Yahoo Autos O’Ward has a taste for more F1 after ‘chaotic and crazy’ Mexico FP1
Pato O’Ward describes his FP1 outing at the Mexico City Grand Prix as “a dream come true” after completing a clean and competitive session on Friday.
McLaren ran O’Ward as part of its rookie practice requirements, with the IndyCar star taking over Lando Norris’ car for the opening session of the race weekend. With the FP1 appearance being the first time O’Ward has driven at his home race, he says his final tally of 21 laps and a best time just over 0.3s off teammate Oscar Piastri was a strong return after a lengthy red flag.
“I thought it was a great FP1,” O’Ward said. “We got through a very intense running plan, especially with such a chaotic and crazy practice session.
“I would have loved to have some more chance perhaps on the hard [tire] to prepare for the soft, but with having what we did, I can feel pretty pleased with what I got out for myself and with all the information that I was able to gather for the team, because they’re obviously in a pretty important title fight and I’m obviously here … to help that they stay where they are.
“A dream come true, I saw the Mexican flags, I saw floating Pato faces in certain areas; it was really cool.”
O’Ward admits he was under very strict instructions from McLaren due to the data the team needed to gather, but focused on being consistent over trying to display his raw pace potential.
“‘Pato, don’t shunt the car!’ Pato if you try and go too fast I’m going to scream at you!’ and, ‘We need information,’ [were the messages], and this information is extremely important to what the weekend is going to look like,” O’Ward said.
“It was very clear that I had to prioritize everything that was needed from me in terms of gathering information, being consistent, but it’s quite difficult. When you don’t know this car, you don’t know this track much, you’re trying to learn for yourself, but you’re also trying to stay as consistent as possible for the team, for all the data that they’re gathering, but I’m very pleased with it.
“I think we gathered everything that we needed to in a pretty chaotic session, and I think they’re pretty happy with the job that I did. I certainly am, so I can’t wait to drive this car again. Hopefully I get to drive it sometime before the year ends. That would be cool.”
