Despite Lewis Hamilton Being a Benchmark, IndyCar Hero Pato O’Ward Picks This F1 “Cool Guy” as His Ultimate Idol

When it comes to the greatest driver in Formula 1, names like Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, or Lewis Hamilton come to mind. The trio has 17 F1 titles between them and any of them can easily be picked as one’s favorite in the game. However, IndyCar hero Pato O’Ward has a different “guy” in mind. Apart from the Mercedes driver Hamilton, the McLaren star recently revealed who his idol is while he was growing up.

Well, he’s none other than Fernando Alonso. The Mexican young driver recently opened up on the Spaniard during an interview. O’Ward talked about Alonso in The Red Flags Podcast, “Cool guy though, really cool guy. Very good driver.”

“He [Fernando Alonso] was my idol when I grew up. He was my idol growing up. Him and Lewis [Hamilton],” further stated the Arrow McLaren SP driver. Pato O’Ward and Fernando Alonso worked together in IndyCar in 2019.

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After the Spanish driver left F1, he tried his chances in the IndyCar series in 2017, 2019, and 2020. The duo met at the Carlin team in 2019. At Carlin, O’Ward was hired as a part-timer while they prepared the car for Fernando Alonso for the Indy500 run. Nevertheless, the IndyCar journey wasn’t a very successful one for Alonso, as the past often comes back to haunt him.

Pato O’Ward admired Fernando Alonso while working together

As he said, Pato O’Ward is a big-time admirer of Fernando Alonso. As the duo worked together, he got the chance to stay and work closely with the two-time F1 world champion.

In the same interview, O’Ward revealed his experience of working with one of the top talents of F1, “Yeah, we did the 500 [Indianapolis 500] together. It was cool. He’s a great guy. He’s really, really, I mean really switched on.”

The IndyCar driver went on, “We really enjoyed having him around. He’s very quiet and yeah he’s pretty chill, I have to say.”

“It was just cool being able to kind of pick his brain a little bit, kind of worked together,” the 23-year-old driver concluded.

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In 2021, Fernando Alonso returned to F1 with the team (Renault, now Alpine) with whom he won two championships. However, at the start of the 2022 season, he switched the team to come to Aston Martin and will start the 2023 season alongside Lance Stroll in the Silverstone-based team.