsson on the final lap before losing the place. He signed a three-year extension with the team in May 2022, and he later won at Iowa on the short oval. He finished seventh that year.
In 2023 he had three runner-up finishes in the first five races. He started fifth at Indianapolis, his best grid position in the race, and crashed out fighting Ericsson for second. He finished fourth in the championship, with the most podium finishes and top-five results of his career but no wins.
What did O'Ward achieve from 2024 to 2026?
His 2024 season included a second-place finish at St Petersburg, which became a win when Josef Newgarden was later stripped of victory for a push-to-pass violation. At Indianapolis he finished second behind Newgarden after leading eleven laps, and at Mid-Ohio he won the Honda Indy 200 to become the first driver to claim a race in the hybrid era.
He added a Milwaukee Mile win later in the year.
In 2025 he finished third at Indianapolis behind Alex Palou and David Malukas, then won at Iowa in his 100th IndyCar race and at Toronto. His 2026 season saw him sit fifth in the standings after the Indianapolis 500, and he took his first win of the year at Mid-Ohio before sweeping the Milwaukee Mile weekend.
Did O'Ward race in Formula One?
He has not started a Formula One race. He joined the Red Bull Junior Team in May 2019 and substituted for a banned driver in a one-off Formula 2 round, but Red Bull released him after three Super Formula rounds, partly because the FIA awarded him fewer Super Licence points for his Indy Lights title.
He then built his Formula One profile through McLaren.
McLaren's Zak Brown promised him a test of the MCL35M if he could win an IndyCar race, and O'Ward delivered when he won the XPEL 375 in 2021. He drove a McLaren MP4/13 at Laguna Seca in November 2021 and then tested the MCL35M in Abu Dhabi in December, finishing fourth-fastest over 92 laps. In April 2023 he joined McLaren's Driver Development Programme, and in 2024 and 2025 he was a reserve driver with free practice appearances at home in Mexico City.
Sports car success
In 2017 O'Ward raced in the WeatherTech SportsCar series with Performance Tech Motorsports. He and his co-drivers won the Daytona 24 Hours and the Sebring 12 Hours in the Prototype Challenge class. At seventeen he became the youngest driver to win both races, and he won the Prototype Challenge drivers championship that season alongside James French.
He returned to the Daytona 24 Hours in 2022 in the LMP2 class with DragonSpeed. His co-drivers were Colton Herta, Devlin DeFrancesco and Eric Lux, and a late move by Herta in the final eleven minutes gave the team the win.
Career summary at a glance
| Season | Series and team | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Pro Mazda (Team Pelfrey) | Championship runner-up |
| 2018 | Indy Lights (Andretti Autosport) | Champion with nine wins; Rookie of the Year |
| 2018 | IndyCar (Harding Racing) | Ninth at Sonoma from fifth on the grid |
| 2019 | IndyCar (Carlin) | 26th in the standings; best finish eighth at COTA |
| 2020 | IndyCar (Arrow McLaren SP) | Fourth in the standings; sixth at Indianapolis |
| 2021 | IndyCar (Arrow McLaren SP) | First win at Texas; third in the standings |
| 2022 | IndyCar (Arrow McLaren SP) | Barber win; second at Indianapolis; seventh in the standings |
| 2023 | IndyCar (Arrow McLaren) | Fourth in the standings; no wins but most podiums |
| 2024 | IndyCar (Arrow McLaren) | Second at Indianapolis; wins at Mid-Ohio and Milwaukee |
| 2025 | IndyCar (Arrow McLaren) | Third at Indianapolis; wins at Iowa and Toronto |
| 2026 | IndyCar (Arrow McLaren) | Fifth after Indianapolis; Mid-Ohio win |
How did the 2020 season and the 2023 Dixon incident shape his early Arrow McLaren years?
O'Ward ran as high as third in the 2020 standings. Two Mid-Ohio races then brought eleventh and ninth places, and a 22nd at the Harvest GP at Indianapolis dropped him to fifth. He recovered with a second place in the St Petersburg season finale, which secured fourth overall.
The 2020 Indianapolis 500 was held in August because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Helio Castroneves replaced Oliver Askew at the Harvest GP, and Fernando Alonso ran a third car at Indianapolis.
In 2021 he took his second career pole at the season opener at Barber but could not convert it into a win there. He finished second at Gateway, grabbing the championship lead for the first time that season, before a 14th place at Portland handed it back to Alex Palou.
At the 2023 Long Beach race an overtaking attempt on Scott Dixon caused Dixon to crash out, and the move drew criticism.
When did O'Ward first run in Formula One practice?
O'Ward made his first Formula One free practice appearance with McLaren at the 2022 Abu Dhabi GP. He returned to Abu Dhabi practice in 2023, and in 2024 he made his first practice appearance of that season at the Mexico City Grand Prix, finishing the session thirteenth.
How did McLaren's Formula One testing develop?
In September 2022 McLaren announced another test for O'Ward at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, alongside Alex Palou. Zak Brown later said that the Abu Dhabi test might lead to more Formula One tests and possibly race weekend practice, but O'Ward would have to win the IndyCar championship before McLaren would consider moving him to Formula One.
McLaren had bought a 75 per cent stake in Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, and Brown confirmed that O'Ward would remain with McLaren in IndyCar for 2022.
In 2025 he took part in the young drivers' test at Yas Marina Circuit a few days after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, following a free practice appearance there.
A difficult 2022 spell and the Iowa short-oval win
After a difficult four-race stint in which he retired with mechanical issues in two races in a row, O'Ward picked up his second win of 2022 at the second Iowa round. It was his first win on a short oval.
Milwaukee and the 2024 win count
His 2024 Milwaukee Mile win was his third of that season, and it gave him his first season with more than two wins in IndyCar. It came in the first race of IndyCar's return to the Milwaukee Mile.
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