IndyCar Catching A Great Bounce With Pato O'Ward Making Practice Session Appearance At Mexican Grand Prix

McLaren has announced that IndyCar driver Pato O'Ward will be behind the wheel for Free Practice 1 in Mexico City giving the Mexican-born reserve driver his first home Grand Prix experience.

O'Ward himself announced the news on social media.

It's awesome news for O'Ward — who previously took part in practice sessions at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2022 and 2023 — but I think it's a positive for the IndyCar series too.

Just last month, NASCAR announced plans to head down to Mexico for the Cup Series' first international, points-paying race in decades. It's a smart move, but it led to IndyCar drivers — including Pato O'Ward — ripping their series for not getting down there first.

They're right, and IndyCar is surely still trying to figure out a way down there to help grow the series abroad, but they're getting an assist from F1 this year.

Formula 1 requires teams to run young drivers a certain number of times throughout the season. O'Ward fits that bill.

(Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward will make an FP1 appearance in Mexico, which could be a great thing for IndyCar just weeks after the series was criticized for being slow to add a race South of the Border to the schedule.)

For IndyCar, this works out rather nicely, because, sure, while it's kind of the most "Who cares?" session of the weekend, Pato is a star and will garner a lot of attention, thereby scoring some attention for the IndyCar series.

How much? Well, not as much as holding a race down there, but enough to possibly make the idea of making a foray South of the Border a bit more enticing (although, they shouldn't need much enticing; it's kind of an obvious thing to do).

I wouldn't read too much into it, but I also find it interesting that McLaren is the team doing this. Sure, Pato drives for them and is their reserve driver, but they're also the only team in F1 with skin in the IndyCar game. So, whether it was the intention or not, anything they can do to help raise the profile of one of their teams' series is a good move.