Pato O’Ward IndyCar Driver Profile: Arrow McLaren’s Mexican Talisman
Pato O’Ward has spent most of his IndyCar career being described as the most exciting driver in the paddock who had not yet won a championship. In 2026 he stopped auditioning for anything else. He walked away from a Formula 1 future, recommitted to Arrow McLaren, and then produced a weekend at the Milwaukee Mile that had no precedent in forty-five years.
Pato O’Ward IndyCar: Fast Facts
- Nationality: Mexican, from Monterrey
- Current team: Arrow McLaren
- Car number: No. 5 Chevrolet
- Series: NTT IndyCar Series
Pato O’Ward IndyCar: the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet
The Mexican from Monterrey drives the No. 5 Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren and is the longest-serving driver in the team’s current line-up. He has become the public face of McLaren’s American programme, and in a season where almost every other seat around him moved, his did not.
The Milwaukee double: two wins in one day
On Sunday 30 August 2026, O’Ward won both races at the Milwaukee Mile. He took the Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250 first, then completed the rain-suspended Snap-on Makers and Fixers 250 only a few hours later. That opener had been stopped on the Saturday after 90 of its 250 laps with O’Ward leading, was pushed back twice, and finally ran after the second race had already been decided.
When it restarted it turned into a two-car fight. O’Ward and David Malukas led 212 of the 250 laps between them, 119 for O’Ward and 93 for Malukas, and were rarely more than a second apart. No IndyCar driver had won two races on the same day since Rick Mears at Atlanta in June 1981. Read the full story of O’Ward’s Milwaukee sweep, on the same afternoon that Alex Palou clinched his fifth championship.
Why O’Ward walked away from Formula 1
In July 2026, O’Ward gave up his McLaren Formula 1 reserve role for good. For years the arrangement had been read as a waiting game, a driver keeping one hand on the door to Formula 1. He closed it himself and said plainly that IndyCar is where he wants to be. It came during one of the most chaotic weeks American open-wheel racing has had in years, with Scott Dixon leaving Chip Ganassi Racing and Christian Lundgaard released by Arrow McLaren in the space of days. The background to O’Ward’s decision to leave the F1 reserve role explains why the timing mattered.
O’Ward’s 2026 season
Alongside the Milwaukee double, O’Ward won the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, a result that arrived in the same week Arrow McLaren confirmed a full rebuild of its line-up around him.
Arrow McLaren in 2027: building a team around O’Ward
Arrow McLaren has confirmed six-time champion Scott Dixon and 2026 Indianapolis 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist on multi-year deals for 2027, replacing Christian Lundgaard and Nolan Siegel. Both will join O’Ward in a three-car, full-season line-up, with 2014 Indianapolis 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay returning in May 2027 to drive a fourth entry at the 111th Running of the Indianapolis 500. The full Arrow McLaren 2027 line-up is the strongest the team has assembled, and O’Ward is the driver it is being built around.