After winning the Indianapolis 500, Ericsson was well in the hunt for the championship, sitting at the top of the points table for six races, before eventual champion Will Power led for the final five events. Ericsson eventually finished sixth, same as he did in 2021.
“I had a chance going into the final, but I also was leading the championship for a long time last year,” reflected the former F1 driver who is about to start his fifth season in IndyCar. “I'm still a bit pissed off about the ending of last year because I felt we were having a really strong year, then the last three races or so we just fell off a little bit. That was disappointing.
“But it's given me a lot of motivation to work hard in the off-season to try and be better this year. It's definitely our goal to try and get that championship this year.”
On the subject of whether he felt improvements in qualifying needed to come from himself or the Ganassi, Ericsson responded, “I think a combination. I think us as a team, it's been one of our weaknesses the last couple years in that we're not qualifying as high as we should.
“Race day, I'm not scared of anyone. I think on the #8 car we're always going forward in the races; we're always very strong in the races. It's no secret that we need to improve on qualifying day. That is us in the #8 car, but also Chip Ganassi Racing as a whole.
“I think if we can all improve, it's going to help us. These days, IndyCar is becoming more and more competitive, so many good drivers and teams. If you start mid pack, yeah, it might be long races, but to win a race from mid-pack is getting harder and harder.
“It's been one of the big focus areas in the off-season, to try to find things in the setup, in the way to understand the tires, stuff like that, to mainly improve our qualifying performance. It's been a big focus for us. It's going to be interesting this week to see if we have found some things that are going to work, then apply that throughout the season.
Ericsson wasn’t prepared to lay the blame for the team’s up-and-down qualifying performances on shorter practice sessions.
“I think [having more track time] definitely would make life easier,” he said. “The problem is that everyone would maybe get better, as well. In the end of the day, we can't really blame that. I love driving racecars, so the more practice and test days we could get, the better it is.
“But the way it is now, we still have enough time to get the setup right in a race weekend. I think Ganassi as a team, we are very good at simulations and preparations. I always feel like we unload with good cars.
“I think we just need to find a bit more peak performance. I think our cars are some of the best on the grid for, like, consistency, drivability for the drivers, but we're looking a little bit for some more peak performance. I think that's going to be the key for us in qualifying, to get our average up a bit more.”
