Wild St Petersburg Weekend for Andretti Autosport
Michael Andretti's team has been making a lot of noise since the end of last season. The team added former Formula One driver Romain Grosjean and rookie Devlin DeFrancesco as they parted ways with long-time drivers Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe. There were questions surrounding Alexander Rossi's future, and of course the whole Formula One plan.
Fast forward to this week and rumors popped up again about their future in Formula One, thanks in large part to Mario Andretti spilling the beans. With all of the focus and attention on things outside of the NTT IndyCar Series, how would it affect their on-track performance for 2022?
Rossi had a plan entering this weekend's season-opener. "I’m looking to show up this weekend and ignore all the noise and excitement of the season opener and focus on our jobs to make sure we execute on track. I think we have to take everything one weekend at a time, and we will see what this brings us.” With so many changes with this team, their attention to detail was going to be key at St Petersburg.
Things got off to a solid start for Grosjean, as he led the opening practice session on Friday. Coming over from Dale Coyne Racing in his rookie season, the 35-year old is now running full-time in top-tier equipment. "To be P1 in the first practice is amazing. We will keep up the work as well as pushing the setup but I am very happy with how the session went and to be here. Hopefully more to come."
Things quickly went south for Grosjean and the No. 28 team. In the Saturday morning practice session before qualifying, Grosjean collided into the rear of Takuma Sato, who was driving his old No. 51 Honda for Dale Coyne Racing. While both drivers were able to avoid serious injury, neither wanted to take blame for the incident. Grosjean, who had bruising on his hands, thought there could be a better solution going forward.
"I think we should have flags when these cars are that slow to the corner. That's all. I just think if I had known there were like four cars – because you cannot see. I know there was one on the left, one on the right, that's all I knew. I didn't know there were some in front. I just think you shouldn't be driving that slow on the racing line, that's all."
The team did a phenomenal job of getting the car repaired an dialed in before qualifying began just a few hours later. Grosjean and Herta both advanced to the Firestone Fast Six and ended up qualifying inside the top five. Herta won the race from pole position last year, and was trying to become the third straight driver to win in back-to-back years.
Sunday began with more of the same as Grosjean had a couple of close calls with the two Meyer Shank Racing cars of Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud in the morning warmup. Herta was fastest in the session but his three teammates were at the other end of the field.
The Indy Lights race that followed was wild as well. The team dominated the race but Christian Rasmussen ran out of fuel with less than two laps remaining. Matthew Brabham took the checkered flag in his No. 83 Andretti machine, with Sting Ray Robb bringing home a 4th place finish for the team. It was a bitter sweet moment for the team.
When the green flag waved to start the Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg, Grosjean tried to make a move in the first turn and felt he was cut off by Will Power. The Frenchman thought he had front wing damage but was able to continue. Herta was able to stay up front and was battling at the front of the field as the different pit stop strategies played out.
With the varying strategies taking place, Rossi was able to stay on track while others pitted and inherited the lead. The 2016 Indy 500 winner led 10 of the 100 laps, but was the only Andretti driver that paced the field on Sunday. Had it not been for a slight mishap during a pit stop, Rossi could have been in contention at the end.
“Nothing really went our way. I think the car was pretty good. Our pace was good when we had clean air. I think we had an aggressive strategy. It could have worked but we had an issue in pit lane where we couldn’t get a tire off. That hurt us, but ultimately a disappointing day. We’ll put this all behind us and move on.”
Rossi ended up finishing in 20th position, two spots ahead of his rookie teammate. It was a tough day for DeFrancesco, but a valuable learning experience for the driver of the No. 29 Honda. He was the only driver in the Andretti stable that opted for the three-stop strategy.
Grosjean had a solid debut for his new team, earning a top-five finish in his first outing. His next race will come on the high-banks of Texas Motor Speedway, where he will make his second oval start in his career. He will get some testing on the 2.5-mile oval ahead of the race that will run in three weeks.
Herta once again led the way for the Andretti group, earning a 4th place result as he was able to get around Rinus VeeKay in the closing laps. It was a solid outing for the young driver, as he tries to position himself for the season championship. "We had a clean race which is how you want to start off the year. Overall, I am pretty happy how today went and how the performance of our Honda was today.”
