The 29-year-old is about to enter his 12th season in IndyCar, and admits that there were a number of reasons why last year was his least convincing. One of those reasons he attributes to his anger at what he considered a blown opportunity in the 100th running of the Indy 500.

On a day when the Andretti Autosport-Hondas appeared to be the strongest cars on track – and the team scored a 1-2 finish – a pitstop blunder saw the #27 car leave the pits with its front tires mounted on the wrong side, and therefore with completely incorrect air pressures.

Andretti said: “I’ve been saying, ‘My character’s built, I don’t need any more character-building,’ but I think I was wrong. I really believe I’m a better person because of last year.

“I let Indianapolis ruin the rest of my season mentally. I drove extremely frustrated, and you’re never going to be fast that way. I wasn’t having fun, wasn’t smiling – obviously you’re not smiling when you’re not doing good, but I let it spiral out of control.

“The biggest thing for me, going forward, is to stop thinking about the past and the coulda/woulda/shoulda, because you can’t fix those anyway. I’ve really been working on the mental side, working on trying to get really excited again. And I feel like I’m there, I feel like I’m in a really good place for this season, and it’s because of last year.

“I’ve had bad seasons before, but last season was one I needed to be my best, and it was my worst. And I think feeling that it needed to be my best was a lot of the problem. I think I was too focused – I questioned everything I did, and that’s a problem. I think having a clear mind is how you go fast.

“It’s a tough thing I’m up against; I definitely have my back against the wall, and I know that – but I’m gonna make that the fun part of it. I’m going to make the people who aren’t on my bandwagon regret it.”

Car improvements already showing

Andretti said the next time the team is lacking speed, as it did for most of 2016, he still needs to up his own performance. However, he expressed confidence that Andretti Autosport had found its way out of a technical hole.

“As a team we struggled last season, that’s obvious, but if our team’s struggling and our best car’s 10th, it needs to be me. That’s my approach going forward.

“I went into Sonoma last year and mentally approached it as a test session and brought our 2017 stuff forward and our pace was really good. I actually think we’d have had a shot at pole but we had a bit of an overboost in qualifying. We were quickest in Practice 3. So we had pace there and that makes me feel good about this year.

“I think we can make a huge gain if we all make little gains – and by all, I mean myself, the team and Honda. The team’s approach this year is geared toward me and really feeling the racecar. And a lot of our new stuff is what I’ve been pushing for.”

Team owner Michael Andretti has brought in Eric Bretzman to oversee the four cars, allowing Ray Gosselin to return to focusing entirely on race engineering Ryan Hunter-Reay’s car. Marco Andretti said he’s sure this is a good rearrangement.

He said: “Bringing in Eric Bretzman can allow Ryan’s engineer to focus on Ryan – he was definitely pulled a lot of different ways [last year]. I think having someone who really looks at all four cars helps, given his skills and background.

“Bretzman really listens to the drivers. When he asks the question ‘What’s the biggest complaint?’ he’ll then say, ‘Why aren’t we addressing it?’ I like that! Drivers are always going to complain, but we’re trying to go faster as well, so we need to be heard. So that’s an awesome change.”

Herta a great addition to the #27 lineup

Although Bryan Herta is co-owner of the #98 entry of Alexander Rossi, this year he switches from calling Rossi’s strategy to calling Andretti’s. The latter said he expected to benefit from this shuffle.

“Bryan will be a good counter to me – I’m very passionate on the radio! I have a lot of respect for him and he believes in me, and I need that.

“One thing I’ve been working on with the mental side is trying not to get wound up about things you can’t control. My Dad and I will be, ‘Oh no, Penske just went really quick!’ but sometimes when you’re worried about that, it can derail you from your own program. Bryan’s really good like that, he’ll keep his focus on the #27 – 'How can we go faster?'”

Andretti concluded: “I still know how to do this so we just need to go and show it. Not with the approach, ‘I’m going to prove something,’ because I don’t think that’s right either. I don’t need to prove it to myself; I think I know I have it. We just need to go and do it.”