Marco Andretti confident Herta can revive his slumping career

Marco Andretti at the Phoenix test

Marco Andretti has not won an IndyCar race in years, and his qualifying performances are almost never better than his teammates.

A change was needed, and team owner Michael Andretti moved his son over to the #98 car, a joint effort with Bryan Herta, because Herta is good with mentoring drivers.

“I think his counter to me blowing a gasket on a radio is ‘10-4,’" Andretti told the IndyCar series site. “When his counter is just so bland, it’s hilarious to me. I’m almost laughing.

“I used to listen to my dad (Michael) on the radio. He was a lunatic on the radio. But I’d watch the crew guys and they would have that smile and say, ‘That’s Mikey. He wants to win.’ I want to be perceived the same way, but my dad was way worse on the radio than me."

“He [Herta] knows the pressure I’m under," Marco said before the series’ open test at ISM Raceway outside Phoenix on Feb. 9-10. “I know the pressure I’m under. He does a big part for me of taking that off. That in itself is bringing the fun back into it for me. I think that’s how I’m going to extract the most from myself."

For what it’s worth, Herta doesn’t care the least bit about Andretti perception.

“I don’t know what anybody else thinks," he said. “I believe in Marco 100 percent. I asked if we could have him make the switch and have him drive the (No.) 98 car this year. I’m enthused working with him. I know what he’s capable of and I hope we can accomplish some great things together."

“I call it passion, but maybe I’m not perceived that way sometimes on the team because I drive for Dad," Andretti said. "Being in the Herta stable now, I deal directly with him on everything. I don’t have to go to anybody else. He relays the message in a way that they hear him. He has Dad’s ear, which is good. I want to be looked at as a hungry racing driver, not that I’m complaining all the time, you know what I mean?

Marco Andretti

“A lot of times this does happen to me. If my teammate pushes the team and does exactly what I do, ‘Man, he’s really relentless, he’s tough on us.’ I’m doing the same thing. What’s been tough on me is the perception is quite opposite. The way Bryan described it, when I’m at 100 percent all the time, it’s hard to deliver the points I need. Where Bryan is good, he’s very calm, anybody who knows him knows he’s very calm. If I’m at 100 percent, he’s at 60. But when he goes to 75, people listen. He has a way of delivering my points, like, ‘Hey, this is wrong. We need to change this.’ He can say it without sounding like the son."

Andretti will look to make a point, but Herta will interject, “It’s my battle to fight for you." Then he does. Whereas Andretti was used to fighting for himself, Herta would ask how that worked for him in the past. It usually didn’t. Point taken.

“The guys that do this, it’s a constant evolution and a constant search for improvement," Herta said. “That’s every single car on the grid, every single driver, every single team. That’s been our process, too, over the winter. I feel like last year we came out of the box really, really strong. It’s such a momentum-driven sport. We were running well. Marco was really driving well. And we really had a lot of problems. A lot of stuff was out of his control, out of our control. I think it took the wind out of our sails a little bit.

“I was looking forward to this offseason this winter. It’s a good chance to kind of have a reset and kind of start over. That’s what everybody is doing now with the universal aero kits. It’s a new ball of wax for us. Last year really doesn’t matter anymore. We’re just trying to focus forward on what we’re doing for this season. Crew-wise, engineering-wise, driver-wise, we’re in a really good place on the (No.) 98. I’m excited about this season and looking forward to what we can accomplish."

“I’m my toughest critic as well," Andretti said. “One of my lines is, ‘If I’m going to impress myself, other people will be impressed.’ We just need to have more fun with it and let things flow on a natural level."