The Penske veteran led the points for much of last season before finally losing to Ganassi’s Scott Dixon in the final race at Fontana.

With the crew responsible for his car having undergone changes during the winter of 2012/2013, Castroneves believes that his performance last year should be seen more of a declaration of intent than a failure.

“Last year is yesterday’s news,” said the Brazilian. “We’ve got to move on and forget about it.

“For us, in terms of performance, in terms of capability, we’re not going to change anything. We’re just going to continue doing the same thing.

“This is racing, and you just press the reset button and start another season. Last year we showed a lot of potential with a young group of guys within the team, and it was my first year with my engineer [Jonathan Diuguid].

“All of those things get better, and that’s why for me 2014 already feels better. Last year was great, we had a chance [at the championship] and didn’t win unfortunately, but what’s not going to take away from what we did.

“And I’m not going to change either.”