Andretti Autosport brought a four-car effort to the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season with the fourth car changing hands at different points throughout the season.
Overall, the season for Michael Andretti's team saw them exist as a team on the cusp of joining Penske and Ganassi's squads as the biggest and baddest of the series. Of course, bringing four cars to every race makes them a "big" team by definition, and Andretti Autosport has long been a part of the series' "big three" teams, but 2015 didn't see them challenge the four-car efforts of Penske or Ganassi too much at all.
Marco Andretti
Races: 16
Average Finishing Position: 9.1
Marco Andretti can easily be dubbed the most consistent driver for the team during the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season, and it earned him another top-10 finish in the points at the end of the year.
Marco had a commendable 11 top-10 finishes throughout 2015, inclusive of four top-fives (two of which were podium finishes). This consistency aided in Marco’s ninth place position on the leader board at the end of the season.
While fans of the sport and tradition wait for this Andretti to cement his name in history (alongside grandfather Mario and father Michael), if this year was any indication Marco is just one podium finish away from his third race win. Until this elusive win, however, fans of this Pennsylvanian native can bask in the fact that had it not been for his single-car contact with the wall at Pocono, the penultimate race of the year, Marco would've completed every lap of all 16 races during the year.
Ryan Hunter-Reay
Races: 16
Average Finishing Position: 10.5
Ryan Hunter-Reay undoubtedly experienced one of his most unpredictable seasons with Andretti this year. He amassed a below-average seven top-10s but his greatest controversy this year stemmed not from his uncharacteristically poor finishing positions but instead from the fact that he was blamed and penalized for avoidable contact with Simon Pagenaud, which resulted in a collection of Sebastian Bourdais, and ultimately the race end for these three drivers at the inaugural Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana.
This could have been RHR’s worst season statistically since 2012 had it not been for the last quarter of the season. The Iowa Corn 300, ABC Supply 500 and GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma saw him earn his best results of the season: first, first and second, respectively, bumping the No. 28 driver to sixth (the highest placed Andretti driver) in the championship.
Carlos Munoz
Races: 16
Average Finishing Position: 12.1
For a second year, Carlos Munoz competed as a full-time driver for Andretti Autosport. What made this year exceptional for the Colombian native is that he attained the first Indy car race win of his career at Race 1 at the Chevrolet Indy Dual in Detroit weekend at Belle Isle.
Additionally, Munoz led 22 laps in 2015, the most of his short but impressive career. The 23-year-old rounded off the year finishing 13th overall in points with seven top-10 - three being top-five finishes.
Munoz showed consistency throughout the season, finishing 12 races in 15th place or above. His lowest track positions (23rd and 22nd) were due to the mechanical failures his No. 26 machine suffered the day after the first win of his career in Race 2 at Detroit and at the following street circuit race, the Honda Indy Toronto, respectively.
Simona de Silvestro
Races: 3
Average Finishing Position: 13.7
Simona de Silvestro was one of two female drivers to race an Indy car in 2015, She drove their No. 25 entry on the streets of St. Petersburg to kick off the season as well as at the second race of the year that followed, the Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana.
For the Indianapolis 500, Simona drove their No. 29 entry, which was a fifth Andretti entry for the 99th Running.
Simona’s best finish this season came at NOLA Motorsports Park, where she finished fourth and was the only Andretti entry in the top-10. Before the round in Louisiana, de Silvestro finished 18th at the season opener and 19th at the Indianapolis 500. She finished each of the three races that she partook in during 2015.
Justin Wilson
Races: 6
Average finishing position: 16.2
The late Justin Wilson made his debut with the team driving their No. 25 entry in the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis where he finished 24th due to mechanical failure. Justin’s No. 25 machine would suffer another mechanical failure at the ABC Supply Wisconsin 250, where he ended the day 18th. Additionally, Wilson participated in the Indianapolis 500 and the Iowa Corn 300 where he finished 21st and 17th, respectively.
Justin’s best finish of the season came in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio which saw his aggressive yet incredibly inteligent driving style power him to a second-place finish behind Ohio native Graham Rahal.
Wilson ran within the top-15 during the ABC Supply 500 and even led a few laps before he was struck in the head by debris, knocking him unconscious immediately in the car, and leading, much to the sadness of the IndyCar community, to his death about 24 hours later.
Inside and outside the car, Justin was an incredible inspiration to even non-race fans to be the best you can be and kindest you can be, day in and day out. He left behind his wife Julia and daughters Jessica and Jane.
Oriol Servia
Races: 2 (only 1 with Andretti)
Average finishing position: 12
Oriol Servia drove the No. 25 entry for the team at the season-ending GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma at Sonoma Raceway after being selected by the Wilson family to pilot the car in Justin's honor.
Considering he hadn't driven a car since the Indianapolis 500 in May, Servia did an incredible job at Sonoma, putting the No. 25 car in 12th in a deserving tribute to the "Gentle Giant."
What went right?
Amidst the chatter that the Honda aero kits were inferior to Chevrolet's, Andretti Autosport had many favorable results over the course of the 2015 season. By the end of the season, their three full-time drivers placed above 15th position in the points. Secondly, four out of their five drivers (Hunter-Reay, Munoz, Andretti and Wilson) had at least one podium finish and all their drivers had at least one top-five finish.
Additionally, Munoz attained his first career win (Detroit) which was accompanied by a second-place finish by his teammate Marco. This one-two finish was not in the least bit shabby for a team which had not seen a single podium up until this point in the season.
Subsequently there was the redemption of 2012 champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, who in the last four races of the season had his best string of finishes for the year: first, seventh, first and second.
What went wrong?
The most disliked event that can occur in any sport happened, and it was undoubtedly one of the worst wrongs that fate could have committed during the series' visit to Pocono Raceway. The team did not have control or the ability to avoid Wilson’s injury and subsequent passing, but Justin’s addition to the team in 2015 contributed highly to the team’s overall performance and chemistry.
It can be suggested that had fate not intervened, Justin’s continued presence in the team for the 2016 season would have resulted in a further incline in the team’s performance. But sadly, the team (and, in extension, IndyCar in its entirety) will not have Wilson’s continued expertise and charisma to help propel them onward.
As the only one of the three biggest teams of the Verizon IndyCar Series to use Honda powerplants, the team suffered the duration of the year from the inferior Honda-designed aero package.
Looking ahead to 2016
Will Andretti Autosport remain a predominantly three-car team? And, if the team were to add a fourth entry to all the races in the 2016 season, which driver will occupy the cockpit?
But: what is the team renown for? Consistency. They consistently have at least two drivers finishing in the top-10 in the championship and they consistently have at least one driver vying for the most completed laps at the end of the season.
What the fans of open-wheel racing desire is consistent pressure to be placed on the Ganassi and Penske duopoly of the series; Andretti Autosport possesses quality drivers coupled with learned crew members and can certainly re-emerge as a force to be reckoned with against the other two top teams of IndyCar.
Needless to say, the name Andretti holds tremendous clout in this form of the sport and no true fan would be disappointed if there were to be a resurgence of the name whether by way of Marco or the team in its entirety contending consistently for the championship in the years ahead.
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