Pato O'Ward poses alongside NFL star along with McLaren’s ‘lightening bolt’
McLaren ace Pato O'Ward recently featured in a collaboration with NFL star Denzel Perryman. Perryman is a linebacker in the NFL for the Los Angeles Chargers.
Former Indy Lights champion O'Ward remains one of the biggest prospects in the racing world. At 25, the Mexican ace has already impressed with his stint in the NTT IndyCar Series driving for Arrow McLaren, having won seven races in his career so far.
Beyond his IndyCar career, O'Ward has also featured in McLaren's Formula 1 team, serving as the team's reserve driver in its victorious 2024 campaign. He has also featured in multiple F1 Free Practice sessions for the team, consistently knocking on McLaren F1's doors as a driver to keep a watch on.
Apart from his driving duties, O'Ward also remains one of the most popular drivers in IndyCar at the time of writing. He has amassed over 800k followers on his Instagram handle, and is actively involved in the team's promotional campaigns.
In one such bid, Pato O'Ward featured in one of Arrow McLaren's recent Instagram posts, which was the team's collaborative effort with NFL outfit Los Angeles Chargers, and its linebacker Denzel Perryman.
The collection of pictures, which were posted on Arrow McLaren's Instagram handle, feature O'Ward and Perryman sitting on both ends of the fastest McLaren car, the Speedtail. The post was captioned:
"Fast as a lightning bolt.⚡"
Perryman has been a part of LA Chargers since 2024. He also took part in a game of Catch the Baton alongside O'Ward in another Instagram post that was shared by McLaren.
Pato O'Ward speaks his heart about gaining popularity on social media
As previously mentioned, Pato O'Ward remains one of the most popular IndyCar drivers on the grid. Currently, he has amassed over a million followers when combining two major social media platforms in the United States, TikTok and Instagram.
In a recent interview with Press Telegram, O'Ward spoke about "embracing" this popularity and harboring growth both in terms of performance and popularity. He noted:
"Of course, I embrace it. I mean, we’re in entertainment. That’s what we want to see grow, we want to do well performance-wise. Those are our main priorities, so, so far I think we’ve been doing something well and we just need to keep pushing."
Pato O'Ward's 2025 season has been a hit and miss so far. Out of the three races he has taken part in, the Mexican has secured one top-five finish at Thermal Club. Meanwhile, he has failed to finish inside top-10 in the other two.
His most recent outing in the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach saw the 25-year-old finish 13th. The result has seen him drop down from second position in the standings to sixth, trailing the leader Alex Palou by 62 points.