Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta says he wants to take the fight for the NTT IndyCar Series championship ‘to the wire’ in the 2021 campaign.
In 2020, Herta’s sophomore season saw him finish third in the overall standings beating long-time rival Pato O’Ward to the position by just five points.
Ahead of him were Penske’s Josef Newgarden and eventual champion Scott Dixon who secured four victories apiece in 2020, while Herta was only able to claim just one at the second of two races at Mid-Ohio.
“I’d like to make a true championship run down to the wire, have the ability to truly win it. That’s my goal. That’s the team’s goal,” said Herta.
“Obviously alongside with that, winning the Indy 500 and putting a lot of resources and time towards that at the same time.
“But kind of cutting out the mistakes, changing those top fives, fourth and fifth places that we had last year, we had a bunch of them, into podiums, and some of those podiums we had into wins.
“We need to win a little bit more and we need a little bit more podiums, a tiny bit more consistency to really make a true championship run.
The 21-year-old finished inside the top 10 in all but four rounds of the 2020 season but acknowledges he must push for higher finishes in order to be in contention for the ultimate prize.
“I think we showed it last year of what could have been,” he added.
“If I didn’t have that slip-up at Iowa, mess that up for us, we could have been really good in the championship hunt going into the last round.
“The biggest setback is that we need to win more races. Can’t be winning one or two races a year and winning a championship.
“You need to be winning three or four races. That’s kind of my goal is to try to get to that number.
“That’s been the trend the last few years for guys that have won the championship, is they’re winning four race as year.
“When they’re not winning, they’re finishing on the podium. I have full faith in myself and in the team that we can do it, but it’s going to take a lot of effort from everybody.”
