Speaking in Detroit at a media conference with AMSP’s new signing for 2023 Alexander Rossi, and in light of last week’s announcement that Pato O’Ward was staying onboard through 2025, Kiel was inevitably quizzed on whether Rosenqvist would retain his seat in the team.
“Felix is doing what he needs to do,” replied Kiel. “Us as a team, we're doing what we need to do. Again, there's been no secret that that team has taken a little bit of time to gel. We're seeing fantastic pace, good races. The Indy 500 was fantastic on a lot of fronts.”
Kiel later added: “I think Felix is a fantastic driver and he's a great fit for our team. Felix just needs to continue doing what he's doing. We're evaluating how to make our team better all the time. Felix is a part of that right now. As long as he's doing what he needs to do, and he knows what that is, he'll be driving for us. There's no secret about that.
“I'm proud of Felix. I think he does a great job. I'm expecting him to have a great weekend this weekend. He was very quick here last year. I'm just excited for Felix because I feel like he's in that group now, our team is in that group. He had a fantastic Indy 500. We'll see how the rest of the season goes.”
Kiel explained that the signing of Rossi had also removed the desire to run three cars this year, after the Indy 500, as was originally being considered by team management.
“I would say that the plans to run a third car a few times towards the end of the year was more an opportunity to evaluate, should we need it,” he said. “Obviously having Alex signed up eliminates the need for us to go to market and evaluate. I particularly don't want the distraction of that as we go into a championship run. That's the thought behind it.”
Kiel stressed that the expansion to three full-time entries next year would not dilute the technical and human resource on any of the cars, and added that expansion was ‘critical’ to success, provided it was done in the right manner.
“The goal for us is certainly not to detract from the other two,” he said. “Bringing Alex in, the team we're going to build around him, is very exciting for me. It gives us three great opportunities every week. We're confident that Alex will help push our program forward with the experience and knowledge he has. He ticks all the boxes in my opinion.”
Kiel added: “I think it's critical so long as you do it in the right way, you don't dilute the other entries. The process for us is, yeah, we were ambitious and wanted to grow, no doubt, but we wanted to do it in the right way. This opportunity gives us that shot.
“I'm very, very convinced that the more arrows you have in the quiver, the better you'll be at Indy. Gives you more data, gives you more opportunities for the race obviously. [But] you can't just continue throwing entries on the board just to win the 500. I don't think that's how it works. For us, so long as we're doing it in the right way, the more the merrier.”
