Andretti’s teammates are also upbeat about this weekend’s qualifications and next week’s race.
“I’m optimistic going forward when it comes to our pace for qualifying and as a team,” Hunter-Reay said. “We’ll continue to work on running in groups for race-running, balance and pace. It was a pretty promising day for Andretti Autosport as a whole.”
Rossi won the 100th Indianapolis 500 in 2016 and has been a main player in every Indy 500 thereafter. He battled it out with Simon Pagenaud in the closing laps of last year’s race in a dramatic duel, before finishing second.
Rossi has spent much of his track time at Indy so far working on the new cooling system that is used with the aero screen. Temperatures have increase inside of the cockpit and a variety of cooling tubes and ducts have been used by IndyCar officials and teams, including a larger tube and exit point to increase air flow.
“We were pleasantly surprised that the screen didn’t create too many issues balance and performance-wise, which was interesting,” Rossi said. “I think it’s going to be pretty fast with the boost on Fast Friday, which is exciting for everyone. I think on our own our car is pretty good, but we need to work on when we’re in traffic. It’s still early on.
“I think it’s always kind of like this on day one running in traffic for the first time,” Rossi added. “It’s a lot more difficult than you remember, but we’ll definitely have to spend some time tomorrow on group running to make sure we’re happy with our car come Sunday next week.
“Opening day was more focused on getting reacquainted with the car and what we learned last year, so I wasn’t too aware of my surroundings, but as the week goes on there will definitely be a noticeable difference without having fans here. It sucks. The energy that you get walking down pit lane or through Gasoline Alley really is a motivating factor going into a session whether its practice, qualifying or the race. It’s unfortunate and sad, but this event still carries a lot of weight and is still as important to everyone now as it has been in the past.”
According to team owner Michael Andretti, Thursday was all about putting together the “Andretti Armada” and running together in their own group.
“We try to do that as a group, try to simulate race conditions,” Michael Andretti said. “That is one of the advantages that we have with as many cars as we have in this race. You learn every time you go out. You try to make the cars feel better in traffic. Race day is about getting the car to work in traffic and that is what we are trying to do.
“It’s still early days,” Andretti noted. “I’m not sure where we stand yet, especially against the Chevys. We will figure that out Friday, I guess.”