McLaren IndyCar team linked with former Red Bull young star
F1 News
McLaren's IndyCar adventure is set to start next year, with the team joining forces with the Arrow SPM team for 2020 and now they're being linked with one of IndyCar's hottest prospects, and a former Red Bull junior driver, Patricio O'Ward.
2018 Indy Lights champion O'Ward has had a rollercoaster 2019, racing in three different series across three continents.
He was brought into the Red Bull junior programme to replace Dan Ticktum, and he took over his drive in Japanese Super Formula, and despite an improved performance in the last round, he has himself been replaced for the final race by another Red Bull youngster, F3 star Juri Vips.
O'Ward says that his future lies in IndyCar, despite competing a round of F2 in Austria, prompting the rumours between him and Arrow McLaren Racing SP.
He told RACER: "I’m very grateful to Red Bull for the opportunity.
"Now I need to go somewhere to earn good money, and F2 wasn’t going to be it. If I’m not going to make it in F1, I wanted to be in IndyCar."
The 20-year old was thankful to Red Bull and in particular Helmut Marko for being repsectful of his career options and allowing him to search elsewhere for a drive, adding: “My release from Red Bull was going to be November. But Doctor Helmut Marko called and said, ‘Hey, you have options in IndyCar? Take it. That’s your future’.
"I really appreciated him doing that. It showed me the calibre of person that Doctor Marko is and why he has so much success.
"Huge respect for him and whole team, he cared about my future - that means a lot. Things didn’t turn out like we expected, but he was concerned about my future, and that is very cool.”