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MEXICO CITY — Promoters in Mexico are set to hold further talks with IndyCar in January about bringing a race to the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez amid a surge in interest around driver Pato O’Ward.
O’Ward, who races for McLaren’s IndyCar team and won three races this season, made his first Formula One practice appearance of the year on Friday at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Taking part in the one-hour practice as one of McLaren’s two required young driver sessions of the year, O’Ward was subject to the same raucous support from the grandstands as Sergio Pérez, the only full-time Mexican racing in F1.
O’Ward later commented that he had been made to feel “like a pop star” this week in Mexico City as hundreds of fans turned out for his events despite him not being a full-time F1 driver.
His practice appearance reignited the debate surrounding a potential return to Mexico for IndyCar to capitalize on the local interest. This year’s grand prix is the ninth consecutive sell-out at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, in no small part thanks to the stardom of Pérez.
NASCAR will race outside the United States for the first time next year when it visits the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in June. This prompted O’Ward to ask earlier this year why IndyCar had been beaten to a Mexican race.
On Saturday, Alejandro Soberón, the president of Mexico City GP promoter CIE, noted O’Ward’s “very strong following” in Mexico before confirming plans for further talks with IndyCar next year.
“We’ve been in discussions with Indy,” Soberón said. “They want to come. They were before in Mexico. Next year, NASCAR is coming to Mexico. They’re going outside the United States for the first time. There is a lot of excitement for a different type of race in the championship. We’ll see. It’s going to be in June of next year.
“Then we have set up conversations with IndyCar in January to think about 2026. Of course, Pato is a big factor in all of that.
“But the king of the races is Formula One. This is the best show that Mexico can have every year.”
O’Ward has been eager to involve himself with the push to bring IndyCar back to Mexico. The American single-seater championship has not visited the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez since 2007, back when it was ChampCar, and prior to the track renovations that led to F1’s return in 2015.
In an interview with The Athletic earlier this month, O’Ward said he felt conversations about the Mexico race had “now at least taken steps forward,” and he was optimistic about it joining the calendar in 2026.
“I actually think it might be a thing, obviously not for next year, but hopefully for ’26, I think that’s something we’re all pushing,” O’Ward said.
“(I’m) not quite sure exactly where it’s at, but I was very adamant that I wanted to be part of what the Mexican event with IndyCar if it did come to fruition, I wanted to be a big part of it. I think that is taking its course, and moving forward. So I’m super excited for that.”
O’Ward admitted that the idea of an IndyCar race in Mexico was “a pretty dead idea” in the last few years because there “wasn’t really interest” in the country to secure an IndyCar race.
“I think that was the biggest thing,” O’Ward said. “I definitely don’t want to blame IndyCar for that, because if there was so much interest, then we’d be there already.”
Top photo: SIPA USA
