Pato O’Ward makes ‘curious’ Mexico City Grand Prix claim amid Sergio Perez statement

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Pato O’Ward will experience his home Formula 1 race for the first time with McLaren in FP1, but the Mexican is ‘curious’ about one thing before the Mexico City Grand Prix.

The 25-year-old will get behind the wheel of the MCL38 for the first practice session at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. McLaren have opted to run O’Ward in FP1 for the Mexico City GP to fulfil part of the rule requiring F1 teams to run rookie drivers at least once per car.

It is expected that O’Ward will drive the MCL38 belonging to Lando Norris in Mexico. He has previously contested official F1 sessions with McLaren in the 2021 post-season young driver test, plus in FP1 for the 2022 and 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. He is even their reserve driver.

Pato O’Ward is ‘curious’ how the Mexico City GP fans will react compared to Sergio Perez

McLaren promoted O’Ward from a test driver role to part of their reserve pool in November 2023. The Monterrey native has also driven for Arrow McLaren in IndyCar since 2020 and he fought for the series title in 2021, whilst finishing second at the Indy 500 in 2022 plus 2024.

Yet despite his success in America’s top single-seater series since debuting in 2018, O’Ward is ‘curious’ to see how the fans at the Mexico City GP respond after seeing and hearing all of the support they give Sergio Perez. The Red Bull pilot is preparing for his ninth race at home.

READ MORE: Red Bull driver Sergio Perez’s life outside F1 from net worth to nickname

O’Ward is particularly interested in what it will be like to drive through the baseball stadium that closes a lap of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Even if he doubts the home crowd will know who O’Ward is as Drive to Survive only increased the popularity of F1’s 20 drivers.

“I’m still kind of a nobody in the F1 paddock, to be honest,” O’Ward has told RACER. “People that know about motorsports obviously know when I’m walking around. But all the Netflix growth for sure has no idea who anybody is besides the 20 drivers. So, it will be interesting.

“I’m curious to see the stadium section because every time Checo goes through there I hear everybody just screams, and I can hear it from the box.

“Obviously, I don’t think it will be the same for me when I go through there. But maybe some people will be like, ‘Hey!’ I think that will be really cool.”

Sergio Perez is the most successful Mexican Formula 1 driver in history

IndyCar has a big and passionate fanbase in Mexico, and the nation is also a market that the series is interested in growing its presence in further. O’Ward even gets lots of support from Mexican fans in IndyCar but he questions the carryover to F1 by only doing FP1 for McLaren.

Perez, on the other hand, is greeted with an explosion of noise whenever the Red Bull driver passes through the stadium section in any session for the Mexico City GP. Mexico has so far had eight drivers race in Formula 1, but no Mexican has ever achieved as much as Perez.

The 2024 Mexico City GP should be Perez’s 277th Grand Prix start – far more than any other Mexican to date with Esteban Gutierrez second with 59 to the 54 of Pedro Rodriguez, whom alongside his brother Ricardo Rodriguez who started five races the track was renamed after.

Mexican fans have also seen one of their own win a Grand Prix with just Pedro Rodriguez (2) and Perez (6), who is also the only Mexican to claim a pole position (3). The pair are further the only Mexicans to date to stand on a Grand Prix podium with seven and 39 respectively.