Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images
O'Ward set for IndyCar and Formula E demos in Mexico
Pato O’Ward is set to appear at Formula E’s Mexico City race in January, where he is understood to be driving his Arrow McLaren IndyCar in a demonstration run, as well as sampling NEOM McLaren’s Formula E car.
The move is part of a continued effort to increase collaboration across McLaren’s extended racing portfolio, and was teased by Formula E on social media on Monday, and subsequently confirmed by RACER.
O'Ward has been the most notable of McLaren's roster to branch out across disciplines – others being the team's former Extreme E drivers Emma Gilmour and Tanner Foust, as well as David Malukas and Tony Kanaan, all of whom have sampled historic sports cars and grand prix cars in demonstrations in recent seasons.
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News of O’Ward’s planned Formula E visit comes after his latest free practice outing for McLaren’s Formula 1 team at last weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix, which took place at the same venue as the Mexico City E-Prix – Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez – although the Formula E uses an alternate track layout to the Formula 1 race.
O'Ward has also expressed an interest in competing in the upcoming NASCAR Cup series race in Mexico City – a sentiment something McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has echoed, with him expressing an interest in seeing the seven-time IndyCar winner competing in the Daytona 500 at some point.
O'Ward made his second F1 free practice appearance in Mexico City last weekend. Steven Tee/Motorsport Images
While IndyCar continues to explore the possibility of a race in Mexico City, nothing is on the immediate horizon. If it were to transpire, Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles stressed to RACER last month that it would be an "NTT IndyCar championship points race" and not as part of a standalone international series, which had been mooted.
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez was last a part of the American open-wheel picture between 2002-2007, when it hosted the Champ Car World Series.
McLaren's Formula E driver lineup comprises 12-time race winner Sam Bird and Taylor Barnard, who became both the youngest starter and youngest podium finisher during a stand-in stint last season when he filled in for Bird during a brief injury layoff. The season begins in Sao Paulo, Brazil on December 7.
Dominik Wilde
Dominik often jokes that he was born in the wrong country – a lover of NASCAR and IndyCar, he covered both in a past life as a junior at Autosport in the UK, but he’s spent most of his career to date covering the sliding and flying antics of the U.S.’ interpretation of rallycross. Rather fitting for a man that says he likes “seeing cars do what they’re not supposed to do”, previously worked for a car stunt show, and once even rolled a rally car with Travis Pastrana. He was also comprehensively beaten in a kart race by Sebastien Loeb once, but who hasn’t been?
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