Pato O’Ward asks McLaren to end F1 reserve role as IndyCar wins out

Pato O’Ward has politely asked Zak Brown to fire him from his job as McLaren F1 reserve driver, as Formula 1 is no longer his dream, especially where the cars are “currently”.

O’Ward has been involved in McLaren’s Formula 1 programme since 2022, and has driven the team’s cars in five First Free Practice young driver sessions, while also running in TPC [Testing Previous Car] outings.

‘Fire me’: Pato O’Ward’s surprise Zak Brown request

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His focus, though, has been on the other side of the pond, where he has contested the IndyCar series as an Arrow McLaren driver.

O’Ward has won 10 IndyCar races since joining McLaren’s IndyCar team in 2020, and has twice finished inside the top three for the season.

The Mexican racer, who recently extended with McLaren in IndyCar, says that is where his future lies.

So much so, he asked McLaren CEO Brown to fire him from his F1 role.

“Recently actually I obviously went to Zak, because he is the guy that calls the shots,” he said on the Speed Street podcast, co-hosted by Conor Daly.

“I’m grateful for the experiences and all the things I’ve been able to learn in the world of Formula 1, and driving those race cars, but I really think I’m just in a different point of my life now and I really don’t care anymore, I don’t really…

“There’s really nothing in me that is aching to keep on as a reserve in Formula 1.

“I’m in a great place in IndyCar, I love the series, it’s where I want to be, looking at where the [F1] race cars are currently, I’m not really excited to drive one, so I’ve politely asked to be fired from all my services in Formula 1.”

Instead, O’Ward, who has been confirmed in McLaren’s 2027 IndyCar line-up alongside Scott Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist, wants to focus solely on his full-time race drive.

“I want to focus on my priorities and enjoy my life because I feel like a lot of the times I don’t really get to dictate my schedule at all, and that’s the only time I can, and in the last four, five years I haven’t really been able to do really any of that,” he said.

“So yeah, I want to be able to train more, eat better, and just prepare for ’27, which is going to come fast.”

It remains to be seen whether O’Ward will take part in any of McLaren’s four mandatory FP1 sessions this season.

The team has already covered off one of the four slots, doing so at the Barcelona Grand Prix where McLaren ran Formula 2 star Leonardo Fornaroli.

O’Ward reckons that having been around the Formula 1 paddock, that is the right place for him with IndyCar his happy place.

“I can’t tell you the amount of times of people were like ‘when Formula 1, when Formula 1’ and obviously that’s been a dream of mine ever since I was a kid,” he said.

“But also being around that world for many years, and inside of it, and I know I wasn’t a full-time driver there, but I have enough of a whiff of what that world is like and I genuinely don’t think that is for me, it’s not a place where I can say I’ve enjoyed more than IndyCar.

“IndyCar is the best place for motor racing. Others can have a different opinion, but that’s where I’m happy, I don’t need to be more famous or have more money, I’m already in a position I never thought I’d be in when I was younger, I’m happy, lucky, and grateful to be where I’m at today.

“And it really is a privilege to be able to race and experience what it is like to be in IndyCar.

“I know F1 is put on a pedestal, but just because the plate looks like gold doesn’t mean what you’re eating is healthier.”

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