{"id":611155,"date":"2026-04-17T22:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T22:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/611155\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T22:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T22:52:14","slug":"indycar-star-pato-oward-rips-the-artificial-racing-in-formula-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/611155\/","title":{"rendered":"IndyCar Star Pato O’Ward Rips The ‘Artificial’ Racing In Formula 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mexican driver took part in an F1 Free Practice session last season in Mexico<\/p>\n

PublishedApril 17, 2026 6:00 PM EDT\u2022UpdatedApril 17, 2026 6:00 PM EDT<\/p>\n

FacebookTwitterEmailCopy Link<\/p>\n

IndyCar<\/a> hits the streets of Long Beach, and one of the sport’s biggest spots is rightfully pumping the series tires ahead of one of its marquee races.<\/p>\n

Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward<\/a> comes into the weekend in P6 in the standings and is hoping to notch his first win of the season.<\/p>\n

However, ahead of the weekend, the Mexican driver was asked by Fox Deportes if he still had aspirations of leaving IndyCar to race in Formula 1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He had previously expressed interest in making the jump, but that has certainly waned, at least for the time being.<\/p>\n

“Every year it has changed more… honestly, the new Formula 1 cars\u2014what the series has done has been a mistake,” he said, per Motorsport<\/a>. “The truth is, when you look at them, they are artificial.”<\/p>\n

\"Pato<\/p>\n

Pato O\u2019Ward rips F1\u2019s 2026 cars as “artificial,” cites battery issues killing speed, and says IndyCar now offers the best pure racing experience. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

O’Ward is alluding to the new 2026 regulations, which have been highly criticized, especially when it comes to the power units. Like the previous generation, they’re V6 turbo-hybrid engines, but now they use a 50\/50 energy split between the battery and the electrical system.<\/p>\n

This has led to increased “superclipping” \u2014 F1 speak for when the batteries start recharging even if the driver has the accelerator flat to the floor \u2014 and allows for easy overtaking for the cars behind. It also causes previously high-speed sections of track, like 130R at Suzuka<\/a>, to be taken much slower than in years past.<\/p>\n

O’Ward said that this has hurt his desire to move to F1 because, for him, it was about getting into the fastest, most advanced cars on the planet.<\/p>\n

“The hunger I had to get to Formula 1 wasn’t for fame or money… it was because the cars were something impressive; driving those cars was something impressive,” he said.<\/p>\n

So, for now, he’s sticking with IndyCar, which doesn’t have any of the battery issues currently seen in F1.<\/p>\n

“I feel that right now, today, this is the best series for a driver who wants to race \u2014here, in IndyCar… Formula 1 right now is an artificial show, and honestly, I have zero desire for it; it doesn’t grab my attention.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mexican driver took part in an F1 Free Practice session last season in Mexico PublishedApril 17, 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-611155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}