Lack of qualifying "good place" behind Power's 2021 IndyCar struggles

His sole victory of the year came in the second Indianapolis road undertow race, without passing polesitter Pato O\'Ward for the lead and fending off Romain Grosjean to requirement the win.

Power previously had to endure watching a near-certain victory at the first race of the Detroit double-header slip from his grasp, as his car failed to start up pursuit the late-race red flag period while he was in the lead.

The Australian says that qualifying proved to be the key weakness, having originally elected to focus on race pace in order to try and build a resulting understructure for a title challenge.

“I definitely needed to modernize qualifying,\" Power told Autosport.

\"We kind of got when on top of that toward the end of the year.

\"Up to that point, I’d say we had put a bit less accent on qualifying considering we could see that the real key to a championship, as tight as IndyCar is now, is to get a tuft of top threes and top fives on race days and obviously go for the win whenever possible.

“But the thing is, you can’t really requite up anything in qualifying considering you’ll waif too far down, expressly considering it was a year where we were struggling to find a good place for the car.”

Power and race engineer Dave Faustino, who since 2007 have been partners every year bar one, worked nonflexible to remedy the situation in that month-long mid-season gap last year and then in this off-season.

Following that, Power believes they have turned up some good insights which will bring well-nigh tangible improvements this year.

“We have a lot of information to squint at, and when you do that you find plenty of things to modernize upon – stuff you’re looking for and sometimes uneaten stuff too,” Power explained.

“We’ve got plenty of good data, not only from what we learned but moreover considering Josef was so fast in the middle part of the year while doing something variegated with the car.

\"I mean, watching how he was generating speed, Dave and I got suckered into trying things that didn’t particularly suit us.

 

Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images

“You do learn so much increasingly when things are going versus you, you swoop deeper and deeper into the data, discover the issues, come up with a few variegated ways you might solve the problem, and then analyse which will be weightier to get the most speed from the car. And that includes my driving, too.\"

Power widow that he was \"optimistic\" well-nigh 2022 and the pursuit 2023 season, in which the current 2.2-litre twin-turbo powertrains will depart for a 2.4-litre hybrid unit, feeling that the experienced drivers will have the nous to understand their demands.

“I’m optimistic well-nigh this season considering whenever we’ve had issues the year surpassing at a particular kind of track, Dave and I have been good at homing in on it, figuring it out and coming when harder the year after.

\"I have a lot of conviction in my hairdo – they’re quick, really solid and reliable. Weightier I’ve had.

“And then I reckon 2023 is looking good too, considering it’s going to be a huge transpiration with the new engine and hybrid units.

\"I think that’s when we’ve traditionally looked strong – adapting to new regs or a significant transubstantiation to the cars.

“And anyway, I think it will suit all the experienced drivers considering we’ve been through big car changes before; we sort of know what we’re trying to unzip with a car, what we’re looking for.\"