Pato O'Ward Praises Aeroscreen, Shames IndyCar After Terrifying Late Yellow at Toronto

• Pato O'Ward took to social media to express his disappointment in IndyCar for not doing more to protect him after his collision under Princes' Gate.

• O'Ward considers himself saved by his Aeroscreen, believing that the contact if unprotected would've cost him his life.

• All drivers are reported okay after the intense contact.

Pato O'Ward spun after locking up the rear end of his Arrow McLaren Chevrolet Hybrid and ended up stuffed backward into the wall. With traffic quickly coming, IndyCar was late on throwing a local or full course yellow, and O'Ward was hit head-on by Pietro Fittipaldi, Santino Ferrucci, and his teammate Nolan Siegel. Ferrucci ended up airborne, hitting the catch fence horizontally.

Eight cars avoided O'Ward before Marcus Ericsson hit the wall trying to avoid the stuck No. 5, and the trio behind was blinded by the stuck car. The yellow didn't come out until these collisions started, and for that, O'Ward is rightfully annoyed.

"I am so surprised that IndyCar didn't call that yellow," O'Ward said once cleared from medical. "Like you're just calling for a massive shunt. They had a solid five seconds to call yellow and tell everybody that was coming."

Ferrucci agreed that the late yellow was uncalled for

“I never saw Pato; at the start of the race, I had the steering wheel bend trying to avoid all people Pato," Ferrucci recounted. "We were left hand up, right hand down; when I came through there, I never saw Pietro clip him and nothing on the spotters. There were no yellows, no nothing, so I didn’t know to check up. “

In a tweet, the Mexican racer thanked the Aeroscreen for saving his life, as the crash line would've easily hit his head if not for the protective measure and shamed IndyCar.

"As for the incident…" O'Ward wrote. "Maybe next time at least throw a local yellow when a car is in the most dangerous spot possible Indycar? Just a thought."

O'Ward isn't afraid to criticize the series when he believes it's making moves that are detrimental to the level of racing or safety. Last week, he called the Iowa doubleheader a snoozefest due to the track changes and lackluster performance of the new Hybrid engines.

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