Andretti is ready to change the tides in high-altitude Mexico City after a double DNF in São Paulo left the team wanting more. They are hoping for a stronger result heading into the season’s second round.
São Paulo was a weekend to forget for the American team. It had been a strong qualifying for Jake Dennis and Nico Müller leaving them third and 15th for the start of the race. However, things fell apart when the lights went out with both cars involved in collisions that took them out of the running.
But with a break for the holidays, Andretti has had time to analyse the issues from the weekend, while also looking at the positives.
Andretti team principal Roger Griffiths said, “Our double DNF in São Paulo was obviously not how we wanted to start the season. Especially after the competitiveness we showed in preseason testing.” Although he noted, “Jake was never outside of the top three during practice and qualifying. So we know that the potential is there.”
Chalking the double DNF up to a ‘case of misfortune’ Andretti isn’t deterred. With work going on in the background over the holidays Andretti is confident that will ‘arrive in Mexico competitive.’
Andretti has a strong history around the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. The team has finished 98% of laps around the track while holding the joint record for the most fastest laps. Alexander sims in season 3, and Jake Dennis in Season 9.
Drivers expectations
Jake Dennis won the season 9 Mexico City E-Prix by the largest margin in FE history at the time. He currently still holds the fastest lap record. The strong history has fed into Dennis’ excitement and also hopes for the weekend.
He said, “It’s always a great atmosphere and we’ve generally had quite good performances there – my favourite being the victory we took back in Season 9.”
Although he admitted that Andretti had a strong pace in Brazil he recognised that Mexico City is a challenging circuit, and getting the car right will play a huge role in the weekend.
“If you can hit your marks and have a good, balanced car underneath you. There’s a strong chance of fighting for the front row.”
Dennis didn’t hold back when admitting his goal for the race was to get the first podium of the season.
Nico Müller starts on the back foot between the Andretti teammates, but he has never been out-qualified around Mexico City and doubt is looking to continue that streak.
Müller’s focus for Mexico is having a clean weekend rather than Dennis’ high hopes of podiums. He said, “Heading to Mexico, our objective is to get our season started properly and make sure we have a smooth weekend from the beginning to the end.”
Brazil showed that with the new GEN3 Evo cars anything is possible. Mitch Evans showed that you can climb from the back of the grid to the top step of the podium. Andretti is hopeful for a similar result and vindication from São Paulo.
