Felix Rosenqvist will be contesting his fourth season in the NTT IndyCar Series this year, and is keen to bounce back from a disappointing 2021 campaign.
The Swedish driver logged his worst season in the series last year, only notching two top-tens across 16 races, and finishing 21st in the points standings.
His cause was not helped by a hard crash in Detroit, the result of a fluke mechanical failure, which kept Rosenqvist out of the car for the next two rounds while he recovered from minor injuries.
But that harrowing trip into the wall was not the sole reason for his middling performance, and the 30-year-old has taken lessons from his results so that they are not repeated.
“It’s for sure important to start the year not in the way that I did last year,” said Rosenqvist during a preseason media session. “I think it’s also important to not try to overcomplicate and overachieve.
“I think we just need a solid start to the season to kind of get it going in a smooth way. That’s the way you want to do it in IndyCar. You don’t want to risk it all in St. Pete and then have a lot of catch-up to do.
“For sure, we can’t have a season like we had last year. I think Detroit was only a little part to be honest in everything that was going down. We’re excited and we have no reason to think that’s going to happen again.”
Rosenqvist’s 2021 season started off in the worst way possible when he was involved in a lap 1 crash in the season-opener from Barber Motorsports Park.
That day set the tone for the early part of the season, and he struggled to get a good handle on his Arrow McLaren SP Chevy for a good portion of the year.
That learning curve led to him watching his team-mate Pato O’Ward drive off into the distance on multiple occasions, which is not a sight that he wants to repeat in 2022.
“I think it was never an easy car to drive for me or Pato for that matter. It was definitely something to get used to in the beginning.
“We had a Portland test in the middle of the year and I think that’s where I actually found — we make some big grounds in the setup for my liking, and I think that gave me some confidence with the car, and it all kind of spiraled in the right direction, let’s say.
“As I said before, it’s just details. It’s not — you’ll never find something that is like, ‘Oh, now we’re winning every race.’ It’s always the small things.
“But I think that’s actually the time we found something that worked, and the results went a lot better from that point, so just that little added confidence just took me to another level really.”
