Rossi hopes his #27 entry can find victory lane in 2022. Photo: Kevin Dejewski
Alexander Rossi is entering the 2022 IndyCar season in the midst of his longest winless streak since entering the series in 2016.
Rossi started off his career in IndyCar with a bang, securing his first win during his first Indianapolis 500 and just his sixth start overall.
He went on to win five more races across the following three seasons, but has come up against a wall since then.
With more than two years having passed since Rossi claimed his most recent race win at Road America, the 30-year-old has been searching for a way to get back to his winning ways.
When asked about any breakthroughs that will help him stand on the top step of the podium in 2022, he pointed to his Andretti Autosport team’s renewed strength on road and street courses as the best fix for one of the missing elements of his performance.
“I think the breakthrough [at the end of 2021] was more for us on the #27 side,” said Rossi, referencing the Andretti team’s strong pace in the closing races of the year.
“I think in a lot of respects, Colton [Herta]’s road course pace was pretty stout all throughout the year. We struggled to match it. There’s a couple places, Barber and I think the Indy GP where we were better, but then Mid-Ohio and Road America was a pretty big gap.
“I think that we had a test at Laguna in August, and I think it was really positive for us. That was a big missing element, at least between the two of us last year was the road course package.
“So that continuation has obviously been a focus of our personal standpoint in terms of the 27 car”
Rossi will be racing in his 100th IndyCar race this April at the Long Beach Grand Prix, and he related that he had ‘certainly not’ met his goals up to this point.
The renewed confidence in what was found in last year’s test has put the American driver with a better outlook for the start of his next 100 races.
“I just think you’ve got to show up,” continued Rossi. “I don’t think anyone at the team has forgotten how to put a fast race car on the track. It’s not rocket science at the end of the day.
“Certainly I think 2020 and all that came with that in terms of the unknowns and the addition of the aeroscreen put us on the back foot, and then I think last year there was a lot of just trying to overcome that and make up for a lot of lost ground in a short period of time.
“In life and sports can get you in trouble sometimes, so I think we’re just going back to relying on the fact that we know we have fast street course cars, we know we have fast road course cars, and we’ll let the rest take care of itself.
“You’ve just got to go out and have a couple things go your way every once in a while and continually be there, and you can be all right at the end of the year.”
Keyword: Rossi banking on road course pace to overcome slump