“Let’s keep working”: Pato O’Ward’s radio message comes to light after P2 finish behind Alex Palou at Thermal

The Arrow McLaren driver, Pato O'Ward, wrapped up the Thermal Club Grand Prix held at Thermal California on March 23rd in second place. The 25-year-old's post-race team radio recently came to light as IndyCar posted a video of the same on their Instagram account.

O'ward started the race in pole position with his teammate Christian Lundgaard in P2. However, during the last 15 laps of the race, things didn't pan out the way McLaren and the #5 crew would have wanted to, as a result of which they had to settle for P2.

IndyCar's official Instagram account posted a video of the post-race team radio between Pato O'Ward and his race engineer. During the radio, he said that he was happy and that they needed to keep working.

"Well, Good job,everyone.Let's keep working...Good job in the pits everyone. Good job pit box. Really enjoyed it so keep pushing, keep pushing. Push, push, push, baby!"

Along with his teammate in P2, the Arrow McLaren #5 driver helped the papaya team secure a 1-2, the highest qualifying position for the team. Their previous best qualifying effort was a 1-3 by Alexander Rossi and Felix Rosenquist at Mid-Ohio in April 2023.

Post-race, Pato O'Ward spoke to Indycar staff writer Paul Kelly. He mentioned how the gamble taken by the British-based team didn't work out in the end.

“We took a gamble; it didn’t work out for us. We had used our new reds (alternate tires) at the start because we didn’t really quite know what the deg (tire degradation) was going to be like. The blacks (primary tires) really kind of took a turn for the negative at the end of the race, and that was it. We didn’t stand a fighting chance,” O'Ward said.

O'ward pitted on Lap 50 and changed his tires to the primary compound tire while the defending champion Alex Palou changed to his tires to the alternate compound, which ended up being faster.

The race, however was a comeback for Pato O'Ward and Arrow McLaren team after a disappointing start at the season opener at St. Petersburg Grand Prix, where O'Ward qualified in P23 and managed to finish in P11. With a positive response at Thermal Club Grand Prix, O'Ward will be looking forward to the upcoming ACURA Grand Prix of Long Beach scheduled to take place on April 13th.

When Pato O'Ward spoke about his admiration towards competitors

Arrow McLaren driver Pato O'Ward once spoke about his admiration towards fellow IndyCar competitors in an interview. O'Ward had a great 2021 season as he finished in third place in the drivers' championship that year.

O'ward, during the 2021 post-season interview with Arrow McLaren, spoke about how he felt he needed to beat his rivals Josef Newgarden (two-time world champion) and Scott Dixon ( six-time champion).

"I just love competition. I mean, these are the guys that I grew up watching, Josef, Scott [Dixon], Will [Power], but as soon as I got to INDYCAR I was like, “I want to beat you and I really want to race you for it.” I don’t want things handed to me. I really enjoy the rush that you get when you truly win something, when you’ve earned it; I feel like both of our wins this year were like that. They weren’t just handed to us because someone in front had an engine failure or a penalty."Pato O'ward stated.

Pato O'Ward had bagged two wins and three pole positions, 11 top-ten finishes and 9 top-five finishes. He scored 487 points that year.