O'Ward to make F2 debut with MP Motorsport in Austria

Pato O’Ward will make his Formula 2 debut in Austria this weekend in place of banned MP Motorsport driver Mahaveer Raghunathan.

https://twitter.com/PatricioOWard/status/1143580043312009216

It will be O’Ward’s first race in Europe since 2014, when he participated in the French Formula 4 championship, and comes after Raghunathan accumulated 12 penalty points on his license last week at Paul Ricard following a string of Virtual Safety Car violations dating back to Bahrain. Raghunathan’s temporary benching means that O’Ward will share the MP garage with another driver with recent IndyCar experience in Jordan King.

RACER understands that Red Bull, which signed O’Ward to its development program in May, had also considered placing O’Ward in the Campos seat vacated by Dorian Boccolacci. That ride has since been claimed by Arjun Maini for the next two rounds.

O’Ward finished 17th for Carlin at last weekend’s IndyCar round at Road America.