A lot was made of Marco Andretti’s off-season self-analysis and the driver coaching he sought ahead of the 2013 IndyCar Series championship. The third-generation driver, as most reckoned, had the talent to become a regular winner but needed to curb some bad driving habits and to amplify what came naturally before he’d reach his full potential.

Marco’s year-to-year improvement was staggering, vaulting from 16th in the 2012 standings to fifth last year, directly behind Team Penske’s Will Power and ahead of all three of his Andretti Autosport teammates, including 2012 series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Andretti went away, worked on himself, and clearly prospered from the experience. But what kind of encore would help him to build upon that foundation? As the 2014 season approaches, Marco tells RACER the next phase of his personal development is to add to the foundation he built last year.

“It’s more of just looking at the subtle details,” he said. “What last year did for me was confirm a lot of my work was in the right direction, which means a lot. Because it means that you could just keep going in that direction. A lot of it was confirmed, but I’m not even close to where I want to be. I don’t think I’m far, but I’m not the kind of guy who’s happy with [finishing] second or third, so if I’m not winning, I’m nowhere near where I know I should be.”

The tools Andretti gained by working with driver coach Rob Wilson was how to lap quickly without demanding too much from his front tires under braking and on turn-in. This part of Andretti’s education is well-known. But after spending seven season driving and Indy car one particular way, it would be unreasonable to expect Andretti – or any other driver – to completely master a new style in just one year.

If 2013 was about reprogramming his muscle memory, 2014, as Marco admits, is going to be more of a mental challenge to find and stay locked into his newfound driving style.

“That’s exactly all I’ve been working on in the off-season,” he said as we spoke during IndyCar’s Spring Training test session at Barber Motorsports Park. “Like yesterday, I fell back into a lot of my habits. Now, overnight we look at it again and it’s similar problems. It’s me asking the front tire to do too many things at once and I just need to back it up. It’s the same thing; it’s me carrying more speed into the corner but that not buying me anything and then their gains on the way out because I’ve overdriven.

“And now I’m asking the front to still be on the brake and try to turn the car. Their cars are turning and mine’s not and that’s why. But the old me used to go try to change the car and go down the wrong alley with a setup to let me do everything at once, which isn’t possible. Today we just bounced right back and knowing I needed to be patient and to drive the right way helped fix that.”

Fighting old tendencies will likely persist this season, and Andretti knows it’s just part of his maturation process behind the steering wheel.

“It’s extremely tough for a person like me,” he continued. “Because first of all, I go and I do my new tire run and we’re somewhat close, we were fourth. But then I start looking where I’m off. So a normal mentality is to think you just have to push harder. And that’s where we sort of go the other way. It’s extremely difficult, especially for a competitor, for a driver, to not just look for more speed from giving more effort.

“And it’s a balancing act, too, with the competition that we’re up against because you can never be lax. That’s the thing – it’s almost like a bit of clarity where it sticks out so much now that I’m working in the right direction, I’m looking in the right places that hopefully I can just go out and replicate. The old me would come in, push even harder; instead of being seventh I’m now 17th… It’s a good thing to have to slow me down, for sure, then to have to kick me in the butt for overdriving.”

Improving upon his fifth-place position in the championship standings will require Marco to make another appreciable leap in speed and consistency. Despite what his detractors may say, if motoring from 16th to fifth was possible from 2012 to 2013, moving from fifth to fourth, or better, isn’t an impossible task in 2014.

“I want to be always in the top-6 in the road and street courses, and not just once or twice a year,” he noted, pinpointing where his greatest gains can be found. “Then I want to knock on the door for poles at those tracks. That’s where we’re weaker. The ovals, we were pretty dominant. I think we led most of them, but once we’re going up with Will [Power], [Scott] Dixon, Ryan [Hunter-Reay], guys like that, then I’ll definitely be where I want to be.

“When you look at last year, I think if we would’ve capitalized on a lot of the races that we were pretty dominant in it would’ve helped us in the overall picture, so I’ll keep working on where my teammates are beating me and try and come back and beat them. Obviously this year is going to be even more difficult – but if you look at the championship last year, if I make another 20 percent gain where I need to gain, get rid of the big swings in where I finish and do what I know I can on ovals…if we tidy that up, we’re there.”