Michael Andretti released a statement regretting the on- and off-track incidents involving his four drivers during the Mid-Ohio GP
Andretti turned out to be the big story of the Mid-Ohio GP. Confusion on the track between the team's four drivers, heated statements over the radio, and post-race interviews made it clear that the climate within the team was bad. Michael Andretti, the team boss, said after the race that "personalities were not matching up".
In a recently released statement, Michael gave a new official statement about what happened at Mid-Ohio, which took the focus off Scott McLaughlin's win. Andretti treats the disagreement as "disappointing and unacceptable" and states that things will change from here on out.
"The result of our race at Mid-Ohio did not go as planned. What we did on Sunday was disappointing and unacceptable, and it's not the way we operate - both on and off the track. Motorsports is a sport of emotions and we have four highly competitive drivers. However, we are a team at Andretti, and our drivers need to remember that we expect them to work together for the best of the team. That's the way it will be from now on," Michael said in the statement.
All four Andretti drivers were involved in incidents with a teammate. Romain Grosjean threw Colton Herta off the track, and Alexander Rossi did the same to Devlin DeFrancesco. But the dispute that really caught fire was between Rossi and Grosjean.
The American ended up taking the Frenchman's space twice, and in the second time Romain ended up in the wall and the yellow flag was triggered. The accident angered the former Haas driver in Formula 1, who called his teammate "idiot" after the race. In the view of the driver of the #27 car, however, the touch was just a normal racing incident.
▶️ Get to know the GRAND PRIX channel on Twitch by clicking here!
Romain didn't even cross the finish line on the track, he went straight to the pits on the final lap and crossed the paddock still wearing his helmet. The tension also reached the engineers, with Grosjean denying to protect Rossi at the end of the race and being reminded on the radio that he was one lap behind.
DeFrancesco was also touched by Alexander, who is leaving the team for McLaren after seven seasons, and also had problems with Romain. Over the radio Rob Edwards, Andretti's director of operations and his strategist, said "let him through. He's a lap behind on the red tires, and he's being a shit.
The mood in the team after the race was the worst possible, and Michael Andretti had to gather everyone together for an unfriendly talk. "It was not a happy message. It wasn't just today, but everything came to a boil today. The personalities are not matching and they are taking it to the track, which is a big problem," the Andretti boss told theIndyStar website.
Andretti was still seen taking issue with Rossi's father Pieter in the paddock. "I understand, I understand, today was not a good day," said the driver's father. "It hasn't been, and it's been worse, and today was the culmination of that. And I've had it," Michael complained.
The unfriendly conversation between the two was recorded by IndyStar, and an Andretti official requested that the vehicle delete the video. The team has since apologized for the request, which it considered to be a mistake.
Andretti will be back on the track on July 17th, when Indy returns for the Toronto GP.