Pato O'Ward makes feelings clear on the tough blow that forced McLaren to change strategy at St. Petersburg

Pato O'Ward has expressed his feelings about changing the strategy during the 2025 Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg after his prime tires were destroyed in the Lap 1 wreck including three cars. He remarked that he was disappointed because of the change in strategy and losing a set of primaries.

The NTT Indycar Series had the first race of the 2025 season at St. Petersburg on Sunday, March 2. Alex Palou opened up his championship account with a race victory, while his teammate Scott Dixon finished second and helped Chip Ganassi get a 1-2 finish for the first time since July 2023.

However, the race didn't go as planned for some, one of whom was Arrow McLaren's driver O'Ward. He has three top-three podium finishes at the St. Petersburg track but things didn't quite play in his favor during this outing. The problems began on Saturday during the qualifying session. He was knocked out of the qualifying session placing him at the back of the grid in 23rd place.

The #5 driver stayed hopeful for Sunday, which started on a tough note as the Arrow McLaren driver caught the debris from the lap 1 incident involving his teammate Nolan Siegel, Will Power, and Louis Foster. Speaking to Bob Pockrass post-race, Pato O'Ward said:

"Today in the race we didn't get collected in the chaos but it collected us I would say and we got a puncture so that wasn't ideal, 'cause it was one of our prime sets and we had to change the strategy." [00:18]

O'Ward further revealed how he felt when he realized he had to swap out his fresh set of primes for alternates.

"The problem was it was a prime set and no one wanted to run the alternates and if that was an alternate I wouldn't have cared but since it was a prime and a new prime I was like damn that sucks," Pato O'Ward said.

The Mexican later commented on plans to use the primes because he wanted to go longer on the first stint but that was cut short due to the puncture. On Lap 25, O'Ward again got rid of the alternates and put on the primes, pushing him to 25th. However, he managed to drive through the field and secure the 11th position.

"I think it was a good points day considering all the little mishaps we had in the beginning," O'Ward said.

Last year Pato O'Ward won the St. Petersburg Grand Prix after Josef Newgarden was disqualified. He is seen as one of the many strong championship challengers this season for defending champion Alex Paulo.

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Pato O'Ward needs consistency to challenge for the Indycar Series title

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

The NTT INDYCAR SERIES 2025 season is underway and the season's first race has been one to forget for Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward. Many of the sport's insiders see him as the title challenger.

To win the championship O'Ward needs consistency. While he secured three podium finishes last season his championship battle hopes were crushed due to the six last-place finishes. While talking to Indycar staff writer Curt Cavin last week, O'Ward said:

"We’ve had too many of those instances where we’re just throwing away points. Cleaning that up and making our bad days better will have a significant impact in how we’re looking at the end of the season.”

The #5 Arrow McLaren team will look forward to getting back on track during the next race at The Thermal Club on March 23.