Motorsport teams abhor inconsistencies. The Arrow McLaren SP IndyCar team can confirm this notion after showing amazing speed and potential on Round 1 in Alabama and wandering the streets of disappointment on Round 2 in Florida.
The NTT IndyCar Series season is barely two weeks old, but AMSP’s fortune has hit every imaginable ups and downs as the pairing of Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist seems to fulfill the immense potential that is sometimes seen in Barber and St. Petersburg can be seen.
O’Wards Pole and Mercurial Recovery Drive in the # 5 Chevy to finish fourth to start the year was something to see, but it didn’t carry over to the same extent at the next event. Luck and clean performances from start to finish have proven elusive for Rosenqvist in No. 7. O’Ward starts in the double header this weekend in Texas, finishing 11th overall, while his teammate is 18th.
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Starting with O’Ward’s preseason advances, Taylor Kiel, president of AMSP, says a few wrinkles need to be ironed out to put the 2018 Indy Lights champion on the winning streak and maximize the 15 remaining races on the calendar.
“I think what we saw last year is a very talented driver who uses every opportunity that presents itself,” Kiel told RACER. “I think we don’t want to stand in the way of that, and we’re definitely trying to keep developing the product. What we’re seeing this year is a strong field and a strong competitive upper half and midfield. When we make a different strategy decision at Barber, you end up talking about a race winner and someone doing what they’re supposed to do. He had a great car at Barber and we were just on the wrong side of the strategy there.
“In St. Pete we just didn’t have a good enough car and we couldn’t manage our tires and the people we were up against. We made a couple of mistakes on the track and a couple of mistakes with the setup decisions. You pair the two with the field type the IndyCar series currently has and you are P19 and it’s not easy.
“It’s really unfortunate because our aspirations haven’t changed. We try to compete with the big dogs at the top and end up in the championship and you don’t get very many mulligans historically. And it is to our disadvantage that we chose to use our mulligans so early in the season. “
As a team doing a massive reboot with McLaren’s technical and commercial know-how added to the infrastructure of Sam Schmidt and Ric Peterson’s team, the desire to compete and break through among the best of IndyCar is for the first championship of Winning the AMSP has become a huge undertaking. It’s a familiar story in which fear and frustration can arise if high expectations are not met at every race.
AMSP freshman Juan Pablo Montoya, a veteran of the sport’s biggest and most successful teams – Chip Ganassi Racing, Team Penske, Williams Grand Prix and McLaren F1 – who will drive the # 66 Chevy in May, has given his young teammates some wisdom during his first test with the outfit in February to keep the duo on track.
Rosenqvist is still in adjustment mode but the team is optimistic about what will come from the fast Swede. Motorsport pictures
“Juan said something to Pato and Felix, both in a debriefing in Laguna that I thought was moving,” remarked Kiel. “He said, ‘It doesn’t have to be that hard, does it?’ Pato can do it. Felix can do it too. But it doesn’t have to be that difficult. That’s why we as a group work very hard to keep working on it and to refine the product day by day. Ultimately, we know that we are two very good ones Having drivers and two drivers who can drive a very modern car very quickly. We know that we have the pace. It’s already shown this season. It’s all about using that in a strong race result.
“That too is another thing where (we) as a group in which we need to be better only maximizes the day. When you have an eighth place car, get eighth, keep driving, pick up your lumps and prepare for the next event. I feel like we probably had a car in seventh, eighth and ninth places last weekend and finished 19th, and that just didn’t cut the mustard. So that’s what we’re working on and we have to improve the product and the set-up of the car to take advantage of what Pato and Felix are so damn good at. “
Kiel remains optimistic about what Rosenqvist has to offer in the No. 7 Chevy. The first two laps were a bumpy ride for the 29-year-old open-wheel veteran as he switched from Honda to Chevy Power, a new engineering group and had different approaches to racing than his former Chip Ganassi Racing squad.
Rosenqvist is expected to have more time to settle into his new racing home and find suspension configurations that fully complement his arsenal of talent. He will join O’Ward in the battle for podiums and wins.
“The work he did to be here and present, to get to know everyone and to integrate was really good,” said Kiel. “Felix is part of the team in every way and I am confident that I can speak for him and that he loves it here and we love to have him. It complements what we’re trying to do very well, and we couldn’t be happier with it.
“The results are exactly what they are. It’s a different car than what he’s used to and we developed a setup based on a driver in Pato who is just different. He’s a different person, he’s a different driver, they have different styles. So for us it’s about being patient, taking our time and working towards a solution that works for Felix. He knows that and we’re in it together. There are no preconceived ideas. “
After three driver changes since the end of the 2019 season, all AMSP efforts are focused on making O’Ward and Rosenqvist the foundation of their future success.
“We’re trying to get it right because this is a long-term thing for us,” he continued. “It’s not just about getting through the season with Felix and moving on. We have our eyes very far down and have focused entirely on the price of winning championships here. So we need to make sure that the solution we are providing for him is permanent and that he is built into and that he is very comfortable with. That doesn’t happen overnight and we will get there.
“We took a big step in that direction in St. Pete, which is good, but it’s a departure from what Pato likes and that’s fine. We’ll take a minute to get there. I think we all know, we all understand and we are working towards it. “
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