Lando Norris’ boss commends Pato O’Ward ‘season of growth’ in IndyCar

Lando Norris's McLaren (F1) Racing CEO, Zak Brown, has showered huge praise on his IndyCar star Pato O'Ward. The 2025 campaign of America's highest class of open-wheel racing has only one Grand Prix remaining on the 17-race calendar, and O'Ward is currently in second place in the standings with 505 points.

McLaren, as an organisation, is having an extremely fruitful run in 2025 in both the F1 and IndyCar series. Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are dominating (P1 and P2 in the standings) the competition in the former, whereas Pato O'Ward is waving the papaya outfit's flag high in IndyCar with the Arrow McLaren racing team.

In yesterday's Milwaukee event, Pato O'Ward secured his tenth top-five of the season, and in line with this, Zak Brown is immensely proud of his driver. Via X, the latter recently added the following:

"Second in the championship locked up for after another top five run today in Milwaukee. It’s been a season of growth and fight for this team. One more weekend to cap it off with more hardware at play."

Zak Brown

@ZBrownCEO

Second in the championship locked up for @PatricioOWard after another top five run today in Milwaukee. It’s been a season of growth and fight for this team. One more weekend to cap it off with more hardware at play @ArrowMcLaren @TeamChevy 👊

In the process of amassing 505 points in the first 16 races of the 2025 IndyCar season, Pato O'Ward has put on board two wins, a solitary pole position, 12 top tens, and, already mentioned, 10 top-five finishes.

After the end of the ongoing IndyCar campaign in Nashville, O'Ward will be seen behind the wheel of F1 machinery during the Mexican Grand Prix race weekend.

Pato O'Ward's 2021 interaction with Lando Norris about driving an F1 car

After the end of the 2021 F1 season, Pato O'Ward was presented with the opportunity to drive McLaren's car in the Abu Dhabi post-season young driver test. At that time, Lando Norris was also present at the iconic Yas Marina Circuit.

In line with his initial runs behind an F1 challenger, he showed surprise to Lando Norris regarding how it felt on his body. Back then, their hilarious conversation went as follows:

Norris: You are in my car. O'Ward: Sorry, yes, I mean.. Norris: My car, yeah, how is it? O'Ward: Man, I love it. Norris: He's not crashed so.... O'Ward: Hey, two hours to go!!" 4:58 onwards.

While Pato O'Ward's IndyCar campaign is pretty much done and dusted with only one race remaining, Lando Norris, on the other hand, is in an intense championship battle with teammate Oscar Piastri.

As mentioned already, they are almost neck and neck in the championship (Norris 275 points, Piastri 284 points), and considering this, the upcoming second leg of the 2025 F1 season is going to be epic between the two prolific drivers.