Interview: Alexander Rossi Confirms IndyCar Return, Talks F1 Future
Alexander Rossi will return to IndyCar for the 2017 season, and spoke out about his decision as well as his future in Formula One in a Monday interview.
Alexander Rossi answered IndyCar‘s biggest question on Monday: he’s staying with the American open-wheel league for at least one more season, instead of returning to Formula One.
The California native made a splash when he won the historic 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 in May, and while rumors of an extension with Andretti Autosport have been circling for weeks now – aided by the fact that the team recently confirmed it would continue to run the No. 98 car – it’s now official that Rossi will be back to defend his Rookie of the Year title in 2017.
Rossi spoke with the media on Monday to discuss how he made his choice, the terms of his new IndyCar contract and whether it means a return to F1 is completely off the table.
Though the rumors were for a three-year extension, the only season he is actually confirmed for is next year. “It’s difficult to talk about terms of contracts,” he explained, “but it’s through 2017 and there is the option for multiple years continuing off of that.”
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While he will serve out the remainder of his current F1 contract as a reserve driver for Manor at Austin, Mexico and Abu Dhabi, the 25-year-old also revealed that will be the end of his part in the European league.
“Beyond that my focus is on IndyCar,” he said, “and I won’t be continuing in 2017 as any type of reserve driver.”
That’s got to be welcome news not only for Andretti but for IndyCar fans, who have been wondering what Rossi would do ever since many learned his name with that unexpected Indy 500 victory.
According to him, his decision to remain in IndyCar rather than return to F1 began in that fateful month of May.
“This wasn’t a decision that was made recently,” Rossi explained. “Kind of after the month of May, even after the first race at St. Pete [in March], I really started to enjoy the championship and appreciate what the Verizon IndyCar Series has to offer and I gained a lot of respect for the championship throughout this year.
“When Rio Haryanto was leaving Manor as a race driver in August, I was offered to take his place for the rest of the year and I turned it down,” he added, “because I didn’t feel that that was an appropriate thing to do based on my relationship with Andretti Autosport and Honda and the Verizon IndyCar Series.”
Rossi did reveal that he talked to other IndyCar teams about 2017 before ultimately deciding to remain at Andretti.
“We were talking to a couple different teams for sure,” he told us. “But at the end of the day I think continuity is a very powerful thing, especially in the world of motorsports.
“Despite our struggles, I never once didn’t enjoy working with Andretti Autosport and the people here,” he continued. “I think there’s a lot of very, very intelligent people here and they have a strong plan for the future.
“At the end of the day, it was the best option for me in terms of a sporting perspective, because I truly think that given the right amount of time and structure we can be a competitive unit.”
What does he consider being competitive? His primary goal for next season won’t surprise any motorsports fan.
“Win more, for sure. We didn’t win nearly enough this year,” he declared. “That’s obviously the goal for everyone. But I’ve never finished outside the Top 10 in a championship before. So it’s not something I’m very happy about and it’s something that we definitely don’t want to have happen again next year.
“So there is a huge amount of motivation for everyone to be way more competitive than we were and be in the front.”
He added that IndyCar’s potential for a breakout American star, as well as the atmosphere in the paddock, were off-track factors into his decision to stay in 2017.
“One of my huge things when I was growing up and wanting to race in Formula One, aside from the desire to race in Europe,” Rossi reflected, “was the fact that I wanted to represent the U.S. and be an American driver that was successful.
“And I think that even though the IndyCar Series is an American championship, there’s been a lot of longing for a young American talent, and I think that it’s really strong at the moment.
“I think that there’s the obvious names that we all know that are competing in the championship right now that are representing the U.S. in a positive way. So for me, it was easy to kind of translate that to represent the U.S. in our series.
“And really the entire championship and organization welcomed me with open arms from day one, and that was very impressive to me and kind of the community of teams and drivers,” he continued.
“Everyone really kind of supports each other in a way that I wasn’t used to in Europe. So I think that’s something that I really enjoyed this year and it was definitely something that I took into consideration over the past couple months.”
It might have taken a bit longer to officially declare but Alexander Rossi will definitely be back with IndyCar next season, and that’s the best move for him, Andretti Autosport, IndyCar and IndyCar’s fans.
Especially if he improves in 2017 and those options get picked up we could be calling Alexander Rossi the next Josef Newgarden or even (dare we say it?) Ryan Hunter-Reay. However it goes, we have a young man with obvious talent who’s putting down roots in the sport and that’s always something worth getting excited about.
What do you think about Alexander Rossi remaining in IndyCar for 2017?
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