“It’s just Jeff Dodds feeling intimidated by the sound of an Indycar”: Fans react to Pato O'Ward’s joint venture with FE getting canceled 

Pato O'Ward was announced as the driver to run the Arrow McLaren IndyCar as a demo at the 2025 Mexico City ePrix. The event was going to be a collaboration between IndyCar and Formula E. However, latest reports suggest that the show run has been called off and the Arrow McLaren driver will no longer be participating in the event.

The announcement about O'Ward's run at the Mexico City ePrix was made on October 28, 2024. An update on the same was released on December 15, suggesting that the IndyCar demo was cancelled due to logistical challenges that couldn't be sorted in time.

The Formula-e 2024-25 season started on December 7, 2024 with the first race taking place in Sao Paulo. The Mexico City ePrix will take place on January 11, 2025 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. With over 25 days till the event, the demo run was called off and the fans weren't ecstatic about the same.

"'Logistical challenges' and it's just Jeff Dodds feeling intimidated by the sound of an Indycar when put up against one of his cars” said a fan as they responded to The Race’s post about the cancellation on X.

Another user tweeted, “That's unfortunate. Logistical challenges sounds like they couldn't get an Indycar to the event?”

“Gutted for Pato O'Ward,” wrote another fan.

Jeff Dodds is the owner of the Formula-E series and the fans slammed him for taking the opportunity away from O'Ward to run the demo car in front of his home crowd.

“Formula E doesn’t want a non hybrid IC car on display I guess,” posted a user on X.

“Translation: Formula E didn't want it,” said another user.

Sharing the same sentiment, another fan wrote, “Formula E did not want!”

IndyCar did make a switch to the mild hybrid system midway through the 2024 season with plans to improve the dependency on the electric system for power in the future. Many fans came out and suggested that Formula-E canceled the demo run because they didn't want an IndyCar at the event.

Regardless of the disappointment of not getting to drive the IndyCar in Mexico, O'Ward did get to drive the McLaren F1 car in front of his home crowd earlier this year.

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Pato O'Ward’s FP1 session with the McLaren F1 team at Mexico City GP

Pato O'Ward fulfills the role of the reserve driver for the McLaren F1 team along with his duties as a full-time Arrow McLaren IndyCar driver. The Mexican was spotted at multiple F1 events this year and got the opportunity to take part in the practice session at the Mexico City GP.

Pato O'Ward said:

“I cannot wait, this really is a dream come true for me – being able to jump into an F1 car in front of my home crowd. I can’t thank Andrea [Stella], Zak [Brown] – the whole team – enough for this amazing opportunity. The car’s been a rocket this year so [I’ll be] trying to do my part and help them as much as I can for the rest of the year.”

The Mexican finished the session in P13 with a time of 1:19:295, about 1.3 seconds away from the fastest time of the session. He also completed a total of 21 laps during his time in the car.