Carlin’s IndyCar racer Patricio O’Ward has officially joined the Red Bull Junior Team as the energy drinks company expands its junior line-up.
It is not common for Red Bull to sign up a IndyCar racer but they have done it in the form of 19-year-old O’Ward, who has impressed many with his performances, especially when he won the Indy Lights championship in 2018 after a dominant run.
The Mexican driver secured a promotion to IndyCar in 2019 – initially with Harding Racing – but even before the year began, he opted out of the team and joined Carlin instead, with whom he has raced in three rounds after missing the first race.
He scored a solid eighth on his debut and sits 17th in the drivers’ standings with 56 points. He is also the fourth best rookie IndyCar driver so far. O’Ward’s first appearance in the Red Bull colours will be this weekend at Indianapolis’ road course round.
“This is a great opportunity for me, naturally every racing driver has their eye on F1 and would give anything to be World Champion so to join the Red Bull Junior Team that has provided that F1 possibility to so many drivers is fantastic for me,” he said.
“I’m thrilled to be contesting the IndyCar series with Carlin, apart from the Indianapolis 500, we are prioritising the road course, so Indy is the only oval I am doing. We’ve already had success especially considering the fact that I am a Rookie and Carlin are in their second IndyCar season.
“You can’t get away from the fact that we don’t have the 25 years of experience that the major established teams have so any time you are running in the top ten and giving them a hard time you are doing a good job.
“We plan to carry on doing that starting with this weekend at Indy. It’s the road course and it’s a track I go well at, I’ve had success there so I am very much looking forward to it.” It will be interesting to see what Red Bull does with O’Ward and if he gets a F1 run or not.
