Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward admitted he was left perplexed by the unpredictable behaviour of Firestone’s softer alternate tyres after qualifying 10th for Sunday’s IndyCar XPEL Grand Prix at Road America, describing each fresh set as feeling like “a coin toss”.
The Mexican driver, currently fifth in the 2026 IndyCar Series championship, had looked among the favourites earlier in the weekend after topping second practice on Saturday morning. However, despite showing encouraging pace throughout the sessions leading up to qualifying, O’Ward was unable to replicate that speed when it mattered most around the iconic 4.014-mile, 14-turn Road America circuit in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
His best qualifying effort of 1:44.4003 left him on the fifth row of the grid, nearly four-tenths slower than the 1:44.0029 lap that had comfortably topped the timesheets during second practice.
Rather than blaming the car, O’Ward pointed towards what he believes was unusually inconsistent performance from successive sets of the alternate-compound tyres.
Practice promise failed to translate
Unlike most of the field, Arrow McLaren elected to fit the softer alternate tyres during Saturday morning’s second practice, allowing O’Ward and his engineers to gather valuable data before qualifying.
Initially, the decision appeared to be paying dividends.
Running on the softer compound gave the team a clearer understanding of the balance of the No. 5 Chevrolet and helped shape their qualifying preparations.
“It helped me just get a better balance on where the car was, debating on whether maybe we should have gone with the black tyres there,” O’Ward explained.
However, once qualifying began, the information gathered during practice quickly became less relevant.
Instead of finding additional pace on fresh tyres, the car behaved markedly differently from one tyre set to another.
‘Very strange’ tyre behaviour
O’Ward stressed that he was not the only driver affected.
Several front-runners, including championship leader Alex Palou and Team Penske’s Will Power, also experienced significant drops in lap time between the opening and final stages of qualifying despite fitting fresh alternate tyres.
To O’Ward, that suggested the issue extended beyond individual car set-ups.
“The tyres have been so wonky from one set to another. The car has transformed completely from using two sets of softs.”
He highlighted just how dramatic the fluctuations had been.
“Alex Palou lost six tenths from Q1 to Q2. I lost three-tenths, three-and-a-half tenths. It’s very strange, very, very strange.”
O’Ward added that the softer compound had displayed inconsistent characteristics throughout the weekend compared with the more durable primary tyre.
“We knew this soft tyre was already working quite weird compared to where the prime was.”
The Arrow McLaren driver believed there was considerably more pace available than the final result suggested.
“I genuinely thought we had a little bit more to give there to fight at least.
“But I was just skating out there. The car was sliding around a lot.”
According to O’Ward, the level of grip simply disappeared during his decisive qualifying run.
“I don’t really think the track changed so much that it would create issues as exponential as they were,” he said.
“It looks like we’re not the only one. Even Will Power, I think, lost six tenths from Q1 to Q2 on the same set of fresh tyres. So I don’t know.”
Qualifying comparison
| Session | Best Lap Time | Position | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Practice 2 | 1:44.0029 | 1st | Only driver to complete an alternate-tyre run |
| Qualifying | 1:44.4003 | 10th | Approximately 0.40s slower than practice benchmark |
Race optiImism remains
Despite the disappointing qualifying result, O’Ward remains confident that a strong race is still possible.
Road America has previously been one of his more competitive permanent road circuits, with two podium finishes from eight previous IndyCar starts at the Wisconsin venue. The circuit’s long straights, multiple overtaking opportunities and varying strategic options also mean grid position is less decisive than at many street circuits.
Arrow McLaren will now focus on preparing the No. 5 Chevrolet for race trim rather than dwelling on qualifying frustrations.
“At this point, all we can do is really try to maximise what we think we need for the race,” O’Ward said.
“So far it’s been a very smooth weekend.”
Nevertheless, he returned to the same recurring theme that had defined his Saturday afternoon.
“I’d just say every time you put a new set of softs on, it feels like a coin toss as to what you get from the car.”
With Sunday’s 55-lap contest expected to feature varying fuel strategies and multiple tyre compounds, O’Ward believes there remains every opportunity to recover from 10th on the grid.
“We just need to put our heads down for tomorrow and fight our way forward as best we can,” he concluded.
Should the tyre behaviour prove more consistent over race stints than it did across a single qualifying lap, O’Ward and Arrow McLaren will hope the pace shown in practice can finally be translated into a charge through the field and a valuable haul of championship points.