Colton Herta has set his sights on being in the hunt for the NTT IndyCar Series title in his sophomore season.
The 19-year old will begin his second season in IndyCar within a now five-car Andretti Autosport operation, under the Harding Steinbrenner banner.
Despite two impressive wins in his debut season, Herta was unable to claim the Rookie Of The Year honours, missing out by just five points to Chip Ganassi’s Felix Rosenqvist.
Herta acknowledges he must reduce his mistakes if he wants to achieve his goal of being a championship contender by the final round at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
When asked about his expectations, Herta said: “Realistically, if I cut out the mistakes, I would like to be in a championship position at the end of the year.
“Whether that be a long shot or an actual shot, I’d like to show up at the final race and have some theoretical championship shot.”
As well as the on-track mistakes, Herta was open about he must improve his fuel and tyre usage in order to compete against the series’ veterans.
“I think the biggest thing is saving fuel and saving tyres,” added Herta.
“I think I struggled with that early on. I struggled with it at COTA, that’s why in the second stint I dropped so far back from Will (Power) and Alex (Rossi).
“Another thing in Portland, I qualified on pole and dropped back with the red tyres. So I think tyre deg was a big problem for me last year, I think I sorted it out by Laguna (Seca).
“I think there are a few things that we worked on, we actually ran a lot more on used tyres at Laguna Seca to help me sort that problem out and get more used to run on used rubber.
“I still think I have some improvements to make on saving fuel, I made a big jump this year, but still, I lack a bit to the veterans in that department.”