O’Ward, Bryan Herta both on McLaren Formula 1 team’s radar, but maybe for different reasons.
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McLaren F1 boss Zak Brown pumped the brakes on Friday in Bahrain when a press discussion turned to the possibility of IndyCar stars Colton Herta or Pato O’Ward showing up on a Formula 1 grid one day.
Herta, who drives an Indy car for Andretti Autosport with Curb-Agajanian, was signed earlier this week by McLaren to an F1 testing deal. O’Ward, meanwhile, drives for the Arrow McLaren SP team on the IndyCar side.
O’Ward tested for McLaren on a one-off last fall at Bahrain and can be excused for being a big put off by the team’s desire to bypass him in favor of Herta for an official testing deal in 2022.
Clearly, there’s not room for both in a Formula 1 cockpit with a McLaren F1 operation that already has driver Lando Norris locked up through 2025. Daniel Ricciardo is in the other McLaren F1 seat. There’s clearly plenty of talent for Brown and F1 team principal Andreas Seidl to choose from.
“Pato we want to have 100% focused on IndyCar, we think we have a chance at the championship this year, his status hasn’t changed, he has a multi-year agreement with us (in IndyCar),” Brown said. “I know there’s a lot of noise. but it’s unfounded noise, so we just want him to focus on that.
“He obviously got his rookie day in, did an excellent job, so I think it’s yet undefined what our Formula 1 testing program will look like, but I’ll let Andreas elaborate on that, and Colton.”
Seidl sounds like he wants to let the Herta-O’Ward drama play itself out.
“We want to give Colton some test days in this car, giving him the chance to enjoy driving a Formula 1 car, and at the same time show what he’s able to do, looking forward to that, he’s a great talent, and we take it from there.”
Added Brown, “Anything we do with Colton is based on our desire to see how he gets on and to evaluate him from a McLaren standpoint.”
Keyword: McLaren F1 Boss Zak Brown Wants Pato O'Ward to 'Focus on IndyCar'