Things are heating up at McLaren ahead of the IndyCar season finale: Pato O’Ward firmly rejects accusations from his departing teammate Christian Lundgaard
Tensions at McLaren’s IndyCar team have escalated ahead of the IndyCar season finale at Laguna Seca Raceway. Patricio “Pato” O’Ward has responded with harsh words to comments made by his departing teammate Christian Lundgaard regarding the approach to oval setups.
The conflict has come to a head after Lundgaard—driver of the 7 McLaren, who, despite two wins this season and a battle for the runner-up title, will not be returning to the team in 2027—publicly criticized the team’s oval program ahead of the race weekend in Milwaukee. In an interview with FOX, the Dane blamed the Mexican for his own setup issues.
“Well, first of all, you need teammates who have the same requirements,” said Lundgaard. “In my opinion, Scott [Dixon] and Felix [Rosenqvist] will have problems with Pato in this regard. Pato drives with a completely different setup… During my time with the team, for whatever reason, the oval performance only went in one direction.”
In a recent interview with ESPN Deportes, O’Ward directly refuted his teammate’s claims, calling them nothing but a smokescreen.
“In the IndyCar Series, everyone is on their own little island,” O’Ward explained. “ I know Christian likes to claim that everything is tailored to me, and that the car only develops in the direction I demand.“
”But what he says about the oval program—that it’s geared solely toward my preferences—is complete nonsense. Or as they say in English: ‘He’s full of shit.’ That’s simply not true.”
Breakthrough Finally in Milwaukee
O’Ward emphasizes that drivers work with different setups depending on the track: “On most tracks, our setups are very different. He develops his car, I develop mine. And if someone has major problems in a few races, they’ll even switch to the other guy’s setup and do better with it. “
After his two wins at the Milwaukee doubleheader on August 30, O’Ward climbed to fourth place overall in the championship with 503 points. That puts him just two points behind Andretti driver Kyle Kirkwood and four points behind Lundgaard in the battle for the runner-up title behind Alex Palou.
O’Ward points out that his own inconsistent results on ovals this season—fourth place at the Indianapolis 500, 11th in St. Louis, seventh in Nashville, and the two wins in Milwaukee—refute Lundgaard’s characterization.
“I know a lot of people are talking and claiming that everything is being done for Pato,” he says. “But as you can see, I’ve struggled on the ovals all year. The only races I’ve really done well in were the ones in Milwaukee.”
“I struggled in the rest. Indy was mediocre, but all the others were terrible compared to previous years. So if everything were tailored to me, I would have won the other oval races too (…) It’s all just hot air.”
Battle for the runner-up title: O’Ward doesn’t want to take it personally
Although finishing as runner-up would mark his best career result to date from 2025, O’Ward emphasizes that his motivation at Laguna Seca is purely sporting and that he isn’t looking for a late rematch within the team.
“In recent years, it just happened naturally, didn’t it?” said O’Ward. “I’ve always ended up being the team’s highest-placed driver. Christian has had a great year, but honestly, I don’t care at all whether I finish second or third.”
“If Christian finishes second and I finish third, I just want to finish as high up as possible to repeat my result from last year. But ultimately, I’m not targeting any specific driver.”
O’Ward adds: “I want to finish as runner-up because that’s the best we can achieve this weekend. I knew that a very good result in Milwaukee would give me that chance, and that’s exactly what happened.”
