Will Power: Andretti “will be the best team in the next three years”

Will Power is bullish about what the future holds for Andretti Global.

The 44-year-old Aussie made the switch to his new home after 17 years with Team Penske, which included two IndyCar titles and winning the 2018 Indianapolis 500. Contractual stipulations with his former employer hindered walking into the Andretti Global shop until January 1, but he’s already seen plenty to know the team is poised for big things.

“The team has all the ingredients,” said Power, who takes over the No. 26 Honda from Formula 2-bound Colton Herta.

“Just being around the shop, they definitely have all the ingredients. They have enough people. They have some very smart people. The group on my car is incredibly experienced.”

Andy Listes, who guided Dennis Hauger to the Indy NXT championship last season, will serve as Power’s race engineer. There is also a familiar face as Ron Ruzewski, Penske’s former IndyCar Managing Director and Power’s longtime race strategist, also joined Andretti over the offseason, taking on the role as team principal.

Power, a 45-time race winner who also holds the series record for most poles (71), was quick to point out a few areas that could use some minor improvements.

“Just looking from the outside before I got there, I was like, Penske has the best pit stops,” Power said. “They train a lot and obviously have a good coach and so on, so I think that would be an area that I could see a lot of focus needing to be on, which it looks like it has been anyway in the off-season.

“Improvement on short ovals, road courses. I would say at Penske we needed to improve on road courses, as well. “I look at Andretti, I think their street course stuff is the best in the business. They're sort of hot and cold on the road courses, and the short ovals, which is a good thing we get a two-day test (at Phoenix Raceway).”

And Power knows that’s one area where he can help raise the program, and likely aiding teammates Kyle Kirkwood and Marcus Ericsson along the way.

“I have a ton of experience with short oval cars and developing them through the years with Penske to get to a point where we were very dominant, so to me, we're in a very good position,” Power said.

“It's definitely going to be improved upon from last year. We're already a good team. Everything they're doing and have done, to me they'll just be better, and it will just continually get better. I can just see the list, see the list of things that are getting done there. It's only going to get better.

“That's why I've said I believe the team will be the best team in the next three years.”

Uniquely, the change in teams hasn’t felt all that weird for Power either.

“Now that I've got to work, it's just business as normal,” Power said. “It's not even registering the difference. You're in a team. You're trying to get the most out of the car and working closely with the engineers. You're on the Honda sim, all the same stuff. You're not really distracted by, ‘I wonder what they're doing at Penske’ or it's strange.

“The one thing that's difficult is I used to live right near the shop. It was easy for me to go in and see everyone at Penske. But I have a place here in Indy now, which is about the same or very close to the shop. So when I'm here, it's the same deal. It feels normal.”