The bending roads and lilting knolls of College Grove, Tennessee, about 45 minutes south of Nashville, are still verdant in the late August heat. Pato O’Ward, the McLaren IndyCar star and reserve Formula 1 driver (behind Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri), is at the wheel of a papaya-hued 750S, one of the brand’s street-legal supercars (which carries a price tag of around $320,000). I’m hunched at six feet five in the passenger seat. We’re not exactly blending in as we search for the barely marked driveway to the legendary Mexican designer Manuel Cuevas’s home. As it happens, we overshoot it by about a quarter mile before realizing the mistake; O’Ward three-point-turns the car around, and says, “Hold on.”
In 2.3 seconds, we’ve cleared 60 miles per hour. A second later we’re at 100. The scenes outside no longer pass in bucolic pleasantry, but rather, an abstract paint stroke of melted summer green as we unzip the woods and the farms in two. The McLaren is so fast that my eyes feel like they’re getting pulled into my skull from behind, like a slingshot being readied. My younger self wants to grab O’Ward’s shoulder and shout, “Again!”, but even though we’ve just broken the speed limit by a notably punishable margin, we’re still late.
O’Ward and I are here to meet with Cuevas, who has designed a custom look for the driver to wear at his appearance at the 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix, taking place the Friday this story publishes. This particular Formula 1 event represents a unique moment for Team McLaren, thanks to O’Ward, who, in Mexico, arguably enjoys more fame and following than his mainline teammates. He hails from Monterrey, in the country’s north (though his Irish surname comes from a great-grandfather), and has become something of a local automotive rock star: good looks, quick reflexes, all speed. He did, after all, finish second in the 2025 IndyCar standings. Cuevas, meanwhile, is from Michoacán, west of Mexico City. Their collaboration is a nod to their shared national heritage, O’Ward’s personal interests, and Cuevas’s distinct, surreal style.
We’ve crossed the low creek bridge and driven up the dirt road to Cuevas’s studio. “I can’t wait, I haven’t seen final pictures yet,” says O’Ward. We walk through the door and find Cuevas, his wife, Ofelia Vasquez, and an assistant at work. A tequila bar is on the right. Adorned guitars and various scissors hang on the walls, as do photos of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, and James Dean, all of whom Cuevas has dressed in his decades-long career.
From a polychrome rack surfaces O’Ward’s bespoke jacket: a high-collared, straight-lapel piece that sits somewhere on the sartorial spectrum between a racing kit and a sport coat. Embroidered across it is a panoply of motifs—checkered flags, bougainvillea, dice and cards (O’Ward loves Las Vegas), a Mexican golden eagle spreading its wings across the shoulder blades, and an enigmatic female face at the shoulder.
“Who is she?” I ask Cuevas, pointing to the visage.
“Who knows?” he answers.
He and O’Ward converse in Spanish. A snippet of their conversation that I can understand (minimally) jumps out:
“What’s been your favorite project?” O’Ward asks.
“The next one,” Cuevas answers.
“Ah, okay,” says O’Ward. “Always onto the next.”
“Of course,” says Cuevas. “I only sketch each thing once, and then I never see it again in my life.”
While this particular design commission was initiated by O’Ward’s sister, Elba O’Ward de Kimbro, the driver does have an interest in style—and even runs his own merch line. “I love clothes. I love shoes,” he tells me, back in the McLaren. “And I’m still learning about watches. I don’t take too many risks, with what, like, Lewis [Hamilton] wears. I respect it, but I’m a little more conservative.”
O’Ward started go-karting at the age of six, which is how elite drivers begin. He says that he would love to be in Formula 1, but is worried his chance is slipping due to his age, 26. That said, IndyCar, which can actually be faster than F1, is seeing an uptick in popularity. O’Ward is no doubt one of its key figures.
“I think the growth of Formula 1 [and the Netflix effect] has brought the rest of motorsports up, as a whole,” he says. “You know, it’s learning. It’s like when someone plays tennis, and then says, ‘Okay, now let me try padel.’ We’re not the same, but there are similarities within it, and I feel like that’s a little bit what’s happening in motorsports in general. I will say, though: IndyCar is more of a driver’s championship. Formula 1 is more of a manufacturer’s championship.”
What that means: Some argue that Formula 1’s results are just as much about the product as they are about the person behind the wheel. F1 requires expensive, ultrafine engineering and advancement, with teamwork on top of it, and then a driver to execute it. In some ways, IndyCar is more independent, where the individual holds more of an onus to deliver versus the entire apparatus.
“IndyCar,” O’Ward says, “has stuck to its core roots of race car drivers driving race cars. But, we do miss some of the sexiness of Formula 1.”
Our visit with Cuevas is wrapping up. O’Ward and his sister are heading to dinner back in Nashville, and I need to catch a flight to New York.
“I don’t say anything good about my own work,” says Cuevas, as O’Ward stands in front of a fitting mirror for one last look.
“Why?” O’Ward asks.
“I just don’t like to talk too much about my own stuff. But you.… Look how good it looks on you. Pura vida. Now stick your hand in your pocket,” says Cuevas.
“This is killer. It’s awesome. It’s special. You can spot me from a mile away with these flowers. It’s badass. I love it, I want another one,” says O’Ward.
Given the spotlight athletes provide these days when it comes to fashion, I love the idea of custom projects with local alignments as a way to boost—and synergize—creativity. No offense to the big brands, who understandably want their feet in the door, but this just feels more special. Outside, as O’Ward lifts the scissor door of the 750S to get in and depart, he says to me, quietly: “I think I always want to feel confident in what I’m wearing. I feel like that has more power than the visual impact of the clothes alone. And with this, I feel like I can win it all.”