The Swede struggled to match new team-mate Pato O’Ward on road and street courses in the first two-thirds of last season after joining from Chip Ganassi Racing, and his cause was hurt by a major shunt in Detroit that forced him to miss two races.
However, for this year the team’s director of trackside engineering Craig Hampson has gone from being Rosenqvist’s strategist to become his race engineer, the pair having made notable progress in terms of pace in 2021’s final third.
Hampson won four Champ Car titles on the spin as race engineer to Sebastien Bourdais at Newman-Haas Racing between 2004 and 2007, before spells at Andretti Autosport and Dale Coyne Racing.
“For sure we can’t have a season like we had last year,” said Rosenqvist, who scored a pole and a win in his first two seasons in IndyCar.
“I don’t have to explain all the things that happened, I think Detroit was only a little part to be honest in everything that was going down. We’re excited and we have no reason to think that’s going to happen again.
“I like to talk with [Hampson] about the car, and in general we spend quite a lot of time just discussing different things about set-ups and life in general, which I think is good.
“You kind of need that almost father-and-son relationship with your engineer, and we spend a lot of time together. I feel like we really get along on a personal level, so I’m excited about that.
“His record speaks for itself. He’s been in this business for a long time, and IndyCar is a category where you need that kind of hands-on experience.
Felix Rosenqvist, Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet
Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images
“You can’t just win by being, let’s say, the most clever engineer. You have to kind of feel the sport and know what’s going on and see it with your own eyes. I think that’s what Craig really has.”
Rosenqvist explained that the car was never especially to drive for him or O’Ward in 2021, but that a mid-season test at Portland yielded some big gains that improved his confidence.
“It all kind of spiralled in the right direction, let’s say,” he said.
“It’s just details. You’ll never find something that is like, ‘Oh, now we’re winning every race!’ It’s always the small things.
“But I think that’s actually the time we found something that worked, and the results went a lot better from that point. Just that little added confidence took me to another level really.
“Those are the kind of things you want to find, and now we had an off-season to really look at things.
“You sit back and go through all the data, go through all the races, and I’ve had some time to really work on myself and feel prepared in a different way compared to what it was at this time last year.
“I’m not going to make any promises about what’s been done or what’s going to be done, but let’s say we’re pretty confident that we made some big grounds when it comes to drivability, which was the main issue for me last year.”