[h=2]All 4 Andretti cars forced to retire at Long Beach[/h] Sunday, 09 April 2017
By Marshall Pruett (words and image)
The four-car Andretti Autosport team was dealt a series of brutal blows throughout the Long Beach Grand Prix, and if they thought the 2016 race was unkind, Sunday's race set a new low for the Honda-powered program.
Twelve months ago, the team left Long Beach with four ill-handling or damaged cars and drivers relegated to P12, P18, P19 and P20 at the finish. With an assortment of engine failures – of the mechanical or electrical variety – halting their collective charge this year, the entire squad finished in perfect order from P17-P20.
Making matters worse, most of the Andretti Honda drivers were genuinely fast as Ryan Hunter-Reay led 28 laps and Alexander Rossi ran consistently in the top three until their fortunes changed. Rossi's day ended when motor issues knocked him out of third on Lap 63, Hunter-Reay lost second place with six laps remaining when the car shut off, Takuma Sato's day came to an oily end on Lap 78, and earlier in the race, Marco Andretti fought with electrical gremlins before parking his car on lap 14.
"I tried cycling the car a few times and it didn't fire," said Hunter-Reay. "Then, once we had sat [in the runoff] for a few moments, we tried flipping a few switches and it fired back up again but it was too late to rejoin the race. It felt like the same issue we had at Pocono (2016). It really hurts when it's that close to the end and I was closing on [race winner James Hinchcliffe]; we were going to have a good showdown there at the end. That's why this sport can be so rewarding and so cruel, there's nothing you can do. Frustrating for sure but today it was out of our hands."