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[h=2]INDYCAR 2016 Driver: Alexander Rossi[/h] Thursday, 03 November 2016


Marshall Pruett & Robin Miller / Images by IMS Photo

ALEXANDER ROSSI

NO. 98 ANDRETTI HERTA AUTOSPORT HONDA

2016 Best result: 1st (Indianapolis 500)
2016 Championship position: 11th (430 points)


Indy aside, what was Rossi's best drive of 2016?

PRUETT: Sonoma was the first event where Alexander appeared to flow from start to finish. It was surely aided by his familiarity with the wine country road course, and that isn't a bad thing. With a complete lack of track knowledge at most events during his rookie season, rocking up to Sonoma, qualifying eighth, and finishing fifth spoke volumes about how far he'd progressed. It also spoke to what we should see more often next year where he'll bring knowledge and familiarity to every track, barring Gateway, on the tour.

MILLER: Places you wouldn't expect like Texas, Iowa and Pocono. The rollerball that is Texas cannot be easy for a road racer to comprehend, let alone learn in a test and practice session, but Rossi was fast and comfortable right away and raced to the lead pack early. That was impressive. He qualified seventh at Pocono and was running well until getting KO'd in the pits. And his season finale was what we expected on a road course - qualified eighth and finished fifth.

Did he show signs of progress towards the end of the season?

MILLER: Sure looked like things started clicking better the last four races.

PRUETT: Definitely. In addition to Sonoma, he motored from 15th to eighth at Watkins Glen and was a decent 11th at the Texas do-over. Paired with race engineer Jeremy Milless next year, Rossi should be right up there with teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay, Graham Rahal, Sebastien Bourdais, and Scott Dixon among Honda's elite.

The Andretti/Honda combination probably wasn't the easiest package for a rookie to enter the series with this year. How did he get so much out of it so quickly?

PRUETT: He's smart, inquisitive, and a full-blown professional, which helped in his efforts to learn about the car and work through its aero/performance shortcomings. And he's a fighter - deceptively so. Where some Honda drivers might have given in and accepted they were never going to win, Rossi will exhaust himself if he can haul the car from P18 to P16. Take his well-honed technical skills, add his scrappy driving personality, and you get a young driver who has the ability to become a champion.
MILLER: He's obviously a smart young man with talent so he parlayed that into a pretty fair rookie season considering the struggles of his team.

What does he need to work on over the winter?

PRUETT: The obvious thing to say would be improving his oval craft, and while there are clearly gains to be made, he adapted rather quickly to the art of turning left. Qualifying is the main area where time can be found, but it's not a surprise when a rookie like Rossi fails to crack to top 10 in 13 of 16 races. His average starting position was 14.3 and average finish was 11.8. If he can bring that starting average to an 11, imagine what it would do for his finishes across the 2017 season ...

MILLER: Smiling and acting more enthused in an interview.

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The Champions Journey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS_gDSWd1I0

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Alexander Rossi speaks on his Indy 500 Win
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J8y1v4OrtA

Alexander Rossi, winner of the 100th Indianapolis 500, on his racing career and Indy victory.

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Rossi 18th-to-fifth run






Retooled strategy key to Rossi’s 18th-to-fifth run

Sunday, 23 April 2017


By RACER staff / Image by LAT

On what was a largely frustrating day for his Andretti Autosport teammates, Alexander Rossi wound up making a satisfying race at Barber Motorsports Park after what had started off as a bleak weekend. The Indy 500 champ gained 11 positions from his 18th starting spot by mid-race, and went on to a fifth-place finish. Even so, he wasn't overly impressed.
"We knew based on our starting position that we had to come up with something different. We knew we were stopping early, then it was about how fast we can go while saving fuel," said Rossi. "The team did a good job and gave me a good car.
"Considering we started 18th, a top-five is really good. I don't think it was weather – we worked really hard overnight and tried to understand where we made mistakes this weekend. We'll use it as a learning experience, Friday and Saturday, and make sure it doesn't happen again.




"We were pretty disappointed yesterday – my engineer and I were on the bridge of desperation a little bit last night, so we made a lot of good decisions overnight and we resolved some of ours issues – not not all of them." he added.
At least he was feeling better than the rest of the Andretti Autosport crew which, otherwise endured another frustrating afternoon. Marco Andretti was forced into the pits before the start after his car got stuck in first gear. A change of gearbox control unit cost him three laps and any hope of a good finish.
Ryan Hunter-Reay's chances also took an early hit with he and James Hinchcliffe tangled, forcing an out-of-sequence stop. Things didn't get much better after that.
"We started fifth with the DHL car – which was positive since we started 18th here last year – so we were looking forward to capitalizing on that and then lost ground on the start," rued Hunter-Reay, who wound up 11th. "At the beginning of the race Hinchcliffe just tracked out and hit me; the contact broke our front wing. We went to the back and worked our way to what should have been a 10-place finish, but then Mikhail (Aleshin) knocked me off the track right at the end. It was an eventful day, but not the finish we were looking for. Looking forward to moving on to Phoenix."