Latest news with #FP1
France 24
3 days ago
- Automotive
- France 24
Red Bull's Tsunoda baffled after qualifying last in Spain
The Japanese driver had received support in his struggles from team boss Christian Horner on Friday, but on Saturday hit a new low that confirmed how challenging the car is for anyone other than the four-time world champion. Last season, Sergio Perez experienced a series of problems and poor results which led to his exit and this year began with Liam Lawson in the second car, but for only two races. Tsunoda was promoted from Red Bull's junior RB team but has struggled to shine and his best result is ninth in Bahrain. He was 17th in Monaco last Sunday. Apart from being outperformed comprehensively by Verstappen, the team's second drivers all appear to find the car very difficult to drive. In the first qualifying session Tsunoda was eliminated after lapping more than half a second slower than Verstappen. "It's pretty tough," he said. "Throughout the weekend, I tried to solve the issue as much as possible. I was mentioning from FP1 (first practice) that I had some strange issue and that it was just not gripping at all. He added that he had no feeling with the car. "So far what I feel is just the car is eating its tyres a lot and every lap, whatever I do, I have degradation," he added. Horner said: "We need to have a good look at it because I don't really understand it. Let's see if he's picked up some damage or something because it's unusual to be that far off." Tsunoda could be under pressure to keep his seat from RB rookie Isack Hadjar who has been in impressive form and finished sixth in Monaco.
Indianapolis Star
23-05-2025
- Automotive
- Indianapolis Star
'Hand him over to the world': How Pato O'Ward became IndyCar's biggest star
INDIANAPOLIS — As Pato O'Ward braced for his first meet-and-greet event as an ambassador for KitKat inside a three-story shopping mall in the heart of Mexico City, the Mexican racing star, seven times a winner in IndyCar who already had participated in two prior Formula 1 weekends before his planned FP1 in his native country's Grand Prix that week, thought he might be greeted by 150 fans. They'd only given folks 24 hours notice — for a meet-and-greet with a reserve driver, kicking off a weekend where race fans would likely be attempting to catch a glimpse with F1's Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. But that Wednesday evening in Mexico City, it was O'Ward who nearly closed down a shopping mall, as 4,000 fans by his estimate flooded in, hoping to catch a glimpse of the 25-year-old who'd spent his first 11 years growing up in Monterrey, before his family moved to San Antonio as his budding racing career began to take off. As O'Ward waded through a sea of utterly crazed, but mostly polite, supporters, there were moments when he had to physically carve a path through the sea of humanity. He could be seen staring up to the second and third levels, where late-arriving supporters were five or more deep. Every so often, as the crowd chanted O'Ward's name, he'd reach up with both arms and wave to his right, then pivot and do the same to his left, as escalators screeched to an emergency halt and nearly buckled under the weight and off in the distance a piece of crystal shattered. '(Expletive) crazy,' he says now, sitting in his Meridian Hills home one April afternoon, lounging in his Ninja PO bamboo pajama set, just one piece of an expansive and ever-growing merchandise empire he launched nearly a decade ago but which has only really taken off in recent years. 'This was the first time I'd been with my brother that it genuinely hit me that he's proper famous,' O'Ward's older sister, Elba, told IndyStar while sitting in her brother's bus during IndyCar's stop in Long Beach last month. The moments most engrained in Elba's mind that Wednesday evening are the paparazzi on motorcycles, surrounding the pair's getaway car, their flashes attempting to pierce the tinted glass. 'You had people running on foot, chasing us just to get a picture, like true celebrity paparazzi,' she said. 'There were people trying to communicate with our security. 'Where should we take him?' The car couldn't hardly move at times, because there were people all around, and I remember laughing. 'Oh my gosh, I'd never experienced anything close to that. It just hit me, 'Holy moly, is this for real?'' That's not to say fame had been altogether new. Those small, organic moments — whether it be snickering, whispering teenage girls in an ice cream shop in rural Wisconsin, one of whom dropped her ice cream as IndyCar's superstar approached to say hello; or the near-hyperventilating young woman standing a couple spots behind him in line at a San Antonio coffee shop; or the waiter at an upscale Greek restaurant in midtown Manhattan — have only become more frequent, making it clear that O'Ward has begun to breakthrough into mainstream notoriety. The Arrow McLaren driver expects the crazed fans, decked out in papaya, scrambling to reach him while standing in unorganized lines at IndyCar autograph sessions, as small pockets chant his name and home country over the span of an hour to the point that it blends into the background noise of roaring engines. But it's another thing to be almost unable to move moments after leaving a restaurant during a quiet night out on a race weekend. In most moments, these are interactions O'Ward embraces. 