Though O’Ward, 24, didn’t put his No. 5 Chevrolet in Victory Lane, he nonetheless managed to seize a career-high seven podiums on the 12 months, together with 14 prime 10s by 17 rounds to complete fourth within the championship standings. It marked the third consecutive season he was the very best ranked driver not affiliated with Chip Ganassi Racing or Team Penske.
Ward, who joined the group in July 2022 after the earlier 4 years at Penske that included engineering Josef Newgarden to the 2019 title, shared what he noticed out of O’Ward final season.
“Yeah, first, I believe Pato had a really sturdy 12 months and a 12 months of non-public development,” Ward informed Motorsport.com.
“, I cherished his consistency. I cherished his psychological method. He was actually a pleasure to work with. I believe everybody’s sort of seen that in him. He is pushing the workforce to be higher, and we’d like that.
“I believe there’s room for an additional step for him once more to actually to get prime, prime stage. He is obtained all of the expertise, for positive. I simply see a fantastic focus out of him proper now.”
The addition of David Malukas, who replaces Felix Rosenqvist after the earlier two years with Dale Coyne Racing, alongside Alexander Rossi, getting into his second season with Arrow Mclaren, and O’Ward, has Ward filled with anticipation.
“I am excited with the entire lineup going into subsequent 12 months,” Ward stated. “What I might say by way of what we’d like, we have been simply lacking just a little bit in race day efficiency. We have been working fairly exhausting on our facet and dealing with Chevy, which is an superior accomplice, to seek out that step to get us up on the highest step subsequent 12 months.
“It is just a little little bit of race day efficiency. I believe that we get a just a bit bit higher executing on race day we’ll be there. With out stepping into too many specifics, I really feel fairly good with what we have got coming right here.”
Photograph by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
Gavin Ward, Arrow McLaren
When pressed for particular areas of enchancment, Ward supplied a large smile and amusing earlier than obliging.
“I believe we should be higher on the gasoline economic system recreation,” Ward stated. “I believe we obtained beat a number of instances by the Ganassis and gasoline technique. We’re taking a look at every little thing that we will do to maximise that.
“We need to be just a little higher in pit lane. We expect we are the third finest workforce in pit lane. We need to be the very best there; not far off. I believe it is doable, however we’re up in opposition to some actually sturdy rivals which have been doing this for a very long time. And simply minimizing errors. I do not suppose we had loads, however we had just a few.
“The opposite space for the workforce usually, though I might say the No. 5 automobile wasn’t on the brunt of that maybe as a lot as a few our different workforce automobiles, however we now have an actual give attention to reliability.
“Bettering our processes as a workforce to work with this three-car setup, extra individuals does require a bit extra course of. So, this offseason, that is been an enormous focus for us, buttoning up all our procedures. Frankly, I would like all people to come back in right here day-after-day and suppose, ‘What am I right here to do right this moment?’ It is like, ‘Construct a greater race automobiles; how are we gonna do this?’ Throughout the board.”
