His new livery colours are light blue and white, which Hinchcliffe openly enjoys. It resembles the old colours of the Player’s car back in the days of CART driven by many of his heroes including Jacques Villeneuve, Paul Tracy, Patrick Carpentier and the late Greg Moore. 

The other major change for the entire Andretti Autosport team was the switch from Chevrolet to Honda power. A multi-year engine deal was arranged between the two parties after Chip Ganassi Racing did the reverse switch from Honda to Chevrolet.

Hinchcliffe insists that the Honda switch will not lead to any early season struggles as they get adjusted. He feels that the test sessions have gone well and they’ve seen a steady progression that will have them ready to go when the season begins. 

In a smart move by Honda, they approached Hinchcliffe and worked out a one-year partnership agreement to work together to promote the Honda Indy Toronto and the Honda brand as a whole.

“It’s an exciting partnership – they [Honda Canada] support IndyCar in a great way and we are going to use that plus my personality to get people out to the doubleheader race and get them into a Honda dealership on Monday,” said Hinchcliffe.

Hinchcliffe is expected to be in some television spots, events and involved in social media leading up to the Honda Indy Toronto. Afterwards, he mentioned that there could be some marketing plans to work with the promotion of Honda road vehicles. On top of all of that, Hinchcliffe will play a big role in helping to promote the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which is the charity the Honda Indy Toronto has supported over a number of years.

Continuity is always a key in auto racing and Hinchcliffe feels that his decision to stay with the team that he was with for his first three race wins was a wise choice to catapult him to the next level. 

“All you need to look at is Hunter-Reay,” said Hinchcliffe. “He credits his championship season with staying on the same team and having that foundation to build on.”

Hinchcliffe hopes to do the same when he enters his fourth year in IndyCar. With the core group together and the impressive young-Colombian Carlos Munoz added to the mix – Andretti Autosport is going to be a force to be reckoned with in 2014.

“My primary goal is to be respected by the guys in the sport that I respect,” Hinchcliffe frankly points out. “I’ve been paying my dues and hopefully we can chip away at it and become genuine title contenders.”

There legitimately are at least 12 drivers that can compete for the championship this year, so why not Hinchcliffe? A lot might be determined based on engine choice, so we will see whether Andretti Autosport made the right decision to go with Honda or Chip Ganassi Racing with Chevrolet. 

The IndyCar season starts up on March 30th at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and remember to look for the Mayor of Hinchtown in his new light blue and white race car.