Is IndyCar’s once-promising pathway to F1 now a road closed?

It was a heady time. As Formula 1‘s popularity was spiking at the start of the decade, three of North America’s top young IndyCar talents were introduced to the world of grand prix racing by McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown.

The odds were long, but as each embarked on bespoke testing programs, there was a reason to hope one of IndyCar’s best would eventually get a chance to step onto a global stage and compete at the sport’s peak.

The first to cross the F1 testing threshold with McLaren was Pato O’Ward in December 2021. The Mexican, who represents the team through its Arrow McLaren IndyCar outfit, was followed by Andretti Global’s Colton Herta in July 2022 as Brown’s friend and business partner Michael Andretti was busy trying to find a pathway onto the F1 grid. By September, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Álex Palou became the third IndyCar pilot to turn his first F1 laps in McLaren machinery.

Three years later, only O’Ward is left standing. What went wrong?

Andretti’s struggles to gain access to F1 are well known and have had a direct impact on Herta’s involvement with the series. Andretti’s subsequent plights to launch his own team in partnership with investor Dan Towriss, and the latest twist involving the 1991 CART IndyCar Series champion’s ouster from his team, have only added to the yearslong drama.

Firm in the belief that the FIA and Liberty Media would eventually grant its entry, Andretti gave Herta a lucrative new contract — said to exceed all IndyCar salaries by nearly double — in anticipation of taking the Californian to F1. Outside of the lone test with McLaren in 2022, Herta has been on the outside looking in as the Towriss-led organization continues to develop a team and car of its own in the background.

“It’s definitely still in my mind,” Herta, who finished second in the 2024 IndyCar standings, told ESPN. “I think the window is for sure closing, age wise.

“For me, it’s not just about Formula 1, but it’s just about getting to drive some of the coolest cars on the planet. And that’s a big reason why I love doing the IMSA races, because the GTP cars are really cool to race. True racing drivers, they want the opportunity to do a lot of things in their career, and I’ve been fortunate enough to do a lot in my short career so far as a professional. F1 is definitely still something that that I want to try.”

It’s here where Herta, who went through struggles of his own with F1 on the topic of earning enough points to secure the Super License required to race in the series, has pinned his only realistic hopes of reaching the F1 grid with his IndyCar employer.

“They’re still full steam ahead, and if they get the bid, they’ll be ready much faster than any other team that can pop up at the moment,” Herta added. “They’re a long way into the process and they still have money pouring into it. How that ties me into it? It’s nothing direct at the moment. I’m just in the background. Obviously, I would think that I’d be a choice for them, because I drive for them in IndyCar, and they voiced opinions on how I could be in F1, but a lot of things have to happen for everything to work out for that effort with me in it.”

Palou’s situation is even more uncertain.

The Spaniard’s F1 berth with McLaren in 2022 was part of a now-abandoned plan to leave Ganassi at the end of 2023, join the Arrow McLaren IndyCar team, and pursue his grand prix dreams with Brown as his biggest supporter.

An IndyCar champion in 2021, Palou was dissatisfied with the tiny salary he was receiving from Ganassi in 2022, searched for ways to get out of his contract and announced he had no intention of continuing with Ganassi after the team issued a press release saying it was taking up its option on Palou for 2023. Ganassi promptly sued Palou to enforce the contract.

They eventually struck a new one-year deal for 2023 that came with no strings attached for 2024. Palou could leave for McLaren, if desired, which was having driver problems of its own as Daniel Ricciardo was proving to be no match for Lando Norris.

Free to work with McLaren when it didn’t conflict with his Ganassi IndyCar duties, Palou tested in September 2022 and made his F1 debut in October of that year in Free Practice 1 for the team at Circuit of The Americas. One more test in December followed, but by the summer of 2023, the relationship between Palou and McLaren turned ugly.

In a nearly identical repeat of what took place 12 months prior with Ganassi, Palou informed Brown that he would not be joining McLaren in 2024. McLaren sued Palou, who was about to clinch his second IndyCar championship for Ganassi, and as it was revealed in the filings, Palou was alleged to have signed a contract with McLaren — while under contract with Ganassi — and took advance payments on his future salary.

The lawsuit, which seeks to recoup more than $20,000,000 from Palou in lost testing expenses and potential revenue, is ongoing and could reach its conclusion in 2025. Palou, who won his third IndyCar title for Ganassi last season, turns 28 in April, hasn’t been anywhere near an F1 car since the relationship with McLaren went sideways, and is under a new and binding contract with Ganassi for a few more years.

