Alexander Rossi Hoping For Better With Andretti in 2017

Alexander Rossi at recent RoC

Excluding his victory in the 100th Indianapolis 500, Andretti Autosport driver Alexander Rossi summarized his rookie season in the Verizon IndyCar Series with one word — "horrible."

Rossi, 25, finished the season 11th in the driver standings. He was the only Andretti racer to visit Victory Lane all of last year. But he believes the team will be better in 2017 because of personnel changes in the organization's engineering department.

Longtime Chip Ganassi Racing technical director Eric Bretzman comes over as Andretti's new technical director and former Ed Carpenter Racing engineer Jeremy Milless will work with Rossi's team for the upcoming season.

"Eric was Scott [Dixon's] engineer for about five or six years … my engineer now was josef [Newgarden's] engineer at Ed Carpenter the past couple of years," Rossi told POPULAR SPEED. "They both bring a wealth of resources in terms of understanding the car. They know what Chevy was doing so hopefully we have more information than we had in the past couple of years."

Rossi believes Team Penske will still be the cream of the crop in 2017 but also thinks Andretti will have enough speed to outrace Ganassi this season.

"We know there's going to be a big battle going up against Penske, but our goal on the team this year is beat Ganassi," Rossi said. "… Show our power and come out on top as a team and have a completely different year than we did last year."

Now having a full year's experience in IndyCar, Rossi said he'll be better prepared for the upcoming campaign. He also said the addition of former A.J. Foyt Racing wheelmanTakuma Sato would benefit Andretti's atmosphere.

"We're going to get to work in a week and a half in Phoenix and do a test, and I think that he'll provide a lot of insight, Rossi said. "I know he'll bring a lot to the table from an approach perspective. He was one of the fastest Honda drivers last year. Anything that he can bring will be a positive boost to the whole team."

Rossi called his Indy 500 win the "saving grace" of his first year in IndyCar. He is signed for three more years with Andretti and hopes a new aero package will improve his performance going forward.

"We have a lot to redeem ourselves from in 2017, and like I said, we've made positive steps," he added. "We'll have a very different package than what we had last year. We've put in a lot of effort, and hopefully, it shows in St. Pete." Popular Speed