Certainty is not a feeling that can be relied on too often in motor racing but for James Roe, the road into 2024 is very concrete.
This time last year, the Naas, Co Kildare native was coming off the back of a partial debut season in Indy NXT with the TJ Speed Motorsport outfit.
But then in January, he announced a blockbuster move to the front-running Andretti team for 2023 and by October it was already confirmed that he would be back for more next season as he makes another concerted run at the final rung on the ladder that he hopes will soon lead him to the Indy Car series, the elite grade of single-seater racing in the US.
Roe and Andretti's mutual rapport was strengthened during a year in which the 25-year-old experienced a steady progression throughout the season that would culminate in a maiden Indy NXT podium.
"The amount of resources we have at our disposal is phenomenal," Roe said as he joined RTÉ Sport from the US west coast to reflect on the season just gone and what he aims to be a pivotal 2024.
"Being identified as one of (Andretti's) four drivers in Indy NXT was a dream come true for me and quite big here in the US, as you can imagine.
"So on the track, a huge resource advantage, off track (it's) a massive brand advantage and the two together just meet in the middle and it's an ominous force."
Watch the full interview here alongside fellow Irish drivers, 2023 Junior WRC champion William Creighton and Alex Dunne:
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After overcoming an inauspicious start at the opening round in St Petersburg, Florida in March where the new qualifying format and mechanical gremlins in the race provided obstacles, a five-race run of top 10s bookended by fifth-place finishes at Alabama and Road America got Roe right back on track.
"We had very, very strong race cars all year and every race we went forward - the biggest mover all year in the field which is something that is good in all aspects but also not so good in other aspects because we shouldn't have to move forward as much as we did at times," he said.
As qualifying performance improved though into the summer portion of the season, the target then was to bridge the gap to the podium places.
"I was kind of getting frustrated at myself," Roe admitted.
"It was one of the learning things from this past year. The mid-point of the season we went on a run of three events, if not four, where we didn't qualify any lower than the second row of the grid but yet I only came away with a podium, so you don't have to be a mathematician to work out that's not a great conversion rate," he said.
"So for me, the takeaway from this past season is it's such a qualifying series. Those times that I do qualify up front on the first two rows on the grid, I have to execute and be on the podium at minimum.
"To come away with one podium on that streak is obviously not ideal but you live and learn and we understand why we didn't achieve that and that's the most important thing right now.
"So next year the goal will be to keep qualifying up there but now convert them into wins and podiums."
And if Roe needs a template to follow, he only needs to look back at that runner-up podium achievement from the race weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in August when he came within less than one second of victory.
Going into that round, he was coming off the platform of a season-high fourth place on the attritional Nashville circuit where his trend of staying out of trouble in street races had proved particularly beneficial.
And five days later in Indianapolis, the momentum initially deserted the team before quickly rediscovering the groove for qualifying and what would turn out to be Roe's most memorable race to date in Indy NXT.
"We were second last in practice and I said, 'Hey, this car is not what I want to drive, I can tell you that' and told (my engineer) what I needed out of it. He goes, 'Alright, don't worry about it, we'll be fine,'" Roe said, adding that at the time he was perplexed by his engineer's confidence that all would be perfect by the start of qualifying - but so it proved.
"I remember on the outlap thinking, 'This thing is quick'. It did everything I wanted on the first push lap and qualified second.
"I went into the race then and we had more downforce in the car than the others around us. I didn't use any push-to-pass for the middle stint of the race at all, just drove around and we were matching the leaders' pace without push-to-pass while they were burning down their push-to-pass and that's an extra 50 horsepower every time you engage it.
"So the guys behind me and the guys in front of me were using it and there's a bit of deg (tyre degradation) around Indy and I managed that and then as the race started coming to me with about 10 or 12 (laps) to go, I started using what I had left and yeah, we got within four-tenths of a second of winning the race.
"I still wake up at night about what I could have done a little differently to win it on that day. I didn't get a great run off the last corner onto the main straight when I had a go at (Hunter) McElrea and that cost me about a car length which would have been the difference between getting alongside him or not.
"Another lap or two we would've had it but it is what it is and at the end we were a second a lap quicker than anyone on the track, so that was a major statement and we brought home Andretti's first one-two of the season, first qualifying one-two on the front row.
"It was great. It was more so to get my first podium and first front row for Andretti Autosport in Indianapolis, the home of US motorsport, the racing capital of the world, the team is based out of Indianapolis... there were just so many little things that felt great."
Even before that feat, Andretti and Roe had already begun the process of agreeing a deal for 2024 and now the plan is to build on his seventh place finish in the championship for next year's championship - incidentally, another Irish driver, Jonathan Browne, will also be joining Roe and co on the grid, driving for the rival HMD Motorsport team - with an eye to propelling himself to IndyCar as soon as possible.
"The goal is always to win, to win the championship and that's what I'm going for next year," Roe said.
"If we just implement what we learned this year and refine a few areas, we should be in the fight.
"The goal is obviously IndyCar in 2025 so I couldn't be with better people to make that happen."
