Pato O'Ward has cooled significantly on his long-held Formula 1 ambitions, telling reporters at Long Beach that the 2026-spec series has lost everything that originally drew him to it — and that he now has "zero desire" to chase a seat in the championship he once openly campaigned for.
The Arrow McLaren IndyCar lead and McLaren's official F1 test driver since 2022 has completed five FP1 outings as part of his test commitments, but the Mexican made it abundantly clear that the new active aerodynamics, energy-management systems and hybrid deployment philosophy underpinning the 2026 F1 cars no longer appeal.
"The hunger I had to get to Formula 1 wasn't for fame or money," he said. "It was because the cars were something impressive."
That impression, he argued, has now disappeared. "Formula 1 right now is an artificial show, and honestly, I have zero desire for it."
His harshest criticism was reserved for the deployment-driven overtaking model that the 2026 regulations are built around — a system in which drivers manage hybrid energy across the lap rather than relying purely on chassis behaviour and braking inputs.
"You don't want to be flipping a switch to say, 'Oh, I'm going to press it to pass him artificially.'" O'Ward said. "It's not Mario Kart; we're racing here."
The comments are striking because O'Ward has historically been one of the most public American-pathway candidates for an F1 promotion. McLaren placed him in its Formula 1 simulator program early, gave him FP1 outings in Abu Dhabi and Mexico City, and named him a reserve driver alongside Felipe Drugovich for 2026 — a pathway that could, in theory, have eventually opened a race seat.
Instead, O'Ward now appears to have made a public choice about where his racing identity sits. He pointed to IndyCar as offering the kind of pure mechanical-grip, low-aero, driver-led racing that originally pulled him toward open-wheel competition.
The 26-year-old currently sits sixth in the IndyCar championship through the early stretch of the 2026 season, with Long Beach offering the next opportunity to add to his win column. McLaren's IndyCar effort has invested heavily in his program over the last two seasons, and his decision to publicly close the door on F1 — at least under its current ruleset — will likely be seen as a vote of confidence in that direction.
It also adds to a growing public conversation about the 2026 F1 regulations, which have already drawn pointed criticism from Max Verstappen, who in recent weeks suggested he might step away from the championship if the racing feel of the new cars proves as compromised as some pre-season testing has indicated.
For O'Ward, however, this is not a temporary stance. His framing — that F1 has lost its connection to the driver — represents something deeper than a single regulatory cycle. Whether or not the cars eventually win him back, he has made it clear that for now, his future is firmly an IndyCar one.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/oward-cools-on-f1-dream-its-not-mario-kart-were-racing-here). Visit for full coverage.*