'I enjoy giving someone the time of day, whether it's a minute, or 30 seconds. It goes a long way,' he said. 'They make you feel like Brad Pitt.' But there have been moments where stardom has become draining, where O'Ward has had to grapple with the cost of getting to pursue his dreams — and, at times, reaching them — while discovering his worth and where his joy lies, and paving an unchartered path in a sport that hasn't seen a true mainstream superstar in recent memory. And on this ride, his ultra-tight circle of trust — his mother, father, sister and a select few — has been living this emotional, at times all-consuming rollercoaster alongside him. Seeing that young boy who made P-O-branded hats and shirts when he was go-karting to give to those who lent a hand turn into the man who hypnotizes young women with his wink — and has a massive cardboard box of friendship bracelets to prove it — and who gives his sister goosebumps when he wins feels more motion picture than real life at times. '(Elba) came back (after the KitKat event), and I'm like, 'How did it go?! I was seeing Twitter!' And she started crying her eyes out,' said O'Ward's mother, whose name is also Elba. 'She's like, 'Mom, to see Pato like this…' 'It was so touching. You'd never wish this for your kid. It's not like I've always wished he had a high-stakes career, where my nerves are shattered every weekend. But it's almost like you have to hand him over to the world. 'Here is my child. These are his dreams, and this is what he's fighting for.' You don't want that, but you need to, because that's what he wants, so then it's worth everything.' Said his sister: 'It's one thing for you to freak out about your family member. I mean, we love and adore him, but to see a complete stranger that I've never seen in my life, and he's never seen in his life, and their eyes glass over, and they say, 'You motivate me. You inspire me. You change my life. I love you so much.' Just a total stranger. It changes you. 'The next day, I felt like my heart couldn't fit in my chest, I was so proud. It was so cool to see them really embrace him so much.' Pato profile: How O'Ward has fared in IndyCar, this season and beyond "Your best investment will always be yourself." Those words from O'Ward's father, Patricio, ring through the 26-year-old driver's everyday life like it's branded on his chest. Though he remains a bachelor, IndyCar's most popular driver recently purchased a large two-story brick home, tucked toward the end of a sleepy cul-de-sac in the upscale town of Meridian Hills. Guests are greeted by two stone lions on his porch next to a driveway with a basketball hoop. His backyard contains a putting green he rarely uses — but scoffs at the $15,000 he's been told it would take to rip out — and envisions putting in a life-size chessboard or racquetball court there. His roomy kitchen is his sanctuary, the base where Chef Pato might cook up a brunch for last-minute guests or a steak dinner for close friends, as his automatic grand piano that sits in his entryway providing the evening's background noise. A tasting room, tucked away past a large plush beige couch, serves as a luxurious hideaway, and his basement is equal parts entertaining space and trophy case. While some drivers might see putting down roots in Indianapolis a cost of doing business in IndyCar — and there are many who live elsewhere — the city once chided as Naptown is perhaps the perfect fit. O'Ward scoffs at the idea of any lengthy time spent in the energetic nightlife of Miami and says, 'To me, the epitome of luxury is peace and freshness. Fresh food, beautiful greenery — to me, that's the definition of the best life I can have and I find anything I want here.' If O'Ward can't be on a quiet, secluded Mexican beach, grocery runs to Whole Foods just down the road, dinners out at Anthony's for steaks, Peto's for Greek, Convivio for Italian or Verde for Mexican and afternoons enjoying the quietness of his lush, large backyard is his paradise. And this quaint little life he's built for himself in Indianapolis and that lesson from his father began to seriously take root in his first extensive IndyCar season when he remembers his first fully throated attempts to shape his brand who would become known for more than his wins, poles and fast hands. At that second race of the 2019 season in what turned into a partial campaign