The highly-regarded Harvey had an unusually disappointing season last year, starting off badly with a shunts in practice at St. Petersburg and at Texas, the latter of which forced him to miss the race on medical advisement.
Thereafter, regularly poor qualifying results limited his chances for strong finishes on race day, so that his best result was a 10th at Nashville. And while RLL started off badly, a midseason change in setup philosophy saw Harvey’s teammates Christian Lundgaard and Graham Rahal contending for podiums, whereas the 29-year-old Briton remained mired. He finished 22nd in the points race, compared with 11th and 14th for Rahal and Lundgaard respectively.
Asked if he could explain what happened, Harvey replied: “Lots – lots of things happened. In terms of the specifics with the team, I think it's about, from my side, being a little more flexible with the car and the feeling I was hoping to get from the car.
“I think sometimes having the experience of a good car can be great. It also be can be not great when you're not able to replicate that feeling, because then you get so… not stuck, perhaps, but I know how the car should feel and we were struggling to kind of get to that phase.
“So I think one of the things I wanted to work on in the off-season was remaining flexible. Every year it's a different challenge, and I think ultimately a lot of the great drivers in the series are able to adapt and grow and evolve and change, and I want to be one of those drivers.
“Really it was more about remembering to be flexible, and also from the team side, are there other ways that we can perhaps meet each other, where they're not just trying to go down the same path every time with setups and stuff like that? Yeah, there's specifics, and ultimately there are things that we have worked on internally and privately just to try and come to the track more prepared.
“I feel like I had a good off-season, but I feel like as an organization, Rahal Letterman Lanigan has had a really great one, as well, moving into the new building (in Brownsburg) full-time, the new acquisition and hires that we've got. I think it all will really contribute into something great.
“I think it's the case that we have turned the page on last year. We can keep rehashing it, but at this point it's time to move on. The best thing about starting a new year is you get a new opportunity, and while there is an opportunity for me to be a driver in this series, I'm going to go out and try and just be better than I was the previous year.
“At times I felt like I was driving well, and when the result doesn't come, then it's a little frustrating. I think really being at peace with all that, like I am now, just gives us a really great foundation to try and just have a good year.”
Asked if there was a disparity between what he, Rahal and Lundgaard are seeking from their cars, Harvey responded: “Look, at the end of the day, every time I've driven a fast racecar, the other drivers on the team typically like that car. Although there's always going to be driver preferences and subtle changes, I think ultimately we were all looking for something very similar. We think we describe it three different ways, but ultimately we're hinting and asking for similar things.
“I think one of the nice things in the off-season was that we weren't all completely different. I think that would have made our task of improving… a bigger mountain to try and climb and overcome. I think because the three of us all get on very well, like we truly all like each other, it just makes that atmosphere within the team a positive one because we're all reading off the same sheet just trying to move forward.”
Some drivers who have been in IndyCar for more than three seasons are still, consciously or subconsciously, chasing a handling balance that they enjoyed from before the introduction of the aeroscreen for the 2020 season. Younger drivers who have joined the series since then have never known an IndyCar’s ‘feel’ before the addition of the screen. Asked if that conferred an advantage for rookie Lundgaard, Harvey said there were two ways to look at the issue.
He said: “People say experience is one of the most important things, and then when you have the year that we had, really being zoned into the car and wanting it to feel a particular way, in that moment it kind of felt like some of the experience I had was hindering me. But it's rare that you ever feel like someone has got too much experience.
“Perhaps for [Lundgaard] last year, he didn't know what the car was meant to do other than what he was driving. But… it's a difficult question to answer because I've never been in a situation where I wish I had less experience!
“I just want to remain open-minded myself so that within my own driving, I develop or continue to develop good techniques, work on the errors that I need to. I don't think it was good or bad at the end. I think he just did a good job at adapting to the car that we had.”
