Following several seasons of slow starts in the NTT IndyCar Series Will Power is devoting a huge amount of focus to improving his early season form.
Power has struggled to get off to a consistent since his title-winning 2014 season where he scored two wins and five podiums in the opening eight races.
Since then, it has taken him until at least the fifth event of each year before claiming a victory and those slow starts have weighed heavily on the Australian’s mind.
Despite the lacklustre starts to his previous campaigns, Power’s form has seen him win at least one race in every season since his IndyCar career began in 2008 and fail to finish a season outside the top-five since 2010.
Through working with his Team Penske crew, the focus has been on turning those statistics around in order to be in contention for a second IndyCar title at the end of the season.
“It actually does feel a little bit [like a rebound year], considering we’ve started the last four seasons in a really bad way,” said Power.
“It certainly isn’t speed that’s the issue. It’s our bad days are just too bad.
“Our bad days are DNFs and multiple laps down. They’re not like a 10th place or a seventh place, and that’s our problem. The speed is certainly not.
“Consistently, whether it’s mistakes on pit lane or mistakes by me, you just – we have to have a solid beginning to the season. I mean, you’ve just got to have a solid season, and that obviously includes the beginning.
“I said it last year, it’s a huge focus, and that did not happen for us. This year, again, if we can just have a solid first few races, I think it gives the team confidence and myself confidence.”
Although his early season results from recent years have been lacking, the veteran has proven that he still has the speed to fight with the best at the sharp end of the field.
The 40-year-old is more confident heading into the beginning of this year after his No.12 Verizon-Chevrolet has shown promising signs of improvement in pre-season testing.
“I feel like [the whole team] has done a very good job of development,” added the Australian.
“I feel pretty good about definitely being better than where we were last year at Indianapolis.
“I think that was probably the most disappointing we’ve been since I’ve been at Penske. It was a surprise to us. Certainly worked very hard on that.
“I feel like we’ll be much better than we were last year. So yeah, looking forward to really everything coming up.”
