Rossi is aiming to learn from Scott Dixon’s consistency

Rossi knows that in order to beat Dixon for the 2019 title he and his team cannot make mistakes

Andretti Autosport's Alexander Rossi says Scott Dixon's consistency in the IndyCar Series is a lesson from him, having failed to take the title in 2018.

That ultimately proved a crucial difference en route to the outcome of the championship.

Rossi is preparing for his fourth season in IndyCar, and second with the full Andretti squad, having spent his first two years driving for the Andretti/Herta outfit.

I asked him during the IndyCar media conference this week what was it going to take to move up one notch in 2019 and beat Dixon for the title.

"I think the big thing with Scott and his team is just the consistency that they had over the year," said Rossi.

"Obviously he won a lot of races, but when we look at where it went wrong for us, it was quite a few races we gave away pretty easy points.

"It's a competitive championship, as we've all said, and it punishes mistakes, even small ones.

"So I think we've just got to continue the development that we saw from 2017 to 2018 and carry that forward to next year and just be more consistent across the board, and hopefully, that will be enough."

Rossi was quick enough to praise his rival and jokingly mentioned he'd hope he would retire soon

He added: "But I'm sure Scott will continue winning races, and he's won like 100 now, so he'll be hard to beat until he stops racing, which I hope is soon." Mark C. reporting for AR1.com