Ruined dream
On more than one occasion, starting from the five FP1 sessions he took part in with McLaren from 2022 to last season, Pato O’Ward has indicated his great dream, which is to make the big leap into Formula 1 leaving IndyCar, where he competes in the American championship driving for the Arrow McLaren team. A desire that, for the Woking team’s reserve driver, however, seems almost completely faded.
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The new cars
For the 26-year-old Mexican, the reasons are clear, explained in detail in an interview given to FOX Deportes. He too, like other drivers of the caliber of four-time world champion Max Verstappen, has in fact been very critical of the current Formula 1 and the new technical regulations introduced this season: “Every year it has changed more and more, honestly – he commented – what the series has done was a mistake. The truth is that looking at the new cars, these seem artificial. The hunger that drove me to get into Formula 1 was not for fame or money, but because the cars were something impressive“.
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‘Mario Kart’
Single-seaters therefore rejected by the IndyCar driver, particularly regarding battery management and overtaking methods, with techniques not at all appreciated by the Mexican: “You certainly can’t press a switch and say: ‘Oh, I’ll press it to overtake him artificially’. It’s not Mario Kart; here we are racing. Honestly, I have no desire to be part of that kind of game“. The new regulations have led O’Ward to increasingly distance himself from Formula 1, preferring the braking decision and the determination in high-speed corners typical of IndyCar: “I believe that right now, today, this is the best series for a driver who wants to race: here, in IndyCar – he concluded – Formula 1 at the moment is an artificial spectacle and, honestly, it doesn’t interest me in the slightest; it doesn’t capture my attention.”
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