Pato O’Ward Set for Baptism by Fire as Lando Norris & Zak Brown Prepare IndyCar Star for F1 Challenge

Trial by fire, maybe a practice of old, but still remains relevant in some scenarios in the world. Interestingly enough, we will see a modern iteration of that soon in the world of racing. That’s right, we will see a trial by fire of McLaren‘s IndyCar star and F1 hopeful Pato O’Ward against Lando Norris. The two will go head to head in vintage McLaren F1 cars for an exhibition event. However, as O’Ward prepares edges closer to his F1 FP1 debut, what better way to give him a taste of the action if not against the face of the team in a race?

Pato O’Ward has long been pipped to become a part of the premier class with the Mexican pipped to be the most deserving out of the IndyCar lot. McLaren has made multiple efforts to get their IndyCar stars a taste of F1 and O’Ward will get his chance during FP1 of the 2023 Abu Dhabi GP. However, before he does that, the Mexican will be thrown to McLaren’s F1 shark Lando Norris in an upcoming event in the second week of November.

IndyCar racers Tony Kanaan, Pato O’Ward, and Alexander Rossi will race against Lando Norris and CEO Zak Brown at the Sonoma Raceway. This scenario will come to life between 10-12th November, a week before the Las Vegas GP. All the races will take to the track with vintage McLaren cars for the exhibition race. The occasion?

McLaren is celebrating its 60th anniversary in the event in the Velocity Invitational at Sonoma Raceway in California’s Wine Country. The Woking outfit will run nine of the most iconic F1 cars. Some of them will include the cars of the world champions, Ayrton Senna, Niki Lauda, and Lewis Hamilton.

The IndyCar stars and Norris will get the privilege to race in the cars driven by these F1 legends all to celebrate the founder Bruce McLaren. However, apart from the celebration, it will be a good opportunity to see how O’Ward fares in front of Norris in an F1 car.

Read More: IndyCar Sensation Pato O’Ward Reveals Obstacles Between Him & ‘The Seat’ in F1

But will we ever get the opportunity to experience the opposite, Norris in the oval circuit track racing in the IndyCar series? Well, the Brit has answered this question in the past.

Lando Norris makes an honest admission of his desire to race in the IndyCar series

Every racing driver always has this desire to test their skills in a different series and a different car. Norris is no different and is probably best placed to test his skills out in other series thanks to McLaren’s lateral expansion.

However, speaking about actually testing his skills out on the oval track, there is a bit of hesitation.

While explaining how he likes to spend his time after racing at home instead of parting, Norris gave us his opinion about IndyCar. Norris revealed, “Instead I went back to my flat and had a quiet night in watching the Indy500. Pato O’Ward did an amazing job taking second place for McLaren’s IndyCar team, which was cool. Those guys have massive coj***s.”

He added, “I am not sure you will ever see me racing the Indy500, although I do fancy giving sports cars a go one day so Le Mans is a goal. For now, my focus is all on F1. The weekend has given me renewed motivation and I cannot wait for Azerbaijan next week.” 

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So there you have it folks, straight from the horse’s mouth! Norris might make an appearance in some endurance racing series, but IndyCar seems like a farfetched dream.

Would you like to see the Brit represent McLaren in the American racing series as well?