McLaren IndyCar driver Patricio O’Ward made his Grand Prix weekend debut in the McLaren MCL36 after months of anticipation during the first practice session of the F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
However, as soon as Patricio O’Ward took to the track, his car suffered a problem and he was forced to pit in second gear. Fortunately, the problem was quickly resolved by the pit crew and O’Ward was able to rejoin with relatively minimal delays. He ended up completing 22 laps in the one hour session.
“I was bouncing pretty hard in the car and just trying to communicate clearly with the team,” he explained after the session.
“I don’t know what that means because I don’t have a lot of experience. I think the team didn’t know that at the time either.”
“I went into the box and reset it and it seems to have fixed whatever the problem was.”
“It was such an emotional moment to have my first FP1 and I was like, ‘I really hope it doesn’t get interrupted.'”
“I don’t know exactly what it was. I think it was something electrical, maybe a sensor or something.”
Patricio O’Ward is the second full-time driver to get the chance to drive a Formula 1 car for McLaren’s IndyCar team this year, while Alex Palou got his chance at the Circuit of the Americas.
Originally, Patricio O’Ward was supposed to take up his seat in his native Mexico, but had to change due to the rescheduled Pirelli tire tests.
And Patricio O’Ward says he loved the moment it finally arrived.
“Today was a really fun experience. There were some curveballs thrown around, which made things a little more difficult. It revealed a lot of information that wasn’t part of driving the car that I had to digest.”
“But overall I feel my first FP1 was a success. We have done a lot of testing for the team and I hope this helps them a lot ahead of this weekend.”
“For me, every time I’m in the car, I think about improving, so next year I want to try one more time and keep improving.”
Patricio O’Ward drove the session in Lando Norris’ car and finished 18th, 0.8 seconds behind Daniel Ricciardo in eighth.
Andreas Stella, McLaren’s executive director of racing, gave both thumbs up for Patricio O’Ward’s performance in the car.
“We entrusted Pato with his first FP1 session and his first run on the MCL36. He showed excellent control and delivered exactly what we asked for. Congratulations Pato!” said Andreas Stella.
Previously, O’Ward attended last year’s post-season testing in Abu Dhabi but found the strain on his neck to be heavy and has since put a lot of effort into preparing for the 23G strain.
“I’ve done more things with my neck than you can imagine!” said Patricio O’Ward.
“Last year I broke my neck after so many laps, but in this case it worked really well.”
“I’ve always focused on my fitness and I’ve always said I didn’t want it to be a limit, but when I first got into a Formula 1 car I didn’t know what to expect. It’s nothing.”
“I wish I’d have liked a smoother FP1. I feel that once you go out first and get the hang of how it works, you know a little bit more about what to expect. Lots of unexpected curveballs were thrown around, so I think there was a lot to do at the beginning”.
“But that’s okay. I rehearsed different lines and I think you saw that moment on the broadcast, but it was great fun trying to harness everything the machine was capable of.”
Patricio O’Ward intends to push McLaren’s Zak Brown (CEO) and Andres Seidl (Team Principal) to race in future F1 if there is a suitable gap on the calendar before returning to IndyCar next year, I explained.
“I think it’s definitely important for you to hear Zaku, maybe a little bit for Andreas, ‘When can we get in the car again?’ Because he joins.”
“It’s a very compressed season from May to September. It’s nonstop. So I don’t know what to say. It would be great if I could race before the IndyCar season, but it all depends on the big boss. I think
Category: F1 / mclaren / Formula 1 GP in Abu Dhabi / independent machine
