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Opinion

What is Wrong With Rossi and What’s Next for His Career?

May 28, 2022

After a hot start to his Indycar career with Andretti Autosports including a win in the Indy 500, a 2nd place in the series standings in 2018, and 3rd in 2019, Alexander Rossi looked poised to be a dominant figure in the series for many years to come. Couple that with great performances in the #10 Dpi entry in the IMSA WeatherTech series.

Unfortunately for him and his fans, success has eluded him for the past 3 years and there does not appear to be an end in sight.  Let’s explore what is happening and what could get the career of this obviously talented driver back on track. The talent is still there as evidenced by great performances in the #10 Dpi entry in the IMSA WetherTech series, so what is the problem?

  • Andretti Autosports Letting him Down – A good percentage of the issues he has experienced over the past few seasons has been the team just letting him down. From subpar pitstop performance to suboptimal race strategy, to having to work with an ever-revolving crew within his team, there is no doubt that AA has not been a major root cause
  • Frontrunning Style –Regardless of the team issues Rossi tends to do very well when he qualifies well or finds himself out front due to race strategy. When he has to come up through the pack, he has shown a tendency to give in to the red mist too much and become impatient, reckless, and unable to work within the big picture.  For a driver with his experience level, this is just not acceptable at this stage of his career and he needs to get that in order
  • The emergence of Herta – Colton Herta is a true talent and his emergence within the AA team has both diverted resources that would likely have been assigned to Rossi in the past as well as created more pressure to perform.  We see this all the time in racing, particularly in F1 when a clear #1 driver emerges within the team and the #2 falls off form and does not recover. Rossi was #1 at AA, he clearly is not at this point and it is likely affecting his performances

What’s next?

Rumors have been building that Rossi will be announced as a McLaren IndyCar driver as soon as the Detroit Grand Prix.  AMSP has been putting together an excellent program over the past few years and it is poised to move to a 3 car program in 2023. Their winning pedigree, core competencies in engineering and organization, and commitment to excellence make them a great spot for any driver to land.

This would potentially erase 2 of the 3 issues Rossi is battling discussed above. What it does not address is poor decision-making and racecraft when not out front. He may very well find himself out front more often as a result of better team performance both in and out of pitlane but he will need to address his up through the Packers racecraft to become a true championship contender.

Rossi has the talent, there is no question of that. Time will tell if a change of scenery will result in a return to form.

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