Written by Archie O’Reilly, Edited by Morgan Holiday
Pato O’Ward claims his Arrow McLaren team still has progress to make to consistently fight with the likes of Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske at the front of the IndyCar field.
The papaya team locked out the front row for the first time in its IndyCar history for the Thermal Grand Prix, with O’Ward leading new teammate Christian Lundgaard in qualifying.
Having long led the team in terms of results, O’Ward is encouraged by Lundgaard’s early performances, with the Danish driver also having made the Fast Six on debut for the team in St. Petersburg.
“We need team cars to be at the front,” O’Ward said. “We can’t just have one that’s fighting up there. All three Penskes are always fighting at the front. All four Ganassis are always at the front - right now two Ganassis but the [Meyer] Shanks count.
“It’s what we need in IndyCar. Every weekend is stronger and some guys can be a surprise. I think we’ve been a surprise this weekend. So we’re in good shape and we’re pushing forward. We want to beat the big guys. We’re still the underdogs.”
Lundgaard, who was the team’s best finisher in eighth in the opening round of the season, finished no lower than third across the three rounds of qualifying at the Thermal Club. He likens the team’s form to that of McLaren’s Formula One team.
“We’re just trying to copy what they do in Formula One,” Lundgaard joked. “It’s great. We had the pace all weekend. It’s just important to be there when it counts and we were today. Let’s keep that momentum going forward.”
O’Ward has never had an Arrow McLaren teammate beat him or finish higher than eighth in the championship standings across five years with the team. Now he's relishing the early competition with Lundgaard.
“It’s been great, whether he believes me or not,” he said. “I strive to be better and I really hope that everybody on the team also is in that same attitude. It’s fine to be the lead car or whatever but it’s always good to have that benchmark.
“Whenever maybe you’re not the best, you can always look over and be like: ‘Hey, the car can do this. So let’s go out and explore.’ I’m happy to have strong teammates and I’m happy to have people that are very fast.
“That’s just going to make me better. It’s going to make the whole team better.”
Lundgaard has also had the measure of his teammates across his second and third IndyCar seasons with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, headlined by an unlikely eighth-place finish in the 2023 standings.
“You want to beat your teammates - it’s as simple as that,” Lundgaard said. “I want to beat Pato as much as he wants to beat me. It’s very simple. It drives you to work harder - physically, mentally on track, do more for it and go into deeper detail.
“Obviously we’re studying each other’s data, which in the past I’ve studied my own data. I have a lot more information now than I’ve had previously.”
O’Ward’s pole was his first in almost three years, dating back to Mid-Ohio in July 2022. He feels that he has struggled on road and street courses since the introduction of the hybrid unit, starting second on the system’s debut weekend at Mid-Ohio last year but going on to qualify 14th in Toronto and 23rd in both Portland and St. Pete.
“Maybe I figured out how to drive quickly again,” O’Ward quipped. “It’s been a struggle because Mid-Ohio was the first race that we did with the hybrid and it was great for me. But all the ones after that I can’t take the car where I used to have it.
“It was a car that was very on the edge - it was right there where it was almost too much but I could make it work without a doubt in qualifying. Even if it was just one lap, even if we didn’t quite have the pace, I knew I could take it there and extract the lap time that truly wasn’t available.
“The problem now is with this hybrid is we’ve got so much more weight and the car is a lot lazier and it just can’t do that anymore. It’s been a bit of an adjustment because I’ve had to change my driving style.
“The approach to how you extract lap time from the car is very different now because you can’t have it strong at the front. It’s a snowball effect.
“I really focused this weekend: ‘Why was I fast in Mid-Ohio and why was I slow in the majority of the other road courses?’ I didn’t feel like I was qualifying the car for some reason - just I didn’t feel in one with it. We figured it out this weekend.”
O’Ward feels his No.5 Chevy came “alive” in the second round of qualifying after a slower start to the day. His eventual pole effort in the Fast Six came on used tyres yet was less than one-hundredth of a second behind his quickest time in fresh alternates in the Fast 12 as they held up better than expected.
Lundgaard is already feeling comfortable In the No.7 Chevy despite changing teams and engine manufacturers in the off-season.
“I’m two-for-two in the Fast Six so that helps,” he said. “Ultimately the work leading into the weekend is a similar but more detailed process. I feel like I show up in a race weekend more prepared. I show up with a lot more hope in a sense.
“It drives me more as well knowing that we’ll be hopefully two cars fighting and then we can push each other. Previously I think that’s only been on occasions, where I feel like that’s going to be more consistent now.
“I think we’re just both going to be better at the end of the season. We’re going to evolve each other and develop each other.”
Looking ahead to Sunday’s inaugural points-paying, full-field race at Thermal, there remain many unknowns from a strategy standpoint. Both O’Ward and Lundgaard have only run “maybe a little more than a stint” across practice and data on the alternate tyres is limited.
“Is it going to be a three-stop? Is it going to be a four-stop?” O’Ward pondered.
“I think we’re in for a show in the race. I know Iowa is a short oval and this is a road course but I think tomorrow is going to be very reminiscent of what old [pre-repave] Iowa was.
“You’re probably not going to know where you are. You might know what place you’re in at the moment but there’s going to be multiple different strategies going. I think we’re in for a treat. And it’s going to deg - you can expect that.”
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