Herta, Andretti expect better in 2017

Bryan Herta says that he would be "shocked" if the overall performance of the No.98 IndyCar team doesn't improve in the second year of its partnership with Andretti Autosport.

Herta's team BHA merged with Andretti just weeks before the start of the 2016 season. It earned a sensational win with Alexander Rossi at the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 but struggled for consistency elsewhere, with Rossi scoring just one other top-five and four top-10s.

But with Rossi now having a full year of IndyCar experience under his belt and BHA having fully integrated itself into the Andretti system, Herta is confident of seeing a step forward in 2017.

"For us, it's just continuity," Herta told RACER.com. "When we came in, all our crew guys had to learn a new system in a very, very short amount of time, and for the first couple of races we were still drinking from the firehose, trying to get integrated and get caught up with the way that Andretti Autosport does things.

"And this year is completely different; it's very calm. I feel like that has to make a positive difference. We're going into the season in a much better position, and the continuity, with having Alexander back, and him knowing all the tracks, and knowing what to expect, I would be shocked and disappointed if we don't improve our overall performance this year."

Despite the upheaval within Herta's team, Rossi finished the year second-highest among the Andretti drivers in the standings – one place behind Carlos Munoz, and ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay and Michael Andretti. According to Michael Andretti, the winter has been spent working towards a more consistent 2017 for all of the team's cars.

"The biggest challenge is that we ran well in a few races, but not at the level we felt as a team we should," he said.

"We had to work on that over the winter, and we've made some really good changes within our organization with people, and some of the things we're doing with technology and things we've been learning. So hopefully we're going to be a lot more competitive, not just at Indy but at all the races. So that's our goal, and that has been our challenge during this off-season. And I feel like we've done a lot of things to be able to do that."

Andretti has made one driver change ahead of the new season, with Takuma Sato arriving from AJ Foyt Racing to replace Munoz, who moved in the opposite direction.