with Carlin, O'Ward says he purchased his first suite with an aim at reselling them to deep-pocketed fans, admirers and supporters. In his unique, colorful language, O'Ward describes that financial move in rather simple terms: 'I lost my ass on it, and I was already broke.' At the 2021 season finale in Long Beach, a race he entered holding an outside chance to clinch the title, he purchased a suite for $45,000 and lost more than $15,000. Still, he did so again at St. Pete, Texas, the Indy 500 and others in 2022 as a way for his growing fan base to get a little something extra. He gives away grandstand tickets with the purchase of a certain amount of merch on Pato Shop — he bought 300 tickets for this year's 500 for those who bought $150 in Pato apparel — or offering suite experiences where he might do a meet-and-greet or take pictures and sign autographs. Famously, he's known to have helped delivered an outsized portion of IndyCar's fanbase that attended the final few races at Texas Motor Speedway. 'I used to lose thousands of dollars on suites, and the first time I didn't was Texas in 2023. They're hit or miss, and it's all about the price point,' he said. 'I started with taking people who had been helping get my name out, so I wouldn't totally say it was a loss. If I were to see suites as a business, I definitely lost money, but it gave cache at places people already wanted to be.' 'Turn this sport upside down': Pato O'Ward featured in latest Fox IndyCar ad Even now for the 500, he says at best he comes away flat with the outsized need of having to procure suite tickets for personal sponsors who arranged for such in their deals with him. He says he never charges his family, but he's gotten to a point where friends of his need to pay at least his costs. 'My rule is always, if you want to make money, you need to risk money. To make your first $1 million, you're going to need to lose tens of thousands. To make your first $10 million, you're gonna lose $1 million, and to make your first $100 million, you're going to lose $10 million. It's not always going to be 'take, take, take, take' and it's not going to be easy,' O'Ward said. 'You have to trust that what you're doing and what you want to do, that you believe in it, and when you lose, you stay in it. 'We all want to win races and championships, but in this day and age, how you grow your brand is a lot heavier than what you actually achieve on track, and that's what's going to give you longevity. At some point, if it's all just based on what you do on track, someone's going to come around and kick your ass, and you're not gonna last very long getting your ass kicked if you haven't had the other part of your business up and rolling.' O'Ward has seemed to be on the forefront of driver-centric merch lines in IndyCar that has seen Josef Newgarden and others follow suit. Starting with the basics branded with his personalized P-O logo, followed by his pajama line and capitalizing on the late-summer "Pato Who?" drama with a series of shirts and hats, Pato Shop has taken off in recent years. It first turned a profit in 2022 and then doubled in 2023 and again in 2024. 'Pato Shop takes care of a lot of things, now,' said O'Ward, who employs a personal photographer and videographer and frequently flies on a private jet that features his own duck emblem. (Pato means "duck" in Spanish.) Once things began to pick up, O'Ward took note of his ever-growing female following, which according to his social media accounts was just 11% in 2019 and has grown to 52%. His sister asked for his help launching a women's line, which featured relatively simple, somewhat standard pieces. But this year took on an altogether different vibe — merging Elba's chic, unapologetically high-end feminine style with her brother's brand and the idea that female race fans might want to wear something more than an uber-graphic tee or a jersey to the race track to support their favorite driver. So their collab was born, featuring a three-piece lounge set and vintage racing club tee both branded with "O'Ward Racing Club," a blue striped button-down and white cardigan with O'Ward's personalized duck logo emblazoned with his No. 5 and a simpler black tank-top and white t-shirt with 5 on the chest. Run out of their parents' home, as largely the entire Pato Shop action is, nearly 1,000 pieces sold out in 24 hours with 500 orders in the first six hours. At the Long Beach race weekend, the mobile on-site Pato Shop, which O'Ward recently upgraded to a trailer after his tent was destroyed during a dust storm at The Thermal Club earlier this year, featured a restock of 600 pieces from the brother-sister collab alone, along with 500 hats and more than 200 jerseys, tracking toward 2,000 pieces of merchandise in all. 'I don't wear a lot of logos or loud stuff, and I think there's probably lots of women like me who want to look cute and also support their drivers and don't want to be in full on merch. Maybe something you could wear to the grocery store day to day,' Elba said. 