Arrow McLaren SP has hired NTT IndyCar Series championship-winning race engineer Gavin Ward, who steered Josef Newgarden to the 2019 title at Team Penske.

The Canadian has assumed a senior engineering role with the burgeoning team led by Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Chevy and Felix Rosenqvist in the No. 7 Chevy. The full measure of Ward’s influence on the team remains a topic of development; once all of his duties are solidified, Ward’s expected to perform in a role not too dissimilar to that of a technical director.

Ward’s arrival comes with a new and elevated opportunity at AMSP that goes beyond race engineering, which has culminated in taking a position that should lend his considerable talent to the organization without the need to be tied to a specific driver or timing stand. Prior to Penske, Ward worked as a race engineer in Formula 1, and with a long tenure in that role, the shift to AMSP offers a new challenge with greater responsibilities.

The change also leaves Team Penske with a significant void to fill with its most competitive driver. Multiple offers are known to have been made to high-profile IndyCar race engineers to pair with Newgarden, but the search for Ward’s replacement alongside Newgarden is said to have been found with a new race engineer from a paddock vendor.

In Ward’s new over-arching role, AMSP’s Craig Hampson, who provided a variety of engineering solutions for the team since 2020, has been appointed as Rosenqvist’s new race engineer. Will Anderson remains in place as race engineer for O’Ward.

This story has been updated since its original publication to reflect that Penske has hired a replacement for Ward.