Can Pato O’Ward finally fulfil his promise and win the 2026 NTT Indycar series championship?
Two wins, two poles, six podiums and a career best second place finish in the Indycar standings makes 2025 a strong year for Pato Oward, a season he said he was ‘proud’ of despite finishing 196 points behind champion Alex Palou. Although, he has continued to finish in the top five in the final standings for the past three seasons, Oward may have expected to be closer to an Indycar championship by now, making 2026 a momentous year for the Mexican.
The Mexican who is ready for more
Oward has demonstrated throughout his Indycar career that if he can perfor the entire season and show a level of consistency as seen with Alex Palou and Chip Ganassi this year, he could be a contender for his first Astor Cup title. Arrow McLaren are also continuing to raise their performance, with Christian Lundgaard finishing fifth in his debut season with the team and Nolan Siegal showing flashes of what he can do at his best, with Oward stating that the team ‘raised the bar’ in 2025. A combined consistent high level effort from both Oward and Arrow McLaren in 2026 should elevate the Mexican into a season long championship threat.
O’ward is proud of what he and his team achieved in 2025, but is eager to improve for 2026, with lots of potential still to come. Poor qualifying results played a large part in Oward’s struggles this past season, meaning he needed to make the best of ‘recovery Sunday’s’. For example at St Pete, where he qualified 23rd but finished 11th, stating adapting to the hybrid was a significant reason for his misfortune in qualifying this season.
‘Either we were on pole or like runner up in qualifying or we were 15th, 18th, 23rd you know, and that seemed to be the trend for most of the qualifying during the year’.
Throughout the year, Oward began to grasp how the hybrid affected the car and managed to improve his qualifying results including two pole positions. However, as he said his starting positions lacked any sort of consistency. If the Mexican can find away around this for 2026 it will allow him to fight for more race victories and in turn the championship using the race performance he demonstrated across the 2025 season.
Oward has also set a goal of finishing every lap in 2026. A goal that was taken away from him in 2025 when he retired in Portland. The first person to do this was his team principal, Tony Kanaan, when he won the championship. Achieving this goal in 2026 would again thrust Oward into championship contention.
Overcoming his nightmare and winning the Indy500?
Another key part of any Indycar season is the Indy500. Oward has had incredible consistency at the Brickyard, whilst achieving some great results the elusive win still hasn’t come the Mexican’s way. However, Oward has stated: ‘I’m ready to f***ing win’ the Indy500 in 2026′. A strong 500 result would go along way in helping the McLaren driver in winning his first Indycar championship.
Oward is clearly very motivated for the upcoming Indycar season, as he sets to improve and raise his consistency by leaving no stone unturned as he chases his first championship win. He wants to make other championship contenders and namely Alex Palou feel ‘real pressure’ in 2026 as he believes the Spaniard has set a new ‘standard’ in Indycar. Stating ‘we should all strive to break through’ what Palou has done in 2025.
‘You beat a guy like that, you know you’re damn good’
Oward isn’t hiding how motivated he is to raise his game next season and such a strong attitude towards last year and what next year could be for him. Along with the performance gains from the team, who are ‘turbocharging everything’ Oward says as they aim to be the very best in the NTT Indycar series, it could mean that it all finally comes together in 2026 for Oward and Arrow McLaren as they both chase their first championship.
written by Michael Williams / Media Credit: Penske Entertainment