'The girls came up with a term for it — silent merch — like, 'If you know, you know.' And I came up with the little duck emblem, so you can rep him, but it's done subtly. 'And that versatility appealed to people. The sport's growing with girls, and no one thought to do something for the girls, and that's what made it a good balance of everything.' O'Ward believes the number stands at six or seven: The number of Pato fanatics with the Arrow McLaren driver's signature or his P-O logo tattooed on their bodies. Through two race weekends in 2025, he'd already signed two different fans' chest. The first? A heavy-set, rather hairy Latino man while walking off pit lane at St. Pete. The other came a few weeks later in the autograph line at The Thermal Club, when a young blonde woman accidentally smeared the signature on her phone case, and then cheekily asked, 'Sign here instead?' as she yanked down her shirt. 'Pato who?' IndyCar driver Pato O'Ward puts up billboard, sells merch line But if you spent an autograph session as a fly on the wall at the team transporters, those would sound like a rather tame Friday afternoon. For O'Ward, they begin with an unspoken competition of how many hero cards he can sign as quickly as possible, largely to get ahead of the rush. In the cramped Long Beach paddock, three separate mazes of lines form, wrapping every which way like a spider's legs stretching outward from its body. Quickly, event workers find themselves perplexed on which one to honor and move fans through. An attempt at alternating only adds to the chaos, leading to one unwelcomed fan sneaking behind the stanchion in a feeble attempt to jump the line and grab a selfie. O'Ward doesn't hardly bat an eye at the annoyance and keeps on signing whatever's set in front of him, from the typical merch from the onsite IndyCar store to bedazzled denim jackets, sombreros and Stanley cups. Often times, the signature or selfie is returned with a gift of his own, ranging from friendship bracelets to hand-painted, half-naked Pato-inspired figurine. Before the evening is over, one rowdy patron will be forcibly removed by security, and another scuffle about spots in line sparks a shouting match, as a chorus of papaya-clad infants cry and chants of, 'Mexico, Mexico, viva Mexico.' and 'PATO, PATO…' ring out. Says one security guard with 10 minutes left: 'We can't put Pato in the paddock anymore. We've got to get him his own autograph session.' Two days earlier, O'Ward spent the better part of 30 minutes posing by his McLaren loaner road car for the weekend as more than 15 groups of elementary and middle school kids cycled through and posed with him for a series of group photos at the Petersen Automotive Museum. The youngest ones are giggly and can hardly stand still and focus on the camera to pose, but as they get older, the pre-teen disinterestedness vibe grows. One boy asks in passing, 'Do you have any championships?' To which O'Ward answers rather dejectedly, 'In IndyCar? No…' Earlier that morning, he'd flown from Texas to L.A. and drove up straight to the museum with bags in hand. He'd waltz on stage as a wave of whispers followed from the back of the room onto the stage, kicking off this community event sponsored by longtime team partner, Mission Foods. There, he'd answer everything from basics about this career trajectory and the physics of racing to silly questions like, "What do you like to have for lunch?" — answer: tacos — and, "What's been the scariest moment of your career?" — answer: watching my friends get hurt. His movements in a manic 90 minutes feature brief, frequent stops for a selfie here and an autographed diecast there. After a quick trip down to the museum's basement, where he lusts over a La Ferrari, it's off to a rushed pitstop lunch for sushi before an afternoon with the Los Angeles Chargers that will feature a legitimate workout that leaves his quads and hamstrings quivering, social media shoots for both teams and a segment for Sunday's race broadcast with linebacker Denzel Perryman. Pilot Pato: Go inside the cockpit as the Arrow McLaren driver learns to fly a plane After canceling taping an episode with a popular racing podcast in a studio near the ocean, O'Ward takes this journalist in a spin around the block in his McLaren 765LT for what starts off as a follow-up interview on his rise to stardom and quickly turns into a therapy session, the rather uncomfortable Senna seats O'Ward's version of a lounging couch. 'So … what are these days like for you?' And the driver whose perhaps both best and worst traits are his inability to lie takes a lengthy sigh and pauses. 