Marco Andretti admitted the first day of practice for the Indianapolis 500 ticked off a lot of what they needed to do, with numerous set-up changes leading to long spells off track.
The Andretti Autosport driver completed forty-seven laps on Monday but found himself at the top of the time sheets with a best lap of 226.338mph, but knows the fine tuning will come later in the week and bigger changes were made on day one in order to find out how his Honda-powered Dallara reacted around the 2.5-mile oval.
“We were sort of trying to check the bigger set-up item boxes today, the changes that take longer,” said Andretti. “That’s why we were down for a lot of the day, and we got some good answers.
“You know, that’s all you can ask for. We’re trying to get the bigger items done now so you can start tuning mid-week and later in the week with the UFD car on the smaller things, so we need to make big changes now, which we’ve been doing, and quite pleased with the starting car.
“Obviously, the team ran good here last year. And the car felt good when I tested for Fernando [Alonso] and still feels good, so that’s good. We need to keep it there, if not improve a bit more.”
