Andretti Global
No. 26 Honda: Colton Herta (10th in 2023 championship)
No. 27 Honda: Kyle Kirkwood (11th in 2023 championship)
No. 28 Honda: Marcus Ericsson (6th in 2023 championship with Chip Ganassi Racing)
THINGS TO KNOW
Escaping mediocrity
Andretti Global has a single mission for the upcoming season: Break free from a two-year visit to mediocrity.
Competing for the first time under its new IndyCar moniker, the team formerly known as Andretti Autosport was a title contender from 2018 with Alexander Rossi through 2021 with Colton Herta, as its lead drivers placed between second and fifth in the championship.
But the team’s competitiveness went backwards in 2022 as its top performer– Rossi — fell to ninth in the standings and the situation worsened slightly in 2023 as Herta was Andretti’s best in 10th. Once a part of IndyCar’s “Big 3” teams along with Ganassi and Penske, Andretti’s seen Arrow McLaren move ahead to take that position and last year, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing also motored in front of its team with Christian Lundgaard who placed eighth in the standings.
Andretti Autosport’s last championship was earned back in 2012 and its last Indy 500 win was secured in 2017 which, in racing, is a lifetime ago.
For all of the money being spent on the program, more was expected, and Michael Andretti wasn’t prepared to sit and hope for the situation to improve, so fundamental changes have been made to the team’s driver roster and overall composition in an effort to reclaim its former place in the field.
When it comes to authoring a turnaround, no team has been more aggressive than Andretti, and based on its speed in pre-season testing, the effort and expenditure has not been wasted.
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Smaller equals stronger
Dropping down to three cars with well-paid professionals across the board is just what Andretti needs to rediscover its title-contending abilities. Team Penske was the blueprint for this move after the 2021 season where it downsized from four to three and promptly won the championship, and as Penske’s leaders told it, the slightly smaller squad made everything a little bit easier and more focused in all the competition areas that matter.
That’s everything Andretti and newish team investor and partner Dan Towriss hope to find in the trio of Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood, and newcomer Marcus Ericsson. With fewer drivers to work through in engineering debriefs, fewer cars to maintain, fewer spares to prepare and hopefully less crash damage to recover from, the tightened operation is poised to improve its fortunes.
Sound strategy
A lot was made of the race strategy struggles that were experienced with all of its drivers at different points of the previous season. That aspect of Andretti’s game was largely resolved towards the end of the year as the shifting of COO Rob Edwards to Colton Herta’s car calmed the waters.
Edwards will stay with Herta, which is a positive, as will Bryan Herta with Kyle Kirkwood. The only strategy change is with Ericsson, who will have Andretti technical director Eric Bretzman on his timing stand on race day to handle that responsibility.
No Streinbrenners
The seven-year partnership between Steinbrenner Racing and Andretti, which started with Colton Herta in Indy NXT, came to an end at the conclusion of the 2023 season when Devlin DeFrancesco’s tenure with the team and the Steinbrenner co-entry met its end.
Although there’s no team affiliation for the Steinbrenner family, they will be present at IndyCar races through the marketing and promotions agency work they provide for a number of clients.
Toxic dump
We can’t overlook how toxic and tumultuous the two-year relationship with Romain Grosjean was for both the driver and his team owner. And, critically, for the team surrounding the No. 28 program. Leaving for Juncos Hollinger Racing was the best for all involved, and for Grosjean, the change of scenery should be a good thing. For Andretti, which has dealt with too much toxicity in his world with the struggles to launch a Formula 1 team, a less combative environment with Ericsson inserted into the No. 28 should make for lighter times.
Self worth
A fascinating character study could be on display this year with Ericsson.
Throughout most of his four seasons with Chip Ganassi Racing, the Swede drove angry, fueled in part by the disrespect he felt from his team owner who refused to pay him a salary. As part of the Huski Chocolate deal Ericsson’s longtime backer brought to the team, he was treated — as one might expect — as a paying driver. But with his wins in 2021, wins including the Indy 500 in 2022, and another win in 2023, the 33-year-old’s pleas to be re-imagined as a paid driver like Scott Dixon or Alex Palou were ignored until late in the game.