'I don't like to lie. They're very draining. A lot of people, 95% of the world, thinks I'm an extrovert, but I'm actually the opposite. I'm an introvert. I don't leave my home if I don't have to. I take vacations, and my main priority there is peace and quiet,' O'Ward says, first gunning the gas before beginning to make rather aimless lefts and rights at his leisure. 'I love early nights and early mornings. I like to start my days with a workout. I eat very clean. I like to cook and spend time with the people I love and enjoy, but that circle is really small, really small. The only people that actually know me, know that. 'I love dedicating the time to kids, cause when I was a kid, and I idolized somebody, I could never imagine getting to take a picture or have a conversation with them, so I always try and take the time to do it, but we all have a battery, right? So, you're always trying to use that battery for what's important and where your priorities lie, and obviously, too, part of this job is a lot of things off track, even more than it used to be.' Weekends like Long Beach, which to him feel like the five busiest days of the Month of May jammed together, hammer that sentiment home, he said. 'I feel like everyone wants a piece of you. A lot of the brands, when we go to big markets, they're big markets for a reason, and that's where they really hammer me,' he said. 'I love things like what we just did with the Chargers, and you get to meet someone who's a pro at their job. I love that insight. 'These days, they're not so draining, but the ones that are for me, personally, and where you're signing and standing around for an hour-and-a-half and taking pictures. What makes those better is when you see somebody who's really excited; that's what makes those better. But if you asked me if I wake up and look forward to doing that? Not every day. I try and look ahead on my calendar to make sure I have some battery saved up, because I know they're going to happen. I think it's always important to show a good face, and do it with a good attitude, because it's a lot more damaging to people here when it's not done properly.' When those "off" moments come, few and far in between in what's often a non-stop schedule for large chunks of IndyCar's six-month calendar, his family fights fiercely to help O'Ward preserve them. Last offseason, Elba practically demanded he hire her as his unofficial PA, helping arrange anything from flights to dinner reservations and hotels, while also attempting to act as a go-between for just about everyone trying to get a slice of IndyCar's most popular driver, outside his team and his inner circle. When he's back home visiting his parents in Texas, O'Ward's mother often finds herself loathing the times when family friends reach out asking for favors. "Can my daughter interview Pato for her class project?" "My nephew would love a signed Pato jersey…" "Do you think my friend could come by and meet Pato, just real quick?" All the while, all his mother wants is to spend those tiny moments slaving over his laundry, cooking him food and making sure he doesn't have to lift a finger. 'If you say yes to one, what's the excuse to say no to all the rest?' Elba said. 'There's just no easy solution. 'But he's gotten better at filling his own cup. He knows that going to the beach is his escape, and he started doing that more around last year when he starts to notice his battery. He'll purposefully put it on his schedule, 'I need this time to myself,' and he's gotten better at saying no to some things. As the demands have gone up, he's doing better at saying no when he starts to feel overloaded.' Some of that insulation, he says, stems from an increased awareness in feeling like he needs to be extra vigilant in protecting this brand he's built. Staying hyper-focused either on work, family or slow days at the beach in Mexico leave little time for what one might consider to be a somewhat normal social life. O'Ward says right now, as he flirts with Formula 1, tries to break that glass ceiling on his IndyCar career and find that final edge that he hopes will led to an Indianapolis 500 victory, there can be no distractions. 'I find myself becoming more anxious because I'm not just protecting myself anymore. I'm protecting brands, and I feel like the bigger someone gets, the heavier that gets, cause there's more money involved,' he said. 