Pato O’Ward is the Indy 500’s rock star: Why fading F1 dreams led to racing fame

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Fans began shrieking inside a shopping mall in Mexico City.

Given the number of people crowded inside the building, lines snaking down halls, one may think a pop star or a celebrity athlete, like now-former Formula One driver Sergio Pérez, was making an appearance during the 2024 Mexico City Grand Prix weekend. Instead, it was for the driver who drove during first practice for McLaren that weekend: Pato O’Ward, IndyCar’s biggest star and a reserve driver for the Woking-based F1 team.

The Mexican driver was stuck in traffic and ran, with his bodyguard, two kilometers to the meet-and-greet event. As O’Ward passed lines of people outside, wrapping around the building, someone spotted him.

As O’Ward hurried into the event, the fans formed a tunnel — and he described it as “the loudest screams I’ve ever heard in my life.” He felt “like a pop star.” And the 26-year-old arguably is, in some respect.

O’Ward went from making his start with karting in Mexico and the United States to making the move across the Atlantic Ocean for a shot at single-seaters. His dream was F1, but initially being unable to secure enough points for his super license sent him back stateside, joining the junior ranks of the closest series to F1 — IndyCar. He’s flourished in the category, growing his brand and talent while chasing the series’s crown jewel: an Indy 500 victory.

He’s come close in recent years, narrowly missing out on the win in 2024. And after qualifying on the front row on Sunday, he’s staring down a long race where anything can happen, hoping to change his luck and accomplish another goal.

“If you go through life trying to plan it, you’re going to be very disappointed, because if I’ve learned something, life never goes to plan, and it works in very mysterious ways,” O’Ward told The Athletic in 2024. “And when you’re so focused on wanting to do one exact plan, you might miss some of the best opportunities that you have in front of you.”

O’Ward describes himself as a foodie who prefers Whole Foods and avoids junk food. While he doesn’t consider himself a chef, he claims to be “a good cook,” with filet mignon as one of his specialties. His breakfast usually consists of eggs, and although he can make pasta, he doesn’t prepare his own sauces.

“If you like super heavy sauces and stuff, I’m not your guy,” he explained. “If you like simple, healthy, fresh, I’m your guy.”

The McLaren driver enjoys cheat meals after races (he’s a big French fry fan), but his mantra is simple: “I live by staying very active in order to be able to eat.” O’Ward is passionate about extreme sports and describes his motorsports journey as “one of the weirdest ever because of how unorganized my rise to IndyCar was.”

Born and raised in Mexico, O’Ward’s passion for racing started as a hobby before he realized his talent. His family helped him chase the passion (and are still involved to this day), and he discovered in his early teens that he wanted to pursue motorsports.

“So I started really dedicating, ultimately, my whole life, and you basically give up your childhood and your adolescence in order to make this happen. And I wouldn’t change it.”

O’Ward grew up on dirt bikes and motorcycles, so it wasn’t a shock for his parents when he got into driving go-karts after his grandfather gave him a go-kart when he was six. He won multiple championships during his karting years in Mexico (he was born in Monterrey) and the United States (his family moved to San Antonio, Texas, during his childhood). He jumped to cars at 13 years old, and by 2014, O’Ward was competing in European series, like the French F4 Championship.

O’Ward is still a McLaren F1 reserve driver (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

But he jumped around from there, competing in Japan at one point and in endurance racing. O’Ward was aiming for Formula One; however, what stood in his path was the elusive super license. Drivers must secure 40 points across three years to obtain an FIA super license, the mandatory qualification required to compete in Formula 1.

“I’ve always been a fan of trying so many different things and being open-minded on different types of race cars and activities… I’ve always liked to think outside of the box. And whenever I do something, I’ve never been known to do it halfway. I always do it with both feet in, and if it works out, it works out. If it doesn’t work out, you always find a solution.”

His goal of competing in F1 went hand-in-hand with this mentality.

“Nothing’s ever enough. And you’re always striving for perfection, you’re always striving for more and more and more, and how can I be better and how can I be better,” O’Ward explained. “So for me, it was just easy, like, that’s where I want to be. Why? Because Formula One is the top.”

