For 1978 Formula One World Champion And 1969 Indianapolis 500 Winner, It’s Great To Be Mario Andretti

Even at 82, it’s great to be Mario Andretti.

The only driver ever to win the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500 NASCAR race and the Formula One World championship has had quite a week so far, and it won’t come to an end until Sunday’s United States Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas.

Most people his age are taking it easy, but Mario Andretti is certainly not slowing down. Last weekend, Andretti drove a modern-day McLaren MP4-28 Formula One car at WeatherTech Racing at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California last weekend. Andretti will also drive the same car from 2013 before this weekend’s United States Grand Prix at COTA.

Also, Turn 20 — the final turn at that race course has been renamed “The Andretti” in his honor.

Andretti won the 1978 Formula One World Championship when he drove the famed John Players Special for Lotus Racing. He is the last driver from the United States to win the Formula One World Championship.

Andretti’s Formula One career began in 1968 and concluded in 1982. He won 12 races in 128 starts in F1, often competing on the full-time IndyCar schedule during that time.

In addition to his Formula One World Championship, Andretti also won the 1969 Indianapolis 500 and the 1967 Daytona 500 NASCAR race, the only driver in history to win all three.

Andretti was the second-winningest driver in IndyCar history with 52 victories before he was passed by Scott Dixon after he won the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix in Nashville on August 7 of this year.

Andretti’s F1 ride was arranged by McLaren CEO Zak Brown during a private event that featured a number of classic McLarens.

I had an exclusive interview with the racing legend earlier this week just after he returned from Monterey, California and before he left for Austin, Texas for this week’s round on the Formula One World Championship.

“It was purely something I was looking forward to, as you can imagine,” Andretti told me. “It’s a modern enough car to get me to have the real feel of what the current car feels like in so many ways. Thanks to McLaren’s Zak Brown, he made that available to me and it looks like I’m going to have a couple more sessions at COTA this weekend.”

Andretti drives the Ruoff Mortgage IndyCar “Two-Seater” – a program that gives VIP and other paying customers high-speed rides around race courses on the IndyCar schedule. It’s a modified Indy car that features two seats, one behind the other, and is capable of approaching the similar speeds to the current Indy car.

Andretti had some issues with seat positioning, steering wheel, and pedal locations in the 2013 McLaren because of the way it is constructed.

“I had trouble fitting in the cockpit properly,” Andretti said. “There was not enough leeway in the adjustment of pedals and the steering permission to make me comfortable enough in the car. It’s a very important piece that I didn’t want to take a chance unless I felt the actual command of it.

“Hopefully, we’ll improve some of that for my journey at COTA.”

Andretti will drive the same car this weekend at COTA.

I asked Andretti what an 82-year-old was doing driving a full-powered Formula One car?

“If I can scratch my itch and somebody gives me an opportunity, I definitely will,” he told me. “I can’t give up the idea of trying to experience driving a race car as long as I possibly can. All of this is so important to me. It gives me so much joy. That is what I’m looking for.

“I love my driving so much, I’ll keep doing this as long as somebody is crazy enough to give me a car to drive, I will keep doing it.”

There’s a common term in racing when a driver is driving “Ten-tenths.” That means he is driving the race car to its fullest performance level and capabilities.

Because of the less-than-optimal distance in the cockpit to the steering wheel and pedals, Andretti said he was driving “six- or seven-tenths.”

“The throttle was so far from me, I had to reach and that is not a natural thing,” Andretti said. “That’s the most natural part. The steering wheel was in my chest, and we couldn’t do much about that.

“To be able to really hustle the car like that, the position has to be pretty perfect. The settings are pretty much where they are, but we hope to have some adjustments at COTA.”

Andretti wanted to experience the sensation of racing the modern Formula One car, including the tremendous G Forces that come from shifting, braking, and turning as well as the loads that a driver feels with his neck in the turns.

“I wanted to experience it even more in depth,” Andretti said. “The one thing I could do for sure and go to the limit doing the really late braking, that is something that is so impressive in the Formula One car because they are so light. You pull several G’s because of that.

“I definitely experienced that.

“But I’m in good shape. I’m OK. I wasn’t sore afterwards. My elbows were a little sore banging about there, but that’s natural.”

The genesis of Andretti’s latest F1 ran began at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in England two years ago. He sat in the current Formula One car that McLaren had on display.

Andretti and Brown are good friends and Andretti said he would love to give a car like that “a go.” Brown said, maybe we can make that happen.

This year at the Formula One race at Miami in May, Brown made the announcement that he would make a car available to Andretti to drive.

“You can imagine how I felt,” Andretti said. “He’s a great friend for sure.”

Because of the ill-fitting cockpit, Andretti said he couldn’t “hustle” the 2013 F1 McLaren around Laguna Seca, but “I got the drift of what the car was capable of doing.

“Maybe I can be more aggressive at COTA.”

The 2013 McLaren was much different than the famed John Player’s Special Lotus 79 that Andretti drove to the Formula One World Championship in 1978. But that’s the evolution of racing, whether it’s NASCAR, IndyCar or Formula One.

“It’s the same as in any category, the sport has evolved to some degree to the present cars,” Andretti said. “The systems, the way they are, are somewhat easier than in my day because you don’t have to worry about missing a gear. You can shift while you are turning easily with paddle shifting.

“A car with a shifter, you could easily miss a gear while turning so you had to pay attention to that. With the paddles on the wheel, you never take your hands off the steering wheel.

“You don’t use a clutch, so things have progressed immensely, not only in Formula One, but also in IndyCar.”

Although the MP4-28 is a nine-year old Formula One car, Andretti said with the clutch on the steering wheel and other components, it is still considered a “modern” Formula One car.

