Mexican driver Pato O’Ward, who drives for Arrow McLaren in the IndyCar Series, had the rare opportunity to travel back in time when he piloted a historic McLaren car built 54 years ago at Sonoma Raceway in California.
Moreover, it concerns the M7C, which was driven in Formula 1 in 1969 by Bruce McLaren himself, the founder of the team with which O’Ward now collaborates, more than half a century later.
We told you that a week before the Las Vegas Grand Prix, a very representative delegation from McLaren Racing will participate in the traditional Velocity Invitational car festival. The holiday of driving and car racing started yesterday and Pato has already started his duties, the performance of which certainly gives him great pleasure.
“It was cool! – he said after the race. – I don’t know what to say. The position of the hands on the handlebars is completely different here, which even made my left hand start to cramp. The grip is very low, there is almost no downforce, but the power is good and the engine responds well to the accelerator, making the speed increase very smooth.
But when you brake, it feels like the rear of the car doesn’t like it, it loses stability. Overall it’s a cool car and I have a lot of respect for the guys who drove it at top speed. All it took was a brake failure or a mistake on the fast part of the track and it could end badly.
This McLaren car is the oldest car at the festival, so it’s a bit of a journey back in time to the year it was over thirty years before I was born…”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
