IndyCar's Pato O'Ward admits to voluntarily giving an underwear shot for KitKat promo: "I'm not shy”

Arrow McLaren star Pato O'Ward was announced as the face of KitKat’s promotional activities at the 2025 Mexican Grand Prix. About a month after the announcement, KitKat released a promo featuring the Mexican driver. Pato O'Ward has now come out and revealed that he voluntarily gave an underwear shot for the promo.

O'Ward uploaded the latest KitKat promo on his social media, where the Mexican driver was seen walking toward a tub full of KitKats in a bathrobe, kicking the social media notification away, before removing the bathrobe and jumping in the tub in just his underwear.

The background music of the promo is Queen’s song “I Want to Break Free”, as Pato O'Ward snaps a KitKat in half and eats it. The song and O'Ward's action of kicking the social media notification symbolise KitKat's tagline, i.e., “Have a break, have a KitKat”.

The caption of the video uploaded by Pato O'Ward read,

“With @kitkatmexico my uninterrupted break looks this delicious. Who's craving one?”

Motorsports reporter Nathan Brown recently came and revealed that O'Ward added his twist to the commercial. The Mexican driver was going to walk into the chocolate tub in his clothes, but then added his own directing input and voluntarily gave an underwear shot. Nathan Brown detailed the IndyCar driver's response, which read,

“I was supposed to go in with clothes on into the tub & I said, 'When have you ever seen me go into an ice bath with clothes on?’ And they were like, 'Well...'”

Pato O'Ward then added, “‘No, underwear. I don't mind. I'm not shy.'”

F1 signed a sponsorship deal with Nestle in November 2024, with KitKat becoming the official chocolate bar partner. O'Ward, for the second year running, will be the face of KitKat at the Mexican GP. Along with the Arrow McLaren IndyCar duties, O'Ward also fills in as the reserve driver for McLaren's F1 team.

Pato O'Ward to drive the McLaren MCL39 at the 2025 Mexican Grand Prix.

Pato O'Ward filled in the McLaren seat during the FP1 session at last year's Mexican Grand Prix and was announced to fill the same for the 2025 race at Autodromo Hermano Rodríguez. The Mexican driver will be stepping foot into McLaren's 2025 competitor, the MCL39, on October 24 for the FP1 session.

Speaking about the opportunity, O'Ward thanked McLaren and said,

“I’m excited to be jumping back in the car for FP1 at my home race in Mexico this year. The Mexico City fans were unbelievable last time out, and it was a great feeling being able to extract everything from the programme that the team had planned.”

During the 2024 outing in Mexico, O'Ward set a lap time good enough for P13 and completed 21 laps.