Andretti drivers optimistic for Long Beach redemption
Ryan Hunter-Reay, Takuma Sato, Marco Andretti and Alexander Rossi believe this weekend’s Toyota GP of Long Beach can prove their strong showing at St. Petersburg was not just a one-off, and will see a vast improvement over their 2016 form.
Photo by: IndyCar Series
Hunter-Reay and Sato finished fourth and fifth in the 2017 season-opening race, while Rossi and Andretti were strong in practice and showed promise on race day until misfortunes compromised their strategies.
Last year the team suffered its worst performance of the season at Long Beach but all four drivers believe this weekend’s race will see the team back on form.
Sato, whose sole IndyCar victory came at Long Beach in 2013, said: “Long Beach is a special place, not just because of the history the track has, but I simply love the venue with incredible memories.
“Fans are always great and there are several large Japanese communities around LA, so many Japanese fans turn up and some are actually flying directly from Japan too.
“The track is generally low grip, but characteristics are not far different from St. Petersburg, and we had a productive test at Sebring recently, so I expect we will be as competitive as we were in the opening round.”
Hunter-Reay, whose first win for Andretti Autosport came at Long Beach in 2010, said: “The Long Beach Grand Prix is certainly one of the cornerstone events of the Verizon IndyCar Series. This race has so much history, it really is the Indy 500 of street courses.
“We’ll be looking for Long Beach win number two for the DHL team this weekend."
Andretti added: “The season had a decent start for us in St. Pete; as a team, we seem to be more competitive this year and we are hoping to back that up in Long Beach. The Long Beach race is my second favorite event. It has a ton of history, is a fun track and the fans are supportive. It’s a close second on my desired win list… with Indy being first, of course.”
Rossi, from Auburn Calif., observed: “The progress from winter has continued this past month and I look forward to translating that into some results at the first of my two ‘home tracks' for the year.”
Long Beach was the setting for team owner Michael Andretti's 42nd and final Indy car victory, in 2002.
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