A rumor made the rounds months ago regarding Palou and interest the upcoming Audi F1 team might have in his services, but the speculation failed to account for the duration of his updated Ganassi contract and how — after going through two summers of nonsense with Palou — Ganassi was never going to grant the release of his lead driver.

There’s nothing to stop Palou from trying to find a new F1 opportunity once his current deal is completed in IndyCar. He clearly has the talent to deserve some calls from the grand prix paddock, but will be nearly 30 by then, and like Herta, the clock is ticking as younger and newer models like Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, who will replace Lewis Hamilton, emerge from the European open-wheel ladder.

It leaves O’Ward as the last IndyCar driver with ongoing ties to F1, and speaking of dreams, the native of Monterrey stepped into Norris’s McLaren MCL38 on Friday to participate in FP1 at home for the first time in front of the passionate fans at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

According to O’Ward’s boss, it was more than a publicity stunt.

“There are a handful of IndyCar drivers that are very capable of being F1 drivers,” Brown told ESPN. “Do I think Scott Dixon could have been a Formula 1 world champion? Absolutely, and then you’ve got some guys that I think are still at the right age to make the transition. McLaren obviously has a stellar driver lineup, so short of something unforeseen happening, there doesn’t appear to be any opportunities in McLaren in the short term, but the unforeseen; appendicitis, broken legs, whatever else can happen. So you always need to be prepared.

“[McLaren F1 drivers] Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris came out of Formula 2, so it’s an obvious place where all the other teams tend to look because that’s where they’re all coming from. I don’t want to speak on behalf of everybody in Formula 1, but what I would say is I’m in the minority in my thinking of looking outside the traditional places where my fellow F1 team bosses look, probably because I’m more exposed to IndyCar.

“We recognize the talents of Pato, so we’re very happy to have him as a reserve driver and doing things like Free Practice 1. And if some unforeseen circumstance happened with our Formula 1 team? Pato would be on a very, very short list of drivers that we would go to.”

O’Ward was tasked with executing a rigid testing plan for FP1, and despite his lack of familiarity with the MCL38, he closed the session in 13th, the second-fastest of the FP1 guest drivers with a gap of 0.095s to Mercedes’ Antonelli.

“It’s definitely a positive thing being here from IndyCar,” O’Ward told ESPN. “I do believe that if McLaren didn’t see a future of me possibly being one of the full-time F1 guys, they would have already scratched that opportunity. The team puts a lot of belief in you, or whoever they decide to put in the car for an FP1, because otherwise, they wouldn’t be putting millions of dollars with the car and the team in someone’s hands. It’s a vote of confidence.”

IndyCar’s most popular driver says he’ll continue to serve as McLaren F1’s test and reserve driver for as long as the opportunity is presented. There will be disappointment if the F1 outings lead to nothing more than sporadic appearances, but that doesn’t mean O’Ward views having a long career with Arrow McLaren in America as a consolation prize.

“Formula 1 is such a mysterious world,” he added. “You swear certain doors are going to open, then they never do. And then doors you thought would never open again just randomly open up because some guy decided to leave, or some guy started doing poorly. It’s just a constant world that is evolving, and you just need to be there and ready.

“I feel like I’ve got one foot in the door. I come to a lot of these weekends and get to do everything except drive the car, and then I get to drive it for one session and want to drive it even more. But I’ve already got a full-time job with Arrow McLaren, which I love and I’m extremely grateful for. And you never know in the future, one day the Indy 500 will arrive and I’ll become the winner. That’s so important to me and to get that for the team. There’s a lot of work left for us to do in IndyCar.”

O’Ward has an active, and growing, fan base, one that mobbed him at a sponsor event in Mexico City. So while there may be commercial considerations that suggest he’s ready for F1, for now, those fans will have to continue to follow his open-wheel exploits primarily in IndyCar — and occasionally in F1, and wherever else Brown deploys his rising star.

“You never know if Formula 1 will open up,” O’Ward continued. “Those opportunities are once in a lifetime, and I feel like I’m in a very special position where that could ultimately happen. So I honestly wouldn’t change it for anything and I’m super focused on my IndyCar campaigns coming up. It’s definitely tough to juggle.

“But I’m 25, and I’m only going to be 25 once. I don’t have a girlfriend, and I can experience all of this stuff with McLaren, wherever they want me, at the full potential and full maximum. And that is something to be super happy about, because it’s the best seat in the house.”