Tensions within Arrow McLaren have boiled over ahead of the IndyCar season finale at Laguna Seca, as Pato O’Ward issued a blistering response to departing teammate Christian Lundgaard over allegations surrounding the team’s oval setup development.
The friction spiked after Lundgaard – driver of the #7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, who will not continue with the team in 2027 despite two wins this season while contending for runner-up honors – publicly criticized the team’s oval program prior to last weekend’s Milwaukee doubleheader. Speaking with Fox Sports host Will Buxton, the Dane pointed to the #5 driver as the root of his setup struggles.
“Well, for starters, you need teammates who need the same thing,” Lundgaard said. “In my opinion, Scott (Dixon) and Felix (Rosenqvist) are going to have difficulties with Pato in that regard. Pato runs something very different… in my time with the team, the oval performance has only gone in one direction for whatever reason.”
Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren
Photo by: Finn Gomez via Getty Images
In a recent interview with ESPN Deportes, O’Ward fired back directly at his teammate’s claims, calling them pure smoke and mirrors.
“Everyone in IndyCar is on their own little island,” O’Ward said. “I know Christian loves to say that everything is made for me and he loves to say that the car only goes in the direction I ask for… But that thing he says about the oval program being only for what I want is pure bullshit, as we love to say in English ‘he is full of shit’, it’s not true.”
O’Ward emphasized that the drivers operate on distinct setups depending on the track.
“On most tracks, we are always on opposite sides (of the setup), he develops his car and I develop mine, and, in fact, in several races if one is struggling a lot, you switch to the other’s (setup) and you do better,” O’Ward said.
Following a sweep of both races at Milwaukee on August 30, O’Ward climbed to fourth in the championship standings with 503 points – placing him just two points behind Kyle Kirkwood and four points behind Lundgaard for the runner-up spot. The IndyCar title has already been clinched by Álex Palou.
O’Ward noted that his own mixed results on ovals – fourth (Indianapolis 500), 11th (World Wide Technology Raceway), seventh (Nashville), and two Milwaukee wins – this season disprove Lundgaard’s narrative.
Pato O’Ward, Arrow McLaren
Photo by: Jake Galstad / Lumen via Getty Images
“I know there are a lot of people talking and saying that everything is for Pato,” he said. “As you can see, I’ve struggled on ovals all year, in fact, the only ones I managed to pull off were Milwaukee, the rest I struggled with. Indy was so-so, but all the others were terrible, comparing them to previous years, so if everything were for me, I would have won all the other ovals too (…) that’s pure smoke.”
While finishing runner-up would match his career-best result from 2025, O’Ward insisted his motivation at Laguna Seca is purely personal performance, not intra-team retaliation.
“In recent years that has been automatic, right?” O’Ward said. “I had always finished as the team leader, Christian has had a great year, but honestly, whether I finish second or third, I really don’t care, if Christian finishes second and I finish third, I want to finish as high as possible because it would be a way to match my previous year, but at the end of the day I don’t target any other driver.”
O’Ward went on to further add, “I want to finish second in the championship because it’s the best we can do this weekend, I knew that having a very good Milwaukee would open up that opportunity for me and that’s what has happened.”
