Rahal: “It’s an uphill battle on a one-car team”

Last year’s Mid-Ohio winner, who was fourth fastest and top Honda in Friday practice, said that he would love to have an experienced teammate with whom to share data and ideas.

He told Motorsport.com: “It’s an uphill battle, I’m telling you. If every team is given 10 days of testing, then Team Penske has 40 days from its four cars. I’m just one guy.

Rahal, who finished fifth in last year’s championship with two victories has gone winless so far this year and currently lies 11^th in championship.

He said: “You just think how many more things a team can try if they can spread the load during a test session or even practice session. I just need someone to help. Today I changed rollcenters, differential, toe-angles…

“So yeah, I wish I had a teammate who I could say, ‘You try dampers, I’ll work on rollcenters, and let’s bring our feedback together at the end.’”

Rahal said a veteran of the sport would be far preferable to a rookie, as a teammate.

“To make any kind of progress, it needs to be someone experienced, absolutely,” he said. “You know, when we ran Spencer [Pigot] for those three races this year, I learned this much from him [he says, holding his thumb and forefinger an inch apart] because he’s a rookie getting himself up to speed, trying to feel what an IndyCar does. That’s not a criticism; he’s a great kid, and talented but his focus with us was to improve himself.

“Like my Dad always said, if you’re gonna run an extra car, you want it to be contributing to the whole team moving forward.

“But what I’m saying is that we need an Oriol Servia-type guy. He and I always had the same feedback. I mean sure, he’s not got the Will Power-type pace, but he’s not gonna crash, he’s a Steady Eddie, and he and I wanted the same things from the car. And he really knows the technical side of what does what to improve this or that.”