The first few years he spent watching F1 races as a child were when Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso battled against each other at McLaren, when O’Ward was around seven or eight. His first in-person race was in the paddock of the 2012 Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. He saw Michael Schumacher and went to shake his hand, but the German driver walked past (and went on to win the race that weekend).

“That is the race that I was like, this is for me,” O’Ward said. “I’m willing to give up everything in my life for this.”

That F1 dream has yet to come to fruition. Without a super license, O’Ward headed to the U.S. — again.

He began the Road to Indy ladder in 2014 and found success in the U.S., such as winning the 24 Hours of Daytona three years later. A pivotal moment for O’Ward’s journey came in 2018 when he joined Andretti Autosport to compete in Indy NXT, the junior category for IndyCar. Of 17 races, the Mexican driver won nine, secured the drivers’ championship (beating runner-up Colton Herta), and was named Rookie of the Year. He began searching for a way to take that next step up in his career by breaking into IndyCar.

To O’Ward, IndyCar is likely the closest comparison to Formula One aside from Super Formula in Japan. It is among the most competitive series because of the tightness within car performance, and to win the title, drivers and teams need to come as close to perfection as possible at four different types of tracks — street courses, road tracks, super speedways, and ovals.

“Our cars look a bit more like Formula One cars. They’re not based out of a streetcar,” O’Ward explained. “They’ve got massive wings that produce downforce, and they’re very competitive and physical cars. They do sound cooler than the Formula One cars, I can tell you that.”

O’Ward has twice lost the Indy 500 on the final lap (Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

His big break came in late October 2019. After having a part-time drive that IndyCar season with Carlin, McLaren announced O’Ward would be part of its driver lineup for the 2020 campaign.

“As soon as it was presented, I grabbed it, and my goal was always in the mentality of as soon as I get this opportunity, they’re not going to get me off of that car,” O’Ward said. “And I feel like the team hasn’t regretted that decision yet.”

Across five full-time seasons, he’s secured five poles, seven wins, and 25 podium finishes, and he’s finished in the top four of IndyCar’s championship three times. O’Ward’s set to stay with the papaya team at least a few more years, signing a multi-year contract extension last year. When reflecting on his relationship with McLaren, O’Ward expressed that both sides were going through the growing phases together, sharing how it’s special to experience that with someone.

“I’m part of that building phase of what Arrow McLaren is now, and I’ve helped build and form the team,” O’Ward said in 2024. “So whenever we do get that final goal that we’ve been searching for the last three or four years, that really will make it so much more special with the people that you’ve been able to work together with.”

It’s not a matter of whether O’Ward will win the Indy 500 or the championship one day. He’s come close numerous times with the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” like narrowly missing out on the victory and finishing second in 2024. For him, it’s a matter of when. Because while he did once have dreams of competing in F1, O’Ward has stood firm that his home is in IndyCar right now — but he’s not shutting the door to future opportunities.

After all, he became eligible for a super license in 2023 and is a reserve driver for McLaren’s F1 team.

“IndyCar is my home, it has been my home, and it feels like home. But just like IndyCar felt a bit of like an alien five years ago, that’s what Formula One is to me now,” he said before the 2024 Indy 500.

“I feel like I have a very special opportunity. I have an opportunity to win an Indy 500, to win an IndyCar championship. And then maybe the doors open to go to Formula One, and I have a shot at maybe possibly winning a world championship, or just being in Formula One and then growing there.

“That’s all part of the process. But I feel like I’m in a very special position that I feel like a lot of people would kill to be in, and I want to take advantage of it.”

This step in his career has paid dividends because he made the opportunity his own. O’Ward’s popularity is booming.

Ahead of the 2025 Indianapolis 500, he’s on the cover of Indianapolis Monthly and cardboard cutouts of the Mexican driver fill the windows of shops around town. He has 839,000 followers on Instagram and more than 530,000 on TikTok, a post with Mahatma Rice receiving 1.5 million views as of May 16.

“I keep getting tagged from people wanting to steal my Cardboard Patos,” O’Ward said. “It’s grown a lot, really, and last year’s Indy 500 was a big step in that. I’ve definitely felt the difference.”

O’Ward has allowed his fans to get to know the person behind the helmet through social media. He described it as “unhinged and just raw,” allowing people to see how he’s human. As he noted, this lifestyle of chasing a specific goal in a particular sport means there are highs and lows with the journey. He added, “The way that I treat my social media is a bit like a diary, I’d say, and I like to have fun with it because what’s the point of not having fun? Too much time gets dedicated to it in order for it not to be fun.”

