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Meet Patricio O’Ward: IndyCar and F2’s latest rising star
Red Bull Junior Team's Patricio O’Ward has blazed his way to the fast and furious world of IndyCar racing and makes a surprise debut in the FIA F2 Championship at the Red Bull Ring this weekend.
Monterrey-born racer Patricio O’Ward cut his teeth racing go-karts in Mexico and the United States. In 2005, aged 13, he graduated to cars, competing in a variety of open-wheeled events including Pacific Formula F2000, the Pro Mazda Championship and the French F4 Championship before joining the Indy Lights series - the feeder category to the IndyCar series.
The invitation really did come out of the blue. Dr. Marko called and said, 'Well Pato, get your clothes together and get on a plane tomorrow, you're driving in F2 next weekend.' What a phone call that was, just great.
In 2017, O’Ward competed in Indy Lights and dabbled with sportscar racing, winning the Prototype Challenge (PC) class of the 2017 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona to become the youngest-ever winner at the event at only 17 years old.
O’Ward really sealed his burgeoning reputation by winning the prestigious Indy Lights title in 2018 with nine wins – setting a new series record of nine poles and 13 podium finishes in 17 races - and made his full IndyCar debut, driving for Harding Racing, at the final round of the 2018 season at Sonoma where he finished an impressive ninth.
Fast forward to 2019 and O’Ward’s rookie season in the NTT IndyCar Series with the Carlin team has seen a solid return with an eighth place finish at the Circuit of the Americas proving the highlight.
Pato behind the wheel
© Dutch Photo Agency/Red Bull Content Pool
It is safe to say the Red Bull Junior Team driver was not expecting to be heading straight from last weekend's IndyCar Grand Prix at Road America in Wisconsin, straight to the Red Bull Ring, deep in the Austrian countryside.
O'Ward's unexpected request to join the grid for the FIA F2 Championship as part of the MP Motorsport squad for the support race to the Formula One Grand Prix in Austria came about under some pretty unusual circumstances.
Following a disastrous race during the previous round at Circuit Paul Ricard in support of the French Grand Prix, regular MP Motorsport driver Mahaveer Raghunathan managed to accumulate 12 penalty points for various infringements during the virtual safety car period, resulting in his exclusion from the upcoming Austrian Grand Prix.
And these were not Raghunathan’s first breaches of the racing rules. The Indian driver’s previous indiscretions took place earlier in the season at Bahrain and Monaco. Raghunathan’s exclusion is an opportunity for O’Ward that has taken the Mexican IndyCar driver by surprise, but is something the 2018 Indy Lights champion is relishing.
“So here I am and I have absolutely no expectations of what the weekend can bring," said O'Ward. "It's a one-off drive and I know that there is a huge amount to learn. I hear that the tyres and the way you have to manage them is a quite a thing, there is the DRS to get used to, it is a huge opportunity to learn so much.”
The Austrian Grand Prix takes place at the Red Bull Ring between June 28-30.
