Last season, James Hinchcliffe didn’t have the season that he was looking for en route to finishing 12th in points. The Canadian would only have one podium finish all year following a season that saw him win three races the year before. The beginning of the 2014 season was a mess with four DNFs in the first five events. From then on, it seemed that the entire Andretti Autosport outfit struggled with performance, leading down a disappointing path.
The off-season, though, always brings a time of promise. You can either further develop your own team to be stronger and search for the mishaps, or you can find a change in scenery. With Simon Pagenaud moving to Team Penske, it made for an open-seat at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports – which is where Hinchcliffe will be for 2015.
The partnership brings forth a reunion as Hinchcliffe drove for the team in the Indy Lights ranks in 2009, before moving forth with his career as the road took it. He knows people within the team so it should bring a healthy balance. Perhaps also important is instead of fighting for the lead spot among teammates, he’ll be the lead dog for SPM with the focus mainly put on him and the potential success that could be had.
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports has proven that they can get it done, as evident with Pagenaud last season. Pagenaud finished fifth in points with two wins, three podiums and a pole on the season. If you compare that to the mess that Hinchcliffe endured, you could say that odds are in favor for a stronger year.
With the season set to begin next month, testing is in full force with teams taking to the track at Sebring. Hinchcliffe was one of those on-track and things seem positive so far with the new team,
“It was a great day for us and just so nice to get back in the car,” Hinchcliffe said. “We’ve had a long off-season and I know we got a day back in December, but it’s just not enough. To know that it’s the new year and we’re getting back in the car really makes it feel like the season is coming.
“I worked closely with Allen [McDonald] to try to tune the car more closely to my liking and I think we made some good progress. Until we get the new body kits on, it’s all sort of an exercise in teamwork, practicing and getting used to procedures. But I still think we made some good gains and learned things we can apply when we get our new kits in a couple weeks. So all in all, a very successful day and I’m just looking forward to doing some more testing.”
The key thing, though, as Hinchcliffe mentions – the new body kits. There are new body aero kits for this year in IndyCar. Depending which team is able to adapt to them the quickest will be the team that has success first. SPM currently being a single-car organization versus the multi-car teams is at the disadvantage in amount of people seeking for ansnwer, but their answer will be solely focused on one primary driver. They also have a good head engineering staff and if they find the edge, it could make the year very interestng.
