Kanaan: 'Repeating is hard'

2004 IRL champion Tony Kanaan believes that, relative to his massive success last year, it is only logical to expect a performance drop off this year, according to Autosport magazine.

Kanaan claimed two poles, three wins, fifteen straight top five finishes and finished every possible lap on the way to dominating the season. When asked by Autosport if it was possible to continue in this vein, he noted: "Repeating is hard enough - if we're going to think we have to do it the same way we did before, it's almost impossible.

"You don't break records like that every day or every year - I'm not expecting to do it in any way similar to last year, I have no expectations to do it that way again. At some point, it has to stop."

Kanaan and his teammates were given a massive boost by the strength of their all-conquering Honda engines last year - there were only two non-Honda powered wins, one each for the Penske drivers Helio Castroneves and Sam Hornish.

This is not a situation that will repeat itself, according to Castroneves: "I have to bet on Toyota to come back - there isn't much choice if not. I believe it's going to be a fight of giants - they saw what Honda did last year.

"They're not going to let this team down."

For a full preview of the IRL season, as well as interviews with the drivers, see this week's Autosport magazine