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IndyCar: Patricio O’Ward’s success at Carlin bodes well for Fernando Alonso

By Asher Fair

BAHRAIN, BAHRAIN - MARCH 31: Fernando Alonso of Spain and McLaren F1 looks on during the F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain at Bahrain International Circuit on March 31, 2019 in Bahrain, Bahrain. (Photo by Charles Coates/Getty Images)
BAHRAIN, BAHRAIN - MARCH 31: Fernando Alonso of Spain and McLaren F1 looks on during the F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain at Bahrain International Circuit on March 31, 2019 in Bahrain, Bahrain. (Photo by Charles Coates/Getty Images) /
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The success that IndyCar rookie Patricio O’Ward has had driving for Carlin so far this season bodes well for two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso.

When McLaren ended their 38-year absence from the Indianapolis 500 in the 2017 IndyCar season, they formed a partnership with Andretti Autosport and fielded the #29 Honda in the race.

Two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso, who had never previously competed in an IndyCar race, much less the 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in Speedway, Indiana, drove the #29 Honda in this race.

Even with his first career IndyCar race being an oval race, Alonso was expected to have success by many fans and competitors alike. This was the case for two reasons: (1) he is Fernando Alonso, one of the greatest Formula 1 drivers and race car drivers in general of all-time, and (2) Andretti Autosport were the dominant team in the Indy 500 that year.

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As expected, the 37-year-old Spaniard went on to have a successful race, as he qualified in fifth place and went on to lead 27 of its first 179 laps before his Honda engine gave out on him with 21 laps remaining and he was relegated to a 24th place finish.

After missing the 2018 Indy 500, Alonso is set to return to the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”, and he is set to drive for McLaren again. McLaren are set to operate as a Chevrolet-powered team as opposed to a Honda-powered team for this year’s running of the race, and while they have made clear that they want their entry for Alonso in this race to be more of a full-on McLaren entry than their entry for him in the 2017 Indy 500 was, they still formed a technical alliance with Carlin for this race.

Since entering IndyCar ahead of the 2018 season, Carlin have been arguably the slowest team on the grid. However, the recent success of rookie Patricio O’Ward suggests that they may not be as bad as they have seemed.

With all due respect to Max Chilton and Charlie Kimball, who have combined to make 37 starts in Carlin’s 19 IndyCar races and have recorded some decent results over the course of their IndyCar careers, O’Ward’s success has shown that the lack of overall success that these two drivers have had driving for the sport’s newest full-time Chevrolet-powered team does not fully illustrate what the team are capable of.

In just his second career IndyCar start and his first start driving for Carlin, O’Ward qualified and finished in eighth place at Circuit of the Americas. He finished in seventh in the first two practice sessions for this weekend’s race, which is set to mark just his third career start, at Barber Motorsports Park.

The big winner of O’Ward’s success? Fernando Alonso.

Of course, Alonso is Alonso and can pretty much be expected to perform at a high level in the Indy 500 or even the Daytona 500 if he decides he wants to compete in the crown jewel of the NASCAR Cup Series schedule one day, which remains an interesting possibility.

After all, Alonso is one Indy 500 victory away from becoming only the second driver to win all three races of the Triple Crown of Motorsport, as he is a two-time Monaco Grand Prix winner and he won last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Only Graham Hill has won all three of these races at least once.

But the idea of Alonso driving for McLaren in only their second Indy 500 appearance in 41 years and McLaren having a technical alliance with the slowest full-time team on the grid as opposed to the fastest full-time team on the grid like they did two years ago wasn’t particularly appealing given what everybody knows he is capable of, even if it is not quite comparable to his four seasons driving a mid-pack to backmarker car for McLaren in Formula 1.

That said, the success that O’Ward has had driving for Carlin, even though there is not a huge sample size of it, has illustrated that they are a team that can prove advantageous to McLaren this May and that Alonso should once again have no issues getting up to speed and being competitive in the Indy 500 like he was two years ago.

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How will Fernando Alonso perform in his second career Indianapolis 500 attempt? The 103rd running of the race is scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 26, and NBC is set to air it live from Indianapolis Motor Speedway beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET. This race is the sixth of 17 races on the 2019 IndyCar schedule, which you can see here.