What Simon Pagenaud needs this season is to rediscover 2012.

IndyCar’s 2016 champion and 2019 Indy 500 is everything the Meyer Shank Racing team needs as it expands to two full-time cars. What it doesn’t need, though, is the 2016 or 2019 versions of the Frenchman: MSR needs the guy who turned the little Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports team into an instant contender upon his arrival in 2012.

As a one-car team, SHM — now Arrow McLaren SP — came into 2012 as an unheralded operation that lived in the midfield. All that changed with Pagenaud installed for his rookie season. Teamed with race engineer Ben Bretzman, the two transformed the program, set new standards for engineering excellence, demanded more from the mechanical side, the race strategy side, and shaped the modest outfit into a giant-killing machine. From 2012-2014, Pagenaud placed fifth, third, and fifth.

Now, MSR needs the Pagenaud from a decade ago to perform the same root-and-branch improvements with the defending Indy 500 winners. He’ll work with the accomplished Garrett Mothersead on the engineering side, and the two are already on the same page. That bodes well for MSR as it looks to join Ganassi, Penske, Andretti, and AMSP at the sharp end of the grid.

Even if they get off to a good start, the best thing Pagenaud can do for his new team is to be a disruptor, to challenge every aspect of how they make decisions and go racing and keep pushing until its full potential is achieved. He did it with SHM. Can he do it with MSR, and without Bretzman at his side?

What Will Power needs this season is to rediscover 2014.

Like his former Team Penske teammate Pagenaud, Power would also benefit from channeling the mindset and performances from years ago. In his case, it’s the approach and output that delivered his lone IndyCar championship back in 2014, which was built around consistency.

In 2021, Power experienced his worst year since joining Penske in 2009. It was the wrong kind of consistency that ruined his season: half of the races resulted in terrible finishing positions. A win and four podiums did salvage ninth in the championship, but prior to 2021, his worst output as a Penske full-timer was fifth.

With two years left on his contract with Team Penske, how many chances does Power have to insert himself into the championship conversation? The answer is obvious, and yes, technically, there is another ‘tomorrow’ for Power in 2023, but for his sake, the swift return of effective consistency is where the twilight of his IndyCar career reaches a fulfilling conclusion.

Power needs to party like its 2014. Mike Levitt/Motorsport Images

What Alexander Rossi needs this season is to use the ‘neuralyzer’ from the Men In Black movies.

Wipe his recent memories clear, go out and drive like 2020-2021 never took place, and be the same guy who took second in the 2018 championship and third in 2019.

Pecking orders matter. Since Colton Herta arrived at Andretti Autosport two years ago, the depth chart changed with Rossi falling to second in the team, and the new challenge is to keep Romain Grosjean from asserting himself at Rossi’s expense. I can’t say if the 30-year-old has the extra tenth of a second or two that Herta pulls out on a regular basis, but I’m confident Rossi remains capable of winning races and contending for titles.

It’s a pivotal year in Rossi’s IndyCar career as he completes his current contract with Andretti. Other teams are interested in his services and being second behind Herta hasn’t lowered his value. If he can change that back to being first, he’ll have all the major teams engaged in a bidding war. But if that becomes third behind Herta and Grosjean by midseason, it could have dire consequences on Rossi’s options and value on the free agent market. Based on all he demonstrated in 2018-2019, it’s hard to fathom how Rossi would experience another lost year.

What Takuma Sato needs this season is to enjoy his extended IndyCar career.

At 45 years old, the two-time Indy 500 winner has come full circle. He arrived in the series in 2010 with a solid midfield program at KV Racing, moved to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing for a season and nearly won his first Indy 500, then switched to A.J. Foyt Racing in 2013 where he won at Long Beach but rarely factored in the final standings. Seven years in, his best championship position was 13th, and with a one-year deal at Andretti Autosport, he finally landed with one of the Big 3 IndyCar teams, scored big at Indy, and took eighth in the 2017 points.

The last four years were with RLL, where he won at least one race per season in the first three tours, captured another Indy 500 in 2020, and secured a career best of seventh in the standings the same year.

His time with RLL ended last year with a winless slide to 11th, and despite it looking like Sato might be done in IndyCar, he was thrown a lifeline at Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing to backfill Romain Grosjean’s seat. At present, DCR is a long way from Andretti and RLL, which he knows, but taking on some of the big teams he once drove and won for is just the type of challenge that fits Sato’s character.

He’s done one test with the DCR team and his new race engineer before St. Pete, so he’s one of a few drivers who are short on time with the people who directly influence their ability to succeed. DCR tends to have good cars at the Indy 500, and Sato can certainly help get the team straightened out there if it’s needed. He’s still as popular as ever, and IndyCar is better for having him in the series. But having risen up the through the paddock, Sato’s crested the hill and started back down the other side. Where does his story go from here?