Pato O'Ward makes his feelings known about McLaren signing a young prospect in Christian Lundgaard for 2025

Pato O'Ward assessed the possibilities that await with Arrow McLaren's 2025 signing, Christian Lundgaard. The English team signed the 23-year-old in July last year to replace Alexander Rossi in the No. 7 car from 2025 onwards.

Lundgaard raced for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing for three years since his full-time IndyCar debut in 2022, when he won Rookie of the Year. His best performance with RLL was winning the 2023 Honda Indy Toronto. The Danish driver's potential impressed Arrow McLaren and they signed him to complete their three-car lineup with Pato O'Ward and Nolan Siegel, the youngest trio on the IndyCar grid.

On January 14, IndyCar held its first content day ahead of the 2025 season. When Pato O'Ward addressed the media, he was asked about being the most experienced driver on the team this year and what he expects of Christian Lundgaard.

While the Mexican driver admitted to not being as attentive to Lundgaard's initiation into the team, he was willing to help the youngster in any way possible.

"I'm an open book," O'Ward said. "He will be able to see what I do, what Nolan (Siegel) does. We'll be able to see what he does. I think it's important that, for example, different to Formula 1, in IndyCar, you can cater to your liking a little bit more in terms of car setup. I have always been on my own island. Everybody whines about how I like my car, so I've always kind of been a loner. I am curious to see if he likes it (or) he doesn't like it."

Till 2024, Pato O'Ward was one of the junior drivers on the team. His 2016 Indy 500-winning teammate Alexander Rossi was the most experienced. However, with him joining Ed Carpenter Racing, 2025 will witness a change of guard within Arrow McLaren.

Christian Lundgaard claims Pato O'Ward is the 'guy to beat' at Arrow McLaren

Pato O'Ward, Formula 1 Testing In Abu Dhabi - Source: Getty

In terms of racing experience, Christian Lundgaard slots in the middle level of Arrow McLaren's driver trio. While Pato O'Ward is a 6th-year IndyCar veteran, his other teammate, Nolan Siegel, completed his rookie year in 2024.

This puts Lundgaard in a crucial place for the team - he has to match O'Ward and simultaneously ensure Siegel keeps up with them. In November 2024, Lundgaard acknowledged that his experienced Mexican teammate would be the guy to beat. He said via The Race:

"Pato obviously is the guy to beat, but for the two of us to excel and push each other will be more beneficial for the both of us. We're in the state where he's establishednin a team where I come in with, let's say, the hunger, and I think that's going to push him, and I'm obviously going to learn as much as I can from him in terms of how the car responds and reacts. But I'm just excited to see how we can evolve, and ideally to see how many championships we can win."

Lundgaard's biggest success in the pre-IndyCar days came at the Spanish F4 championship in 2017, which he won with MP Motorsport. Because his F2 career wasn't as successful, the Danish driver made a conscious decision to drop his F1 dream and attempt to compete in IndyCar.