Michael Andretti admitted on Tuesday that it is unacceptable for his IndyCar team to melt in Mid-Ohio and said his four drivers are expected to work together as teammates for the rest of the season.
Andretti led the emergency meeting after Sunday’s race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, where the fracture in the Andretti Autosport lineup was fully exposed.
Romain Grossgin and Alexander Rossi played bumper cars in the individual turn position race. Rossi also beat up threatening teammate Devlin Difrancesco, Grossgin beat Colton Herta, and Indicar fined Rossi and Grossgin for avoidable contact.
After the race, team owner Andretti Rossi was seen having a heated conversation with his father as he pulled four drivers inside to discuss the defeat.
“The results of our race in Mid-Ohio did not go as planned. Sunday’s performance was disappointing and unacceptable, and the way we work – not on track or off track,” Andretti told the Associated Press on Tuesday.
“Racing is a passionate sport and we have four highly competitive drivers; However, at Andretti we are a team and our drivers need to keep in mind that we expect them to work together for the good of the team. That’s the decent thing to do, and it should end there. “
Grossguin raced in Formula One for nearly a decade and his period in the series ended in a 2020 crash, which saved him from the burning pile of his car and earned him the nickname “The Phoenix”. The following season he switched to IndyCar and excelled while driving for Dale Coin Racing, helping the French get a good place in the leading runner Andreti Autosport.
Rossi decided earlier this year that his seventh season with Andretti would be his last. The winner of the 100th run of the 2016 Indianapolis 500 has signed a contract with Aero McLaren SP for 2023.
Grosjean and Rossi raced against each other five times in F1 in 2015, when Rossi started driving for Manor Marusia. In Rossi’s F1 debut, Grossin was 13th and Rossi was 14th. Rossi ended his time at F1 at the end of that season and has been with Andretti ever since.
He and Grossguin don’t care about each other, and Grossguin doesn’t back down after the boss’s mid-Ohio poster lecture. Grossguin later called Rossi an “absolute fool.”
Rossi insisted he was committed to being part of the Andretti organization for the remaining seven races, but declined to comment further.
Andretti has won just one win so far this season – Herta on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course – and eighth-ranked Rossi is the highest-ranked Andretti driver in the standings. Grossgin has a podium finish and is ranked 14th.
In the Indy 500, the organization was not as competitive as the team owners who cared the most about winning the race. Rossi, ranked fifth, was the most accomplished Andretti driver, and the three late laps led by Marco Andretti were the only laps driven by Andretti’s car on the field.