Pato O’Ward put it all on the line to build his personal brand — and IndyCar should do the same

Being a race car driver in the year 2024 doesn’t just mean turning up to the race track and competing in an event. It means developing a fanbase, securing sponsors, and doing ample legwork in order to establish yourself as the kind of viable asset any team — or race series — would want to have.

In IndyCar, Pato O’Ward is the perfect example of a driver going above and beyond to build his personal brand… and the series could learn a lot from the Arrow McLaren racer.

Pato O’Ward: “A lot of people don’t want to have losses”

Speaking to streamer Ash Vandelay and journalist Elizabeth Blackstock during their weekly motorsport stream “The Elizabeth + Ash Show,” Pato O’Ward explained the risks he’s taken to develop his personal brand, and the similar risks IndyCar should be taking to grow its own profile.

Of all the IndyCar drivers on the 2024 grid, O’Ward has amassed the second-largest following on social media, with 689,000 Instagram followers. That trumps IndyCar’s 669,000-follower fanbase, and is only exceeded by the following of former Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean.

How did that happen? Well, O’Ward has been diligent about curating his brand and encouraging his fanbase to turn up in droves.

Born in Mexico, O’Ward has a natural appeal to an already passionate national fanbase, which he’s leveraged in exceptional ways. He’s the only driver who arrives at every race track with his own personal merchandise stand. In certain markets, O’Ward fans can buy seats in designated Pato grandstands or suites. He brought Pato TV to Mexico in order to air IndyCar races live. In 2023, he also began experimenting with hosting track days for his fans and sponsors to attend, giving them a chance to interact with O’Ward one-on-one at, say, Circuit of the Americas.

No other driver is doing that — and as O’Ward explained during The Elizabeth + Ash Show, “I think a lot of people don’t want to have losses, and that’s what scares people out of doing something.”

IndyCar vs. Formula 1:

👉 Formula 1 v IndyCar: How open-wheel racing’s hybrid powertrains compare

👉 IndyCar vs Formula 1: Junior driver development series ladders compared

<O’Ward admitted that developing his own brand and leveraging his audience on social media has been a process of “trial and error.”

“I’m no expert,” he said. “I’ve spent thousands of my own money.”

When O’Ward bought out a suite to sell tickets back to his fans, he admitted that he didn’t make much money — and that it wasn’t his only swing and miss.

“I remember a few years ago getting IndyCar races on open TV in Mexico, and obviously I was paying that out of my pocket as well,” O’Ward said. “Nothing came of it, so that was a lot of money down the drain.

“But you don’t know until you try. I would say that’s how I do a lot of the [brand-building].

“Like, maybe you try something, and it doesn’t work out, but it brings something, it opens doors to another idea.

“I just try and have fun with what we can offer that people want to be part of.”

However, O’Ward wouldn’t write off those experiments entirely, because cumulatively, they did contribute to the growth of his fanbase, and he did see some overall return on his investment.

“It’s grown massively year after year, which is what I want out of it,” he admitted. “But I can’t tell you what it was [that worked], because in a lot of these [experiments], there’s definitely been a lot of losses.

“But there have been wins in other ones. It’s about feeling it out.”

He pointed out that he has his entire family backing him and supporting him, attending races, helping him come up with ideas, or managing the creative side of his brand. He relies on them when the going gets rough, when he faces “logistical stresses and annoyances” that he believes other people would just rather ignore.

Success in these endeavors, he notes, is cumulative — and it’s important not to give up too soon.

“Year after year, you get an idea of what’s worth it and what’s not,” he said.

His constant experimentation, though, is what has earned O’Ward such a dedicated fanbase. It’s what sees fans turn out in droves at every IndyCar race bearing Mexican flags and custom sombreros boasting O’Ward’s branding. Even if something doesn’t work, fans have a distinct sense that, at the very least, O’Ward is trying.

That effort is a breath of fresh air in the IndyCar series, which at times can feel stagnant with its old cars, its tried-and-true retinue of tracks, and its overall promotional struggles. It can result in the feeling that IndyCar doesn’t quite know what fans want, whereas with O’Ward, there is at least a distinct sense that he’s willing to try three things that fail in order to find one that succeeds.

“It’s important to try something new when you can,” O’Ward said. “It’s just going to help you grow.”

Read next: Loud engines, South American races: How Pato O’Ward believes IndyCar can challenge Formula 1