By the time an offer to be paid was made, Ericsson was out the door — mentally, at least — and on his way to a team that would treat him as a top talent to hire. At Ganassi, Ericsson had extra motivation to prove his worth to his team owner and to future suitors, and now that he has what he’s been dreaming of at Andretti, what version of Ericsson will be on display? He’s known to be a great teammate, a great “glue guy” within a program, and he’s the new veteran in terms of age and accomplishments among Andretti’s trio. Andretti’s ship was often unsteady last year, and that’s another area where Ericsson will make an impact. But how will he fare against younger animals like Herta and Kirkwood?
Will the fire to prove his worth that burned inside him at Ganassi remain? How might a satisfied and well-paid Ericsson perform? Will new levels of inner peace unlock more speed? This is a different Marcus Ericsson than the one we saw in that red and white Huski car.
Pivotal year for Herta
Colton Herta and his phenomenal race engineer Nathan O’Rourke torched the IndyCar scene in their first years together, but as we know, the team — and its established No. 1 driver — haven’t been a factor over the last two seasons.
It’s overstating the obvious, but Herta can’t be faster than his car, and as a whole, the team hasn’t produced cars that are capable of vying for titles while racing at the various types of tracks on the calendar. Nonetheless, the 23-year-old from California finds himself in a weird stage of his career where the fearsome performances from 2019-21 haven’t been entirely forgotten, but enough time has passed to where the recent down years are becoming what’s remembered.
Those six wins from 2019-21, followed by one win in 2022 and a winless 2023 frame Herta’s need. Teammate Kirkwood delivered two wins for Andretti last year and is challenging for that No. 1 status within the team. When he arrived at Andretti, Rossi was its leader and that didn’t last very long once Herta established himself. When Kirkwood arrived, Herta was its leader and he has the talent and intent to move himself into P1 by the end of the year.
There’s no lack of interesting stories to follow this season, and the internecine battle between Herta and the 25-year-old from Florida is one I’ll be tracking across every round. Will the old Herta reemerge, keep Kirkwood and Ericsson at bay, and also get that breakthrough win on an oval in Year 6?
A lot is riding on the answer, and that answer will affect how he’s perceived afterwards. For his sake and ours, let’s hope the terrorizing version of Herta is on display in 2024.
Oval improvement
Andretti’s best results for a while now have largely been found on road and street courses, and with the exception of Ganassi’s Alex Palou, we know the easiest path to winning a championship comes with earning some big results on ovals. Especially this year with seven points-paying rounds — 41 percent of the calendar — being on ovals after the Nashville change.
Within Andretti’s trio, only Ericsson has triumphed on an oval, and while it was at the big one — the Indy 500 — it’s his only oval win so far. Getting to victory lane on one or more ovals would not just be great for the team’s chances of winning a championship, but it would also signal Andretti Global is truly back in the game. Its last oval win came at Pocono in 2018 with Rossi and the team is long overdue for another.
We can expect Ericsson to help Andretti to make gains in this regard since he was often a factor on ovals for Ganassi. Wins among these three at a St. Pete or Mid-Ohio wouldn’t tell us much, but barging into the conversation for oval podiums would. This is another metric of interest to follow.
Where’s Kirk at the end of 2024?
On a similar note to the pivotal year ahead for Herta’s intrasquad standing and how he’s viewed by the paddock, Kirkwood is in an identical situation.
For Herta, it’s a case of someone who was the clear No. 1 who has been challenged and needs to re-assert his authority. For Kirkwood, who looked like a match for Herta at a lot of races during their first year together, it’s a case of whether he can continue that impressive rise that brought two wins in 2023 and become Andretti’s top dog.
Herta knocked Rossi off his perch; that’s what Kirkwood wants to do to Herta, and it’s everything Herta wants to prevent. Add this to the popcorn viewing opportunities with Andretti Global from now through Nashville.
For Kirkwood, he’s done two IndyCar seasons and the first was an uncompetitive one with Foyt, so based on all he produced in just his first go-round with Andretti (and with superb race engineer Jeremy Milless), there’s plenty of room for growth and improvement in 2024. That’s scary.
Where are we a year from now? Both young drivers are signed for years to come, so this duel could become an annual tradition. It could also, if Andretti’s lucky, end up with something they’ve rarely had, and that’s two No. 1s.