Zak Brown has revealed the reasons why NTT IndyCar Series stars Pato O’Ward and Álex Palou are a part of the McLaren F1 Team’s test driver line-up.
Mexican racer O’Ward is currently racing to the Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team and has been a championship contender in both 2021 and 2022, while Spaniard Palou was the 2021 IndyCar champion with Chip Ganassi Racing and will be going for a second title with the same team in 2023.
McLaren’s Formula 1 line-up looks set for at least the next two or three years as Lando Norris at twenty-three will be joined by twenty-one-year-old Oscar Piastri in 2023 after the departure of Daniel Ricciardo.
Both O’Ward and Palou participated in running in McLaren’s MCL35M at various times during the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, and each then debuted in a free practice session for the team in the MCL36. Palou took the reigns in the opening session of the United States Grand Prix, while O’Ward did likewise in Abu Dhabi.
Brown, the CEO at McLaren, says bringing they have invested in bringing the likes of O’Ward and Palou into their Formula 1 programme as it is important to have the calibre of driver with potential to race in the sport as back up should one of their main drivers be unavailable for any reason.
“The testing programme is very, very important,” Brown is quoted as saying by PlanetF1.com. “Pato is our IndyCar sensation. He’s won a handful of races for us.
“We have an obligation to Formula 1 to run two Free Practice Ones and we want to put in drivers that we think have Formula 1 potential because you never know what’s going to happen and what you might need. We also want drivers that can help us develop towards that weekend.
“So we’ve put Pato in his Free Practice One and then Álex Palou, who’s an IndyCar champion, has done his Free Practice One and did a fantastic job. He has also done quite a bit of testing.
“So I think you never know if the drivers can get COVID, you need reserve drivers, and we think those are two drivers that are in the McLaren family that have tremendous potential. So we want to give them good mileage, get them prepared for the Free Practice Ones and then see what the future holds.”