'That's part of growing up and maturing. It puts an emphasis on, 'Who can you be seen with?' If you're out in public, you can't be seen doing stupid stuff or acting crazy. F1 temptation: Could IndyCar's top drivers resist? New Cadillac team could test that 'I've never had doubts of not performing, or whether I can do this or can I do that? But I definitely have my moments where I'll overthink, just like anybody, and it can wear you down, man. You have to be so careful, cause in a blink of an eye, you can lose it.' And there was a moment, a career-defining moment a year ago this week, when O'Ward seemed primed to cash in on those endless autograph sessions and selfies and early mornings and thousands of dollars he set on fire on suites. As the white flag zig-zagged through the dusk of the late-spring midwestern sky, a flash of papaya zoomed by a blip of red, white and yellow and tore around the south short chute of Indianapolis Motor Speedway ready to be showered in glory. And then, within a matter of seconds, that dream was gone. With no regard for anything but winning, Newgarden swung around the outside and pinched O'Ward's No. 5 ever so slightly coming into Turn 3. Half a lap remained, but hope was gone. And when O'Ward finally finished that largely silent cooldown lap, pulled into his pit box and undid his belts, he flopped and folded over his aero screen with emotions far deeper than disappointment and dejection. It was pain, plain and simple. For the second time in three years, he'd been forced to accept runner-up in the biggest race in the world, and for three years straight, he'd entered the final 10 laps feeling like the race was his to win. The driver who'd made a name for himself for being famously unfiltered — both the series' most popular driver, but at times its biggest and most frequent critic — again wore his emotions all up and down his fire suit. As his mother and sister sit patiently and reflect over the last year and a fandom that has entered a new stratosphere — merch lines, suite packages, Super Bowl ads, billboards and all — they both point to that moment as the epicenter of when this whole career of longing to be someone finally clicked. The hours this self-described introvert had spent wading through throngs of fans or posing for photo after photo, trying to force each smile to be more genuine than the last, or signing autographs until his fingers grew sore and his Sharpies ran dry … those moments let you meet Pato O'Ward. In his deepest, achiest pangs, the world really could see Pato O'Ward. 'It's no fun to watch the story of a hero who arrives and just wins. Why does it matter if you win, if you're always winning? Are you even human?' his mother said. 'It's just so very rare to see him really down, and actually see him kinda stand there, not immediately getting up, and just standing and absorbing that. 'I think so many people could relate to that.' Said Elba: 'There were people who'd seen and known about him, but they weren't fans. And all of a sudden, they've become a fan. He was well-known and loved by a lot of people and had his own fans, of course, but that moment, I have people come up and tell me, 'That's when I became a Pato fan.'
Time of India
09-05-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
Pato O'Ward: 'Excited to jump back in car': Pato O'Ward lined up for home FP1 race with McLaren at 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix
Mexican racing driver Pato O'Ward will return to the Formula 1 grid at the 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix , driving the McLaren MCL39 in Free Practice 1 . The 26-year-old full-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES competitor will take his latest stint in the F1 paddock as a part of his continued function as McLaren's reserve driver. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now This is O'Ward's second straight FP1 session at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez , providing home fans with a homegrown hero to support again. Pato O'Ward continues McLaren F1 integration with FP1 run at Mexico City Grand Prix Pato O'Ward's next appearance at the 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix will not only put him behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car for longer but also solidify his role in McLaren's development plans. The team confirmed O'Ward will be taking the seat during Friday Free Practice 1 on October 24. 'I'm excited to be jumping back in the car for FP1 at my home race in Mexico this year,' he shared with 'The Mexico City fans were unbelievable last time out, and it was a great feeling being able to extract everything from the programme that the team had planned. I'm looking forward to going again this year, working with Zak [Brown, McLaren CEO], Andrea [Stella, McLaren Team Principal] and the whole team.' F1's rookie rule and McLaren's 2025 driver strategy Under existing Formula 1 rules, each team must give two Free Practice 1 sessions per year to novice drivers—drivers who have started no more than two Grands Prix. McLaren has already announced that more will be said about the remaining three FP1 sessions allocated to young drivers in 2025. O'Ward's regular attendance in these sessions makes him a good choice in case of a substitute need, and his consistent performance in the INDYCAR circuit further adds to his credentials. Also read: As Mexico City gets set to host its motorsport hero for the second time, the spotlight will be on O'Ward to produce both speed and heart for an electric home support crowd.
