Alexander Rossi shares heartwarming message for Pato O'Ward amid McLaren driver's IndyCar success

Alexander Rossi was a former teammate of Pato O'Ward at Arrow McLaren, and despite the pair having split apart in 2025, they have shared a few on-track battles. Sharing his thoughts on the Mexican rising through the ranks in IndyCar and appearing as a championship leader, he reminisces about the duo's battles and how respectfully they battle each other.

The 33-year-old driver made his debut in IndyCar in 2016 and quickly gained stardom due to his rags-to-riches win at the 100th running of the Indy 500 as a rookie. He then became a title contender in the following years before ditching Andretti for Arrow McLaren for his next chapter in racing.

With Rossi's arrival at McLaren, many reckoned that an intra-team rivalry may develop between him and O'Ward, but the California-born driver was more often than not trailing his teammate. This led him to part ways with the papaya squad and join Ed Carpenter Racing for the 2025 campaign.

While this meant that the pair were now driving for different teams, they still found themselves battling for the same piece of tarmac. Despite the Mexican often ending up winning the on-track battles, Rossi shared a heartwarming statement on how he was glad to see the 26-year-old win, as he said in the IndyCar press conference leading up to the Monterey Grand Prix:

"You have certain guys that you really enjoy racing with. Pato [O'Ward] is one of those guys. There's just a huge amount of respect and appreciation between us. Those guys you always have the best battles with."

"Pato is one of those guys. Since I was not participating in the race, I was glad to see he was able to get a win. That was cool for him."

On the other hand, Alexander Rossi has only clinched four top-10 results in the 2025 season so far.

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Alexander Rossi shares the need to secure a strong result at Laguna Seca

Alexander Rossi at the 2025 IndyCar Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix - Source: Getty

The Monterey Grand Prix held at Laguna Seca is sponsored by Java House, the same brand that backs the Ed Carpenter Racing outfit. With the 95-lap race seemingly being rendered as a home race for ECR, this leads to increased pressure on Alexander Rossi and Christian Rasmussen to bring in strong results for the squad.

Opening up on the cold brew coffee brand being deeply integrated with the race at the 2.238-mile track, the 33-year-old said in the press conference:

"It's been a difficult run. I think the team in general is very in need of a strong result for both cars, not only for kind of a confidence boost for the whole organization, but also because it's the team's home race now kind of with the Java House being the title sponsor. There's going to be a lot of eyes and a lot of opportunity to make people very happy if we can have a good weekend."

Alexander Rossi sits 18th in the championship standings after 13 rounds of racing, 18 points behind his ECR teammate Rasmussen.