The full extent of Pato O’Ward’s growth as an NTT IndyCar Series driver was on display last weekend at Mid-Ohio.
As rival and pole-sitter Alex Palou opened up a formidable gap in the first stint, O’Ward had multiple opportunities to chase him down, as he had done many times in the past, and use his formidable speed to squeeze extra performance out of his No. 5 McLaren Chevy Arrow.
Palou was noticeably faster through the first 20 laps, building a lead that stretched to more than six seconds at one point — an eternity in a largely niche series like IndyCar — as the first round of pit stops loomed. But as the Chip Ganassi Racing driver pulled away, O’Ward chose peace over violence with the treatment of his Firestone tires.
It was that careful decision made in the opening phase of the 80-lap race that made all the difference in how the rest of the race unfolded for O’Ward.
His inner voice, the one that embraced the big picture with two more stints to go, led the 25-year-old to apply the experience and wisdom needed to take the long view. Midway through the stint on the faster Firestone alternatives, the No. 5 Chevrolet came alive and snuck into Palou’s lead; when it was time for their final stop, a hiccup in pit lane slowed Palou, promoted O’Ward to the lead and set the stage for an intense battle to the finish line.
The Ganassi driver was a rocket as the pair finished the event on the Firestone primaries, and in a rare turnaround, it was Palou who went off course, dropping his tires into the dirt and overdriving his car in an attempt to keep up with O’Ward. The lessons learned in the first stint were applied by Arrow McLaren when they went head-to-head in the final stint. The adjustments increased the speed – enough to keep Palou at bay – and despite heavy pressure from behind, O’Ward was a vision of composure, allowing him to take a 0.4993s win to beat the championship leader and ease his way to victory after an absence (not counting the St. Petersburg win afterwards) of nearly two years.
The previous criticism of O’Ward was his lack of interest in the moments when tyre conservation was needed to secure victory. With a fast car, the Arrow McLaren driver tended to spend the first half of a stint on a road, street or oval track with his No. 5 Chevrolet generating simply mind-blowing lap times. But that level of ferocity came at a price.
While his closest rivals would deliberately refrain from using all their Firestone tyres could offer in order to maintain some pace for the end of the stints, O’Ward would often give in to temptation. He would put on a great show and get away, but the inevitable price would be paid when the tyres gave way well before the next pit stop and he would stumble backwards to an unrewarding finishing position.
And to his credit, the young Mexican, now in his fifth full season in IndyCar, failed to crack the puzzle for the first time on Sunday. His 2023 season has been his best yet in terms of consistency and using his smarts as much as his raw speed, but the win at Mid-Ohio was a breakthrough for O’Ward to bring together everything he’s learned and send him to the top step of the podium.
“I thought, ‘If he does this, it’s going to send a message,'” says Arrow McLaren’s Tony Kanaan, “and I’m 100 per cent confident that it does.” Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
“I think Pato turned the key on Sunday,” Arrow McLaren sporting director Tony Kanaan told RACER. “I think it’s part of his growth. There’s a crucial moment where you have a choice. You go out on the road, it splits, and one way you become like everyone else, or the other way you become the driver that everyone expects you to be. The way he drove on Sunday, I thought, ‘If he can do that, it’s going to send a message,’ and I’m 100 percent convinced it has. Things are going to change.”
Now it’s time to put what he’s conceived at Mid-Ohio into practice and become the “Pato of the Championship” in the eight remaining races. The win moved him from sixth to third in the driver standings, 70 points behind Palou. Of the eight remaining races, six are on ovals, which suits O’Ward’s skill set; two of his six IndyCar victories have come on ovals.
If he can maintain that same focus this weekend in Iowa, and then in Toronto and the rest of the circuit, O’Ward has a good chance of earning a new level of respect from his peers. No one doubts his ability to win a few races a season, but he has yet to scare title contenders like Palou, Will Power or Scott Dixon when it comes to securing the title.
Using Mid-Ohio as a model, Kanaan sees an excellent chance for O’Ward to reach the upper echelon of IndyCar if his form continues.
“You have to take it seriously,” he said. “That win was personal, for many reasons, and I think it showed Pato and everyone else how strong he is. I’m 100 percent convinced that no matter who was behind them, when he took the lead, they thought, ‘Don’t worry, he’s going to mess it up, I’m going to pass him. He’s not strong.’ And he made a statement about that, because all of a sudden you see Palou making mistakes here and there. That’s not a normal situation.”
“What Pato did may have surprised everyone, but not me, because I have inside information and what he did is in line with what we worked on in the off-season, back with Gil (de Ferran) when he was testing in F1 with Pato. I knew this guy was there, waiting to go, which he did.”
And now the race is on to see if O’Ward and the No. 5 crew can catch Palou and Power, two of IndyCar’s masters of controlled excellence, in the standings.
“When he got out of the car, we had the longest hug ever, but it wasn’t just because of the win,” Kanaan added. “I was holding him and helping him sit down, because he was exhausted. He left it all there. It was personal. He was in the shop today and gave a speech to the mechanics. He’s confident, he’s motivated, he motivated the team, and that’s the Pato we need.”
“So I hope this is going to be a game changer. I want to keep this momentum going and make it a habit. That’s why we signed him for the next five years because we think he’s the guy who’s going to bring something to us.”