Fox Sports
08-05-2025
- Automotive
- Fox Sports
O'Ward To Drive for McLaren F1 Team in Practice at Mexican Grand Prix
INDYCAR The McLaren Formula 1 Team announced May 8 that Arrow McLaren IndyCar driver Pato O'Ward will participate in Free Practice 1 at the 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix for the second consecutive year. O'Ward, from Monterrey, Mexico, will take the control of the MCL39 at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez for his home race Oct. 24. 'I'm excited to be jumping back in the car for FP1 at my home race in Mexico this year,' O'Ward said. 'The Mexico City fans were unbelievable last time out, and it was a great feeling being able to extract everything from the program that the team had planned. I'm looking forward to going again this year, working with Zak (Brown), Andrea (Stella) and the whole team.' The Free Practice 1 outing is part of O'Ward's continued role as a McLaren reserve driver in the team's F1 reserve driver pool. Following the conclusion of his Arrow McLaren driving duties in the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES, O'Ward will be available to the team in the same role he held throughout McLaren's Formula 1 Constructors' Championship-winning season in 2024. 'We are pleased to confirm that Pato O'Ward will participate in Free Practice 1 at the 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix as he gains valuable time behind the wheel of the MCL39,' McLaren F1 Team Principal Andrea Stella said. 'Pato provided an appreciated contribution last season and continues to impress in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, making him a suitable driver for the Free Practice 1 session. 'This will provide further knowledge for Pato as he continues to be available as part of our reserve driver pool for the second year, ensuring we have a wide pool of drivers available to be called upon if required.' recommended in this topic
The Herald Scotland
02-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Herald Scotland
McLaren escape with FIA warning after Lando Norris sent out with tools in car
But his weekend started in peculiar circumstances when he took to the track with two torches still inside his car. A less than ideal start to FP1 for Lando Norris 🫠 It appears a garage tool had been left in the cockpit on his out lap#F1 #MiamiGP — Formula 1 (@F1) May 2, 2025 'You have left so many tools in the cockpit,' said Norris over the radio. 'Everything is just falling apart.' Norris was able to return to the pits, but the FIA immediately launched an investigation over McLaren allegedly 'releasing a car in an unsafe condition'. The team were found guilty of the offence and were handed a warning. An FIA statement read: 'The team admitted in the hearing that they made a genuine mistake by leaving two torches/flashlights in the cockpit when releasing car four (Norris) from the garage. 'However, the driver realised directly after entering the track that some equipment was in the car and was able to secure both parts shortly after leaving the pit exit before returning slowly to the pits. 'The stewards determine that the incident qualifies as a car being released in an unsafe condition, but the driver realised the problem extremely quickly and reacted adequately to prevent any unsafe or dangerous situation. This is taken into account in mitigation and a warning to the competitor is issued.' Later in the session, Norris was then forced to take evasive action when he approached Esteban Ocon's Haas at speed on the back straight. Norris, who has not won a race since the opening round in Australia and sits 10 points behind Piastri, had just set the fastest middle sector of the session before the running was suspended when Ollie Bearman put his Haas in the wall with just four minutes to go. Norris was unable to complete his lap, leaving him 12th in the order as Piastri set the pace for McLaren, 0.356 seconds clear of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. Max Verstappen was in his Red Bull cockpit for the first time as a father (Rebecca Blackwell/AP) Max Verstappen was in his Red Bull cockpit for the first time as a father after he announced the birth of his first child, Lily, with his girlfriend, Kelly Piquet. Verstappen, absent from his media duties on Thursday, finished third in practice, four tenths off the pace. Lewis Hamilton conceded his difficult start to life at Ferrari could last all season and he was only 13th, 1.4secs down. The Miami GP is the first of three races to take place in the United States this season, with rounds to follow in Austin and Las Vegas later in the year. And it was announced in the moments prior to practice that a new deal has been rubber-stamped to see the fixture remain on the calendar until 2041.
