Grosjean and Andretti team-mate Colton Herta have locked out the front row while another Andretti car, that of series sophomore Kyle Kirkwood, will start from the third row.
Former Formula 1 ace Grosjean, who took a pole position in his rookie IndyCar season with Dale Coyne Racing in 2021, was delighted to deliver his first P1 for Michael Andretti, but said substantial improvements to his car started last summer. They were then proven worthy in pre-season testing at Sebring and Thermal Club.
“We improved a lot from last year as a team,” he said. “I was impressed when I came to Thermal, all the efforts. It was a good test. Sebring was another good one.
“On track, obviously 27 cars, hard to get a lap. You never knew your best performance. Having three of us in the Fast Six, locked in the front row, is pretty impressive to start the season.
“Thankful for the team. We worked really hard from a tough season last year…
“The car felt much more alive. Nashville was the first step, Iowa was another one, Laguna Seca was the third one. At Sebring and Thermal we tried back-to-back set ups with the one I struggled to drive; 100 percent we found what I need.
“There's always bits and pieces we can improve on the car, but this weekend as a team we've been very impressive and hopefully we can carry that out in the race.”
Grosjean admitted that his spin into the grass at the final turn this morning was due to the strong tailwinds while under braking, but described it as “no big deal. We worked on the car, made some small adjustments for quallies and it worked well.”
He predicted a tough race from a variety of opposition, but believes just having three cars at the front will stack the odds in Andretti Autosport’s favor.
“IndyCar is super competitive, we've seen the lap times in practice have been very tight,” he stated. “The good thing is that we've got three cars up there, so we have good chances as a team to grab the win.
“I'm going to do the best I can. I'm going to work on the car for the [Sunday morning] warm-up to make sure we have a good racecar, then we're going to do our best. As Colton says, if the car is good enough to win, we win. If not, we finish where it is.
“We have good strategies, great guys behind it, and a very good car today. Colton was P1 most of the session. I was up there. Q3 worked well.”
Herta was brutally honest about his final flying lap in the Firestone Fast Six, stating to NBC/Peacock that he was “as useless as gum on a boot-heel”. Afterward he added, “I just missed it on that last run. We were looking really good all day. Just a sloppy last lap. But it was still good enough for P2…
“Yeah, that was a bad lap. I probably did just about everything wrong that I could have. But I did a 5-5 [59.55s – same as Grosjean] in the run before. I didn't think I could really go much faster than that if at all. Even if I did hook up a lap, I think it would be really close with Romain.
“I think in the 5s – that's pretty much the absolute limit of this place for these conditions. Yeah, that's a really good lap.”
Team owner and CEO Michael Andretti commented: “We were very excited coming into this season. Pre-season testing went very well. We did a lot of hard work over the winter. We felt pretty optimistic, but you never know what you have until you get it on the racetrack. Seems like it's showing the way we hoped it would.”
Recalling 2022, which produced just two wins for the team – one for Herta, one for the now-departed Alexander Rossi – Andretti said: “We did have many races where we had very fast cars, but we tended to do something wrong, shoot ourselves in the foot one way or another. That's another thing we've really studied and worked on. Hopefully our pitstops will be better and strategies will be better.
“If we just operate and don't make mistakes, we feel like we are in a good position for the whole year…
“I feel a lot more optimistic. I think we really studied ourselves and got real honest with ourselves where we needed to improve. I think we've done it. Obviously the race is going to be another thing. Hopefully we can have all four cars go through the race without making a mistake. If that happens, I think we have a great shot at winning…
“It's little things that catch you out. We really worked on trying to be a lot more detail-oriented. Again, I hope it pays off.”
