IndyCar: New year, new number, new Marco Andretti?

Coming off of the worst two-year span in his IndyCar career and his sixth straight season without a win, will Marco Andretti bounce back in the 2018 season?

After nearly winning the Indianapolis in his first attempt back in the 2006 IndyCar season, Marco Andretti would go on to collect his first career win in the series later that season at Sonoma. However, in the 11 seasons since then, he has added just one more win.

That one more win came in the 2011 season at Iowa. In the six seasons since then, Andretti has been held out of Victory Lane. However, he really didn’t struggle all that much in the seasons following 2011.

The 2012 season was his worst career year at the time, as he finished in 16th place in the championship standings, but he bounced back with a career-high 5th place finish in the 2013 championship standings. He added two more solid seasons in 2014 and 2015.

However, Andretti’s 2016 season stole the title of his worst career season from the 2012 season. He finished in 16th in the championship standings again, but he did so with a season-high finish of just 8th place, which was by far the worst top finish in a season of his career.

The 2016 season was Andretti’s 11th in the sport, but it was just his second finishing outside of the top 11 in the championship standings. But in the 2017 season, he once again finished outside of the top 11 with a 12th place finish, giving him back-to-back finishes outside of the top 9 in the standings for the first time in his career, and both come outside of the top 11. Not only has he not won a race since the 2011 season, but he hasn’t finished on the podium since 2015 now either.

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Will Andretti be able to bounce back in 2018 season and possibly claim his first win since the 2011 season? With the new universal aerokits, he will have as good of a chance as he has had to do so since everyone should essentially be on an equal playing field.

From a superstitious standpoint, it is also interesting to note his number change. Obviously a change of number affects literally nothing from a racing standpoint, but if a driver lets it get into their head, it could play a psychological role in their driving.

Andretti is set to drive the #98 Andretti Herta Autosport Honda in the 2018 season. Alexander Rossi, who previously drove the #98 Honda, is set to replace Andretti in the #27 Andretti Autosport Honda.

The drivers of the #27 cars have not fared well in motorsports as of late. Two of Andretti’s worst seasons came in his three seasons driving the #27 Honda. Paul Menard, who drove the #27 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series from 2011 to 2017, is set to enter the 2018 season with the longest win drought among Cup Series drivers who have at least one career win. Nico Hulkenberg, who drives the #27 Renault car in Formula One, is set to enter the 2018 season as the active driver who has competed in the most races without winning.

Andretti’s history following number changes has also been solid. After having his worst career season in seven seasons driving the #26 car in the 2012 season, he bounced back with a career-high 5th place finish in the 2013 standings in his first season driving the #25 car. When he switched to the #27 car for the 2015 season, he had what would end up being his best finish, a 9th place finish, in the championship standings driving that car.

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I don’t think we will see a “new” Marco Andretti in the 2018 IndyCar season. He has two wins in 12 seasons, so thinking he is going to turn into his father or grandfather in the span of a few months is naive, especially is it is based on a number change. I do, however, think he will be more opportunistic and perform better at most of the tracks on the schedule. Whether or not that translates to a win for the first time in seven seasons remains to be seen.