Pato O’Ward lands historic McLaren win away from British Grand Prix

McLaren’s British Grand Prix may not have gone to plan, but over in the IndyCar Series, Pato O’Ward brought the team its first on-track victory of the year at Mid-Ohio — and in arguably the most historic event of the season after the Indianapolis 500.

The Mid-Ohio event is the first race weekend with IndyCar’s totally new hybrid engines , and it’s safe to say all bets were on the Honda-engined team of Chip Ganassi Racing when it came to predicting victory. Instead, a clean final pit stop put the race directly into Pato O’Ward’s hands.

An electrifying debut at Mid-Ohio

IndyCar’s 2024 outing at Mid-Ohio looked a little different than usual: For the first time in the series’ history, every car in the field was equipped with a hybrid engine.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its extended recovery period saw IndyCar delay the introduction of its promised hybrid power units for several years.

Heading into the race, it would be easy to assume Chip Ganassi Racing drivers Alex Palou and Scott Dixon would dominate the race, as both racers are masters of fuel saving and on-the-fly changes to race strategy. But on the formation lap, his vehicle stalled twice.

Dixon’s No. 9 crew was able to make repairs and get the car back out on track, albeit multiple laps down.

As for Palou, the Spanish racer took an early and dominant lead from pole position, building up a five-second lead over the competition and looking positively untouchable.

However O’Ward began to close the gap and was able to leapfrog Palou in the pit lane in the closing stages of the race.

Even though Palou was able to narrow the gap between himself and the leader, he wasn’t able to mount a challenge for the lead. In fact, as he pushed himself to narrow the gap, he got loose several times and nearly lost control.

“The car was amazing, the 10 crew was amazing,” Palou told Charlie Kimball, former racer and current NBC pit road analyst, after the race.

“We couldn’t really make the alternate tires last. Pato started catching us. Couldn’t do anything, just destroyed my tires.

“Then we had a slow stop. I couldn’t really engage first gear. Maybe I was trying to get it too fast. Probably my fault.

“Good race, had fun, shame we couldn’t get the win for the 10 car. Good solid day.”

As far as Pato O’Ward went, well — you can imagine he was thrilled with the effort.

“That was a hard-fought race,” O’Ward told Georgia Henneberry after the race.

“We were really, really strong on the [alternate tires]. Palou was really, really strong on the [primary tires].

“So all I needed to do was stay at bay in the first stint, and then come into the pits and put those [alternates] on and try and close the gap.

“Great job by the team. It’s been a while.

“I know we ‘won’ St. Pete, but this is a proper win, and we earned this one this weekend.”

As far as IndyCar itself went, the series released a statement after the race regarding its all-new hybrids.

“The performance of the new IndyCar hybrid power unit at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course was impactful and highly encouraging,” the statement read.

“All stakeholders in the IndyCar paddock share in the pride and excitement for the future that this milestone has generated. It is the result of a truly unique collaboration between Chevrolet and Honda and the culmination of hundreds of hours of engineering, preparation, testing and execution.”

Next weekend, the hybrid system will make its oval debut at Iowa.

More on McLaren’s IndyCar season

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O’Ward’s first on-track win of 2024

Check the IndyCar standings, and you’ll see that, theoretically, Pato O’Ward took victory at the 2024 IndyCar season opener at St. Pete. So why is the Mexican racer calling his Mid-Ohio win his first of the year?

The answer is a controversial one. After the Long Beach Grand Prix, Team Penske drivers Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin were found to have illegally used push-to-pass on restarts. Push-to-pass offers a brief power burst to drivers during certain segments of a race.

The system should have been disabled for restarts — but Team Penske had enabled it for those times, and Newgarden utilized it to win the St. Pete race. As a result, IndyCar stripped Newgarden of his win and instead awarded it to O’Ward.

The Arrow McLaren racer, however, didn’t take that win until six weeks after the event, by which time he said that he’d moved on. As a result, his Mid-Ohio victory will be his first on-track win of the season — and the first he’s been able to celebrate.

As it currently stands, Alex Palou still leads the IndyCar championship with 329 points — 38 ahead of the next best competitor, Will Power.

Pato O’Ward stands in third overall, with 259 points.

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