But as much as he’s been opening his life and personality up to his fans (and in turn growing his brand), O’Ward’s been searching for ways to invest back into his base. He’s created different experiences for fans, such as giving away 300 tickets for this year’s Indy 500 for those who spent $100 or more on his merchandise site. He doesn’t just want fans to experience a race weekend but rather feel they’re part of his team.

O’Ward signs autographs for fans at the Indianapolis 500 (USA Today)

The catch is that none of this is free for O’Ward. He’s paying for the suites and the tickets, and two or three suites cost thousands of dollars. He said last year that “a lot of the times, I definitely don’t come out winning.” Texas Motor Speedway in 2023 was the one time he could recall where he didn’t lose money, when he “packed up three suites, gave away 1,000 grandstand tickets.” But he is hamstrung with the pricing, as it depends on what the race promoters are willing to sell the options to him.

Off-track, he created Pato TV to help viewers watch the race for free, but he said this has since been shut down, as well as his follow-up attempt to air his onboard camera. He had reached over 50,000 subscribers in a year, and he was paying for the servers and the tools needed to run the service.

“I would say that’s a bit of what my frustration has been in the last few years, really. Because, along with growing myself, I’m also making the series so much bigger than what it is in Mexico.

“Because, truthfully, no one watches IndyCar in Mexico before I came into the series, and I feel like when that happened, people started watching the series, watching the races, I would say, after my first win. That’s when people started asking, and I kept getting emails and messages of people really wanting to see it, but people were struggling to see it, and that’s really where it kind of sparked to get Pato TV up.”

The growth hasn’t been enough, though, for IndyCar to race in Mexico. Per Indystar, IndyCar CEO Mark Miles recalled his conversations with Mexican race officials about the matter in the last few years: “They said, ‘If you want us to rent you the place, we’ll rent you the place, but we don’t want to partner because we think it’s too early. You’re not well enough known yet to be in Mexico City.’ What that means is they have a view that we’re not well enough known, nor is (O’Ward) yet, to populate an event at that track.”

O’Ward had strong thoughts last fall, particularly after NASCAR landed a round in his home country while IndyCar did not. But after the dust settled, he said to The Athletic, “(The race) was a pretty dead idea the last few years, or at least that’s what I’ve heard because there wasn’t really interest in Mexico to bring IndyCar, to be honest. I think that’s the biggest thing. I definitely don’t want to blame IndyCar for that, because if there was so much interest, then we would be there already. We need a country that wants us to go.”

The notion that O’Ward is not well-known enough, though, doesn’t ring true within the IndyCar world. After winning in Milwaukee last fall, the rhetorical question of “Pato who?” gained traction in the form of merchandise and even billboards. And it’s still around heading into this weekend’s race, in the form of a sticker on his helmet.

He is IndyCar’s biggest star. His popularity is only growing in Mexico. McLaren even announced in May — five months out — that he would have an FP1 outing during this year’s Mexico City GP weekend in October. For context, he wasn’t announced for last year’s practice outing for the same race until Sept. 2024, roughly a month or so ahead of time.

O’Ward’s journey to this moment hasn’t been easy. He’s had to adjust and pivot, finding new ways to keep his dreams alive. But one thing he’s not done is close a door. He may be IndyCar’s rockstar in some people’s eyes, but at his core, he’s a motorsports fan through and through, a proper petrol head. He’s living out his childhood dream in the American series right now and battling to become a champion and Indy 500 winner, a race that’s caused him plenty of heartache in the past.

But what’s next?

“I want to be able to try out all of these different series in different race cars because that’s what being a racing driver is for,” O’Ward said. “We love cars. It doesn’t matter if it’s an IndyCar, doesn’t matter if it’s a Formula One, doesn’t matter if it’s a prototype. We love cars, and when you’ve accomplished your dreams, maybe in one of them, why wouldn’t you take a challenge in something else?

“I’ve never been one to be scared of a challenge, and never been fazed by ‘Oh, what if it doesn’t work out?’ Frickin send it, dude.”

Top photo: Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

This news was originally published on this post .

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