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Patricio O'Ward, Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet
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Is Arrow McLaren SP ready for IndyCar’s title fight?

With Patricio O'Ward and Felix Rosenqvist leading its line-up, 2021 could be the year Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet joins the IndyCar elite, writes David Malsher-Lopez.

Once we got used to seeing the large two-story Arrow hospitality unit regularly appearing at IndyCar races – before the pandemic made such luxuries superfluous in 2020 – it was easy to forget the humble beginnings from which the squad now known as Arrow McLaren SP had grown over the previous two decades.

The rise was not meteoric: there were definite flat spots, usually as a result of partnerships that had their roots in expedience rather than expectation of excellence. Counterbalancing that trait along the way, team founder Sam Schmidt, whose underlying ambition and business smarts could rarely be questioned, doesn’t tend to shy away from making difficult decisions. Consequently, the team’s form never dipped for longer than a season, and the general trend was always upward.

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