'We're definitely in trouble': O'Ward at a loss to explain lack of pace at IMS road course

Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard was fourth in the final practice session of the day prior to the evening qualifying run at the Sonsio Grand Prix.

Teammate Nolan Siegel was 10th, and down in 19th, Pato O’Ward, the third member of the McLaren trio – who’s often the first member of the group on the time sheets – was wondering how he’d find the massive amount of speed that was missing from his No. 5 Chevy.

“We're definitely in trouble,” O’Ward said as he prepared for the possibility of a wet qualifying session. “Looks like it's going to be really challenging weekend. So I'm hoping for the rain, because I don't think you can get much worse than where we're at. Christian and Nolan seem to be much happier than I am, but, yeah, maybe I forgot how to drive. I don't know.”

The gap to session leader Alex Palou was more than a half-second.

“I'm not unhappy with the balance of the car,” O’Ward continued. “I just I need five-tenths, six-tenths. It's just so strange.”

The Arrow McLaren veteran endured his worst race weekend of the season to date at Barber, the lone road course that’s been run so far, where he finished a distant 17th. Based on his struggles at IMS on Friday, it was clear O’Ward was feeling like a repeat of that weekend might be in motion.

“I've been just upside down to everything else that we've ever done,” he said. “I would love to tell you what the answer is going to be or what it is, but, if I knew, I think I'd be in a way better position going into qualifying. We need to see and and try and dig deep into what the data is, because my car isn't very different to the other two. And maybe it's something we haven't quite caught yet. Back to the drawing board.”