Herta predicts "relaxed" atmosphere teaming up with O'Ward at Daytona

The Andretti Autosports and Arrow McLaren SP IndyCar racers will join forces with 2022 IndyCar rookie Devlin DeFrancesco and sportscar veteran Eric Lux to drive an ORECA LMP2 car at the IMSA SportsCar Championship opener, which does not count for points towards the LMP2 championship.

Elton Julian's team will run the quartet on a one-off basis before Juan Pablo Montoya and Henrik Hedman take over the car for the remainder of the LMP2 campaign, with Montoya’s son Sebastian joining them for the Sebring 12 Hours.

Herta, who raced for two years as Pato O’Ward’s team-mate in Indy Lights and lost out to the Mexican in their battle for the 2018 title, said he expected their union to be “very enjoyable”.

“I’ve been racing against Pato for basically probably a decade,” said Herta, a GTLM class winner at Daytona in 2019.

“We were team-mates at Andretti [in Lights] but still in a competitive environment, so I think this is going to be really relaxed.

“It’s going to be fun to be really team-mates with him and not be competing against him in any way.

“It is going to be a lot of fun, really cool to be at the racetrack as friends with Devlin and Pato and Eric and see how good we can do.”

O'Ward, who won the LMPC class at Daytona in 2017, echoed Herta's comments and remarked that it would be “really cool to join forces”.

“We can bring a lot to the table and I know Eric and Devlin have their own knowledge of very different things that Colton and I may not have so much knowledge of,” he said.

“So I think everybody will really come together to create a strong package to have a shot at it. I truly feel like we have a great line-up that can fight for this thing.”

Mexican driver O'Ward, who tested a McLaren Formula 1 car in Abu Dhabi last week, added that the experience of working together would be mutually beneficial and “present another chance to go into IndyCar even stronger”.

“We can help each other - he’ll probably learn some things from me, I’ll probably learn some things from him, and it’s going to help our own championship once we start in IndyCar,” he said.