Inside Andretti Autosport’s turmoil
LEXINGTON, Ohio – How bad are things at Andretti Autosport after the team’s four drivers seemed to compete in a game of bumper cars over the final 25 laps of Sunday’s IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio?
After answering a couple IndyStar questions outside the team’s hospitality unit regarding a half-dozen incidents of significant contact between his drivers Sunday, Michael Andretti, flanked by his righthand man JF Thormann, walked over to confront Alexander Rossi’s father, Pieter.
“I understand, I understand. Today was not a good day,” the elder Rossi could be heard replying to some emotional words from Andretti.
“It hasn’t been, and it’s been getting worse, and today was the head of it,” Andretti replied. “And I’m done.”
At that moment, a member of the Andretti Autosport PR team required that video of the confrontation be deleted. The conversation took place in full view of every fan heading toward their cars. There was a private hospitality space a few steps behind Andretti, Thormann and Rossi had they wanted to ensure such an emotional conversation took place out of sight and earshot.
Outside of IndyStar’s exclusive 45 seconds with Andretti -- in which he acknowledged issues had been simmering within the team -- a brief 75-second exchange with Romain Grosjean outside the team’s transporters (before he was told he needed to be in the team’s Zapata race analytics transporter) with a handful of media members and a onesentence text from team COO Rob Edwards, Andretti Autosport made no drivers or other team executives available to comment on Sunday’s circus within the team.
Rossi, the driver of the No. 27 Honda, answered two questions for NBC on pitlane at his pit box before strolling back to the No. 29 transporter, where he and the team were furiously summoned for an urgent team meeting. After Rossi had already begun walking back, Andretti rolled up to his veteran driver’s pit box and could be heard exclaiming, “Where is he?” before scootering off to the team meeting he had called.
Already a lap down due to contact with Rossi on Lap 59 that sent him into the tire barrier in Turn 2, Grosjean was told over his radio in the waning moments of the race to take the checkered flag from pitlane.
Normally, he’d cross the start-finish line, take a cooldown lap and then head to the transporter.
After returning from a commercial break that began moments after Sunday’s winner Scott McLaughlin clinched his victory, NBC caught Grosjean walking through a near-empty paddock to the team’s HQ, out of reach for any immediate post-race pitlane interviews.
In a text to IndyStar, Edwards offered: “We will go back and review and handle internally as is the correct way to do it.”
Unsurprisingly, the team’s post-race report, including quotes from the four drivers, offered little insight into the turmoil that poured over Sunday.
“Really tough day for the team,” Rossi’s provided quote read. “Some unfortunate situations there, and a bummer because I think we all could have had a much better day. On to Toronto.”
Together, it speaks to a team in disfunction, unprepared and unwilling to publicly handle some bitter feuds that boiled over into its actual racing Sunday. No longer with cool-headed veteran drivers Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchliffe, who were not brought back after the end of the 2021 season, none of the four drivers or team car chiefs were willing to come out and serve as the team voice of reason.
When told in his post-race presser there had been some Andretti-on-Andretti
controversy behind him on-track in the closing laps, McLaughlin said, “That’s been building all year.”
Andretti’s war of cars and words
Early signs pointing to Sunday’s controversy appeared two months ago at Barber. After twice banging wheels with Grosjean late in the race battling for 7th, Graham Rahal went on pitlane to commiserate with Rossi.
Audio from the passionate, one-sided conversation dominated by Rahal wasn’t picked up by NBC’s cameras, but Rossi didn’t exactly appear to defend his teammate.
One night in May during the two weeks leading up to the Indy 500, Grosjean had his bikes, table chairs and grill outside his motorhome snagged and strewn on top of and around Conor Daly’s infamous inflatable hot tub. Around the same time, Grosjean’s scooter was left on top of the Pagoda, which Daly later revealed was done by Will Power, Colton Herta and Rossi.
In retaliation, Grosjean left Herta’s golf cart tipped over and leaking fluid following a media bullpen session. Yes, teammate-on-teammate pranks are by no means new to the leadup to the 500, but given Rahal’s fuming comments at Barber of a not-so-insignificant collection of the paddock incensed by Grosjean’s driving, it makes you think.
Sunday, sparks began to fly as the field returned to green on Lap 57 following a caution for Tatiana Calderon coming to a stop in Turn 4.
Though not immediately caught in the moment, Rossi and Grosjean banged wheels in Turn 2, with the latter on the outside trying to snatch away 10thplace.
Grosjean was run off-track, but collected himself and drove on. The next lap, nearly identical contact took place with both cars positioned in the same place in the same turn.
The force of the contact ripped the steering wheel out of Rossi’s hands and the pair sailed straight through the apex into grass, then gravel, and eventually for Grosjean, the tire barrier. “What the (expletive)?! What’s wrong with him?? What’s wrong with him??” Grosjean could be heard screaming on his radio. “Michael (Andretti), you need to have a word with him. (Expletive) ridiculous!”
From battling in 10th and 11th, the pair dropped all the way down to 19th and 21st, with Grosjean a lap down, where they’d both eventually finish. A couple laps later during what appeared to be the end of the caution period, NBC’s cameras showed Rossi appear to swerve directly into the side of Grosjean in retaliation.
Post-race though, Rossi gave no indication to NBC he believed anything improper took place. “That was just a racing incident. (Grosjean) was on the softer tire and was probably going to get around me, and he likes to do it fast and early,” he said. “I had some under-steer, and obviously, that’s unfortunate to happen to a teammate, but that’s the way it goes.”
When asked whether he’d race his teammates any differently, having announced a month ago his plans to leave for Arrow McLaren SP at the end of the year after seven seasons with Andretti, Rossi said, “No, of course not. We’re teammates. We’re driving for Andretti Autosport, and we’re trying to get the best results possible.”
Looking back at the incident post-race, Hinchcliffe, a new member of the NBC broadcast booth as well as Rossi’s close friend and podcast cohost, said, “Obviously, Alex slid into him. There’s no doubt about that, but what really did the damage was the wheel getting ripped out of his hands. They would’ve continued relatively unscathed if it wasn’t for that.”
Said fellow booth member Townsend Bell: “Rossi’s like a lot of drivers in IndyCar, not easy to get by. He had the position, and he held it.”