Marco Andretti - The engineer's perspective

RACER

BP: It's been quite a bit of work and adjustment, because although it wasn't exactly a last-minute change, the decision was made in January. If we'd known about it at the back end of last season, we'd have had more time to prepare. So I'm learning as I go. If I was to sum it up, I'd say it was difficult but also interesting and fun.

BP: Not really. They've all been helpful, and having people who've been there and done it and won it means there's less pressure on me because I know I can turn to them when I have questions. I think we work together well as a team.

BP: Well actually, I think the fresh-start approach has been pretty helpful. Marco worked really hard in the offseason to improve his driving style and came into 2013 with a very positive attitude. I came in with a clean sheet of paper and with no preconceptions. Well, actually, I'd worked with him a bit on the Team USA A1GP program, but he's come in with a different attitude and not hampered by any traits of the old Marco. He knows it's not going to happen by just driving the wheels off the car. He sees how hard Ryan and Ray work together, and the little details Ryan goes after to maximize the potential of the car. Marco has seen that he has to step up his game in the engineering room in order to compete with Ryan, who's the reigning champion and has proven that his method works.

BP: Yes, I do think so. In the preseason tests and a couple of the early races, we did keep reminding him, "Hey, this is what you need to do at these kind of corners," and yes, since then it's become more second nature to him. And we try to start with similar setups to Ryan, and when we get the data back, we see if or where he or James or EJ might be faster and focus on those areas. And what Marco wants from his car is actually now quite close to what Ryan or James run, and that helps the team. It means that each change we make for the better is something that all four of them can build on.

BP: When we first went into it, no, probably not. For the races where he'd run mid pack, sometimes at the back of the mid-pack in 2012, our ambitions were quite modest. We were looking at getting top-10s. At the stronger races, top fives. But as we've gone on, and we showed good consistency, yes, our ambitions rose. We left Indy in the lead of the championship, and from there on, we were always aiming to put ourselves in a position to go for wins. And I think we achieved that. The fact we haven't won yet is not a reflection on the driver or the car. We've just had issues.

BP: Yeah, that race is one you look back and realize that we were ahead of Helio [Castroneves, eventual winner] at the point where we had our problem. And Ryan finished second so, if we'd have run clean, we could have been second, maybe gone for the win. Then Milwaukee, we ran up front, had a pit stop issue again and then an electrical problem that brought us to a halt. But Pocono was by far the most disappointing, though.

BP: Well, you try not to look at it that way, butit's hard not to, sometimes. You look at Helio who's completed every lap so far this year and wonder if he's due for some of the bad luck we've had.

BP: Looking at the data from last year, and looking at his record here, yes, I think this is definitely a place where Marco can gain points on at least one of the guys ahead of him in the championship.

BP: I think he's made quite a bit of progress, and street courses are the ones where we need to find the most in order to be a front-runner. But every weekend we get to know and understand each other more and more, we get used to each other. Houston will be key, as a double-header, like Toronto was for Dixon. Hopefully we don't have a bad weekend.

BP: I don't feel we've found either of those problems as much as others have. But yes, if you push hard on turn-in, you get more understeer and I think that, if nothing else, these characteristics have helped persuade Marco to drive more within the limit of the tire and work harder on keeping it neat on corner entry.

BP: There was a lot of hard work achieved in the off season, a lot of confidence was built up, and the four drivers follow similar setups. So that was one advantage. But yeah, on those double-header weekends when you only have one practice session before qualifying, it's great to be able to share out the setup work and get more accomplished. We split up the things we want to try and then at the end of the session we pick out the best of each car and apply it to everyone. We can skip steps because we've seen one of our teammates use it and he's discovered it works, so we'll take that, and we'll have tried something that he can then use. Definitely, with the numbers advantage and with the smart guys on this team, we're maximizing what we have.