Pato O’Ward has weighed in on how he feels the NTT IndyCar Series should approach any potential international races that are added to the calendar, and being a full round of the championship is high on his list of priorities.
The Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team driver hails from Monterrey, Mexico, and has a large following of fans from his home country.
He is by no means the only driver from outside the United States currently racing in IndyCar, but he is, along with rookie Argentinian driver Agustin Canapino, among of the most popular international racers in the series.
Motorsportweek.com talked with O’Ward recently about his thoughts on adding a race in Latin America, and if it should be a points-paying race in the championship or a standalone exhibition race.
“No, man,” exclaimed O’Ward when the idea of an exhibition round was mentioned. “Part of the championship! Why an exhibition? No, part of the championship.
“We can have IndyCar be a championship that is not global like it was a good amount of years ago, but there are so many different countries racing in the series that it’s a no-brainer to tap into those markets.
“Two of those markets are pretty much a given they would be sold out. And they’re both Latin, and they are Argentina and Mexico.
“I’m sure returning to Australia with [Will] Power still in the series and being the champion last year, and with McLaren coming into the series and setting the bar with how a brand should be, that’s obviously bringing a lot of people from Europe too. A lot of interest from Europe.
“There’s just so much potential there. It’s there, all we have to do is crack into it.”
Currently the only international round on the IndyCar schedule is a yearly visit to the streets of Toronto, Canada.
The last time the series visited a country outside of the United States and Canada was in 2013 for a race on the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
IndyCar raced at Surfers Paradise, Australia in 2008, with the event taking place shortly after the reunification of Champ Car and IRL in 2008 and was staged as a non-championship round. That type of arrangement has not been seen since, however.
There have been many conversations in recent years about the series adding one or two additional international rounds to the schedule to take advantage of the popularity of some of its foreign-born drivers.
Executives from IndyCar even travelled to Argentina recently to tour the Autodromo Termas de Rio Hondo, with team owner Ricardo Juncos helping to make a case to hold a race at the track, but no concrete plans have been made up to this point.
“I understand the series doesn’t want to be global,” continued O’Ward. “But I sure as hell think they can have massive growth in Latin communities: Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, anywhere in Latin America. For IndyCar, it would be huge.
“Is it going to happen, from the looks of it, anytime soon? Probably not. I just feel like the series has so much potential, and it can be so much bigger than what it already is because the racing product is phenomenal.”
