INTERVIEW: O'Ward wants to make McLaren an IndyCar powerhouse

Pato O’Ward sits down in a meeting room at the McLaren Technology Centre with a huge grin on his face. It’s his first day at the factory after having arrived in England the night before, but a packed schedule and jet lag is not dampening his enthusiasm.

“I sat in a bunch of cars,” he says. “Oh, man, this 2008 car… when people ask you which car is the one that gave you a massive b**** when you were a kid, that’s what I grew up watching. And then the 2012 car is the first car I saw live in action. And I was like, oh my God…”

The start of our chat goes on like this for a little while, because O’Ward is, in his own words, like a kid in a candy store. But it’s not just because of Formula 1 - ahead of a test in Abu Dhabi in December - that he’s so excited.

“When I arrive here is when I get the feeling of what I’m a part of, because this place is freaking session,” he says. “The team told me ‘Oh, you’re going to have a full day…’ I don’t care! If I’m going to be around here all day, I don’t care!

“It’s just so cool. I feel like in IndyCar we’re slowly shifting into what you get here. Obviously we don’t have headquarters like this, but what makes me know that I'm racing for such a special name is all the engagement with fans and people.

“Not sound like a tool, but a high percentage of fans at (IndyCar) race weekends were Pato fans, and that made me so freakin’ proud. It’s so cool. And they have to be McLaren fans as well, so to see so many people going there and cheering for us - we were also fighting for the championship, so I really hope that was the case! - is just really cool.

“People are very invested into being McLaren fans, and I think that’s what ultimately gives you the feel of ‘damn, you’re part of something pretty cool’.”

He’s not wrong. It has been noticeable in recent years that McLaren has engaged its fanbase in an incredibly successful way, even amid some extremely tough years in Formula 1. Those fans have been rewarded with rapidly-improving performances in F1, and a race-winning set-up in IndyCar.

But it’s not just McLaren fans who are invested. McLaren itself has invested further in its IndyCar team this year, taking greater ownership of Arrow McLaren SP. After a season in which he was fighting for the title until the final round, O’Ward is starting to see its impact.

“As soon as we started the year, it was rule number one, get your first win, get it out of the way as fast as you can, and put it on top of that as many more as you can,” he says.

O'Ward let his fan side shine during a recent visit to the McLaren Technology Center. Image via McLaren

“We only got one more, in Detroit. Honestly, what was really cool about our wins is that we won them properly. They weren't handed to us, which was really cool. And we got a superspeedway and a street course. I didn't want them both to be ovals.

“Another one of our objectives was to continuously fight for poles - we got three this year - and arrive at Long Beach with a shot at winning it. And we did that.

“We checked off all the big boxes that we had. We have now set the bar even higher than what we had set it in 2020, which will always be tough to beat, but next year the only thing we can do is win more races, get more poles and try and get the two big cookies: 500 and the championship.”

“We were no-one's doormat this year. We stamped on that we were there to compete and to win races, not just have a bunch of fans running around, like we were there to be the show.

“From my part, I proved it to everybody else, just in how we won our races. They were good race wins; we earned them.

“I believe our oval package is as good as anyone's. There is work to do in road courses, but there's too many smart people working on it for the answers not to be found. I know we're going to find them.

“For example, at the end of the year, as soon as we got taken out at Long Beach, honestly, my head just shifted into off-season and we can win next year. So I made a list. I sent two separate emails to the whole team of things we did well this year and then hammered on what we did not well and what we need to find. So hopefully that gives all of us kind of a guide to where to really focus whenever we go to the shaker and all that stuff.

“Things we did well: The pit stops were great all year. They weren't the best, we didn't win best overall for the whole year, but we were definitely good everywhere. No mistakes were done. I think our car reliability was mega. Our oval package was very good. We almost won the 500, honestly. I don't want to say what we needed, but I think people saw what we needed.

“And the things that we didn't do well is that we were very weak where we weren't strong, and those results killed us at the end of the championship. And certain focus points on where we were weak. Where on street courses? Where on road courses? Is it braking zone? Is it power down? Where exactly is it?

“But other things we did well is that we truly ticked off every major box we had. We didn't tick off every box because if we did, it means we would have won the 500 and we would have won the championship. But the major boxes were have a shot at it getting to Long Beach, which we did. Get our first win, get more poles and they were all checked off.”

O’Ward might have the "big cookies” in his sights, but he acknowledges it will be a lot of small, incremental improvements that will take him closer to those goals. And those are not going to come easy in such a competitive series.

"I haven't really thought of what next year's boxes will be,” he says. “They're going to be harder to do just because we've already set a pretty high bar. And just to any team, I mean, even to the teams that have been winning the past two decades, that's a high bar.

“So I feel like now we're at a point where anything we can find will be helpful. And we don't need to change much of what we're doing. We just need to get better at managing races, running out the front, because every time I started on pole, I just went backwards. I never went forwards.

“Sometimes when we would start close to the front, but not necessarily there, we would always go forwards. So there's definitely a fundamental thing there that we need to analyze and just see what we can do to be better.

“But I think in general we did a lot of good things, but there's definitely things that stand out that we know we need to fix. The issue is now is finding the answers.”

The 22-year-old is confident those answers will come, and even if they don’t, he sees the experience of 2021 as crucial to shaping the way McLaren will approach next season in IndyCar. It’s no longer a case of if O’Ward and McLaren have the potential to fight for the championship, because they’ve proven they can do that together, but missing out this year has taught both the team and driver where they’ve each been lacking.

“I feel like next year is a year where we can go into it and be like ‘You know what? We can win this’. I think this year it was a bit more of ‘that is the goal, let's see if we can truly do it’. And we did. I mean, we fought for it the whole year.

"But I think next year we can really go into it with championship mindset, right from the start, and just rack up points, rack up, rack up, and whenever we can take those wins, we'd take them. But ultimately we need to start in thinking big picture right when we begin.”

And as he continues to soak up the impressive facility at the MTC, O’Ward is seeing signs of the F1 history and ethos making its way into the IndyCar team to propel it to that next step.

"You can feel the thing growing; it's just growing massively,” he says. “Even from ’20 to ’21, the marketing department grew, like, five people – it doubled what they had. Engineering also, brought in new people and mechanics.

O'Ward's title hopes were ended early in Long Beach but he views the 2021 season as a step toward bigger things for both himself and Arrow McLaren SP. Barry Cantrell/Motorsport Images

“A lot of the guys that were there since I started are still there, but you can feel it grow and you can feel like there's a push coming. But I feel like there's a bigger one coming that should start in ’22. I feel like the building stage is right now, but I feel like as soon as we start the year, it'll feel even bigger than it's come to be already.

“It's kinda been like a turbocharger. All this, especially McLaren Racing basically just taking over the team… I feel like we haven't seen (the true impact) yet. I feel like we're starting to see it, but in the next year or two, we'll see just more of a turbo charge in many different areas."

It’s a timely boost that O’Ward hopes to exploit, because he has ambitions of success across the McLaren Racing spectrum.

“We're making strides, we're getting better,” he says. “But my dream scenario is, I want to win the IndCar championship and then the 500 for them. I want to be the one that takes it to them. And then I'd love to be the one that takes them to a world championship in Formula 1.

“You don't never know if it comes to fruition, but I think that we're on the path to having a chance to make it happen in IndyCar. And then I think they're on the right path in Formula 1 as well. I think I'm in a great place, great position.

“I'm not gonna lie. If the chance came up to get into the Formula 1 seat, of course I would take it because it's your dream ever since you were a kid and it's Formula 1. Like, what else is there to say? But I love IndyCar.”