By winning the Formula One World Championship in 1978, in addition to a long-time career in both Formula One and IndyCar, as well as winning NASCAR’s biggest race in 1967, Andretti has a connection and perspective that few Americans have to Formula One.

What does Formula One mean to Mario Andretti?

“Formula One means a great deal to me because that is where my dream and love of racing started when I was in Italy,” Andretti told me. “As long as I could reason, Formula One gave me the passion and started the love to pursue something in motor racing.

“When I came to the United States, it gave me the opportunity to start pursuing my dreams. I derived all of the satisfaction in the world driving Indy cars, but that also gave me the opportunity to get a good taste of Formula One.

“To win the World Championship with Colin Chapman, I don’t even know the right adjective to use, but it satisfied my ultimate dream.”

Prior to that, Andretti was able to win NASCAR’s Daytona 500 with cars that had much more horsepower than today’s NextGen cars. Andretti said his car had over 700 horsepower, where today’s NASCAR stock cars have 550 horsepower.

“The cars were much more of a handful, I’ll tell you that,” Andretti said of running NASCAR stock cars on the high banks of Daytona. “Today, it’s much more of a lottery because they don’t want cars to approach 200 miles per hour to keep cars from flying into the grandstands. Because of that, the cars have a plate and the same horsepower.

“When I drove, the cars had as much horsepower as you could make, which made them faster on the straights and you had to slow down in the corners.

“The cars back then, you couldn’t have had drafting like you do today because they cars were not as stable to run in big packs.

“Back then, if it were two cars running nose to tail, you could follow the car in front of you at half throttle. The cars were not very aerodynamic, so you were punching a big hole in the air.”

Andretti’s 1969 Indianapolis 500 win came in a Brawner-Hawk. It wasn’t even the car that Andretti was supposed to drive in the race that year.

That was 1969 all-wheel drive Lotus, but Andretti was involved in a serious and fiery crash at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in practice before Pole Day.

That car was destroyed, and Andretti’s team quickly prepared the year-old Brawner-Hawk, a car designed and built by Andretti’s chief mechanic, Clint Brawner.

“With only two days of practice, we put that car on the pole,” Andretti said.

Despite the car overheating throughout the race, Andretti defeated the great Dan Gurney to win the 1969 Indianapolis 500 and received a kiss from car owner and fellow Italian Andy Granatelli in Victory Lane at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

It was Andretti’s only Indy 500 win.

“I won a lot of races besides Indianapolis with that car,” Andretti said. “That Brawner-Hawk has its place in history for sure.

“We had the championship sewn up in August and our last race was December 2 at Riverside, California, which we won.

“I won short ovals, superspeedways, road races with that car. It’s very close to my heart. That car being on display at the Smithsonian Institute makes you very proud. I know how valuable that car is to me.”

Andretti’s Formula One accomplishments were memorable, and his name will live on at COTA as Turn 20 is now “The Andretti.” The corner is the last turn before the long frontstraight.

Renaming turns at Formula One courses is reserved for the greatest of the greats of F1 racing or for the great drivers from other series that are from that particular country.

“I can’t believe it,” Andretti said. “We were informed a few days ago that was going to happen. I’m very grateful to have our name connected with the iconic facility there that hosts Formula One in a very elegant way.

“That’s the most important corner, because if you can’t negotiate that one, you can’t win the race. It’s the last corner that takes you to the start/finish line.”

After struggling in the beginning, Formula One at COTA had a massive crowd last year estimated at 400,000 spectators over three days. Andretti credits F1’s surge in popularity with the Netflix Series “Drive to Survive” which took off during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020 when much of the world was forced to stay home.

“It exploded in interest,” Andretti said. “It created fans that had no idea what Formula One was all about but learned about the intricacies of the sport and fascinated a lot of people.

“It awakened the fan base in the United States. You are going to have three Formula One races in this country next year and that’s a first for any country to host that in the world. You can see it’s something very special and you will have the fans to support that.”

In 2023, there will be USGP’s in Miami in May, COTA in October and Las Vegas on Thanksgiving weekend. But, so far, there are no drivers from the United States racing in Formula One.

Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport IndyCar team wants to join F1, but the FIA said he doesn’t have enough points to earn a super license.

“He doesn’t want any special concessions to get into Formula One,” Andretti said. “Out of this, we hope the FIA revises its system to where IndyCar can have points equivalent to Formula 2 in Europe. That would be fair.

“If they are successful in IndyCar, they deserve that. Colton will be in Formula One, no question about it, in the near future.”

Andretti’s son, Michael, has been trying to create Andretti Formula One – a new team that could take the grid in Formula One races. But there are many current F1 team principles that want to keep the grid at 22 cars, rather than dilute their huge payday by adding an additional team with two more cars.

“The objective is to get this thing going, to be accepted and it will be totally full-speed ahead,” Mario said. “A lot of things are happening as if we are given the opportunity to join.

“Zak Brown has been an ally and is a businessman who understands the whole thing. He realizes the importance of having a full-fledged American team in Formula One with an American driver as well. He has been encouraging and agrees we should get the entry.

“Zak Brown knows and understands the investment in the company known as Formula One.”

Brown has also shaken up the IndyCar paddock as majority owner of Arrow McLaren SP Racing and has probably already moved in the “Big Three” that also includes Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing.

“Zak is all in,” Andretti said. “I have a lot of respect for him. He wants the sport to excel in every area and is not afraid to make suggestions.”

When Andretti shows up at a Formula One race, such as this weekend at COTA, he is welcomed to the paddock as one of F1’s all-time greats.

“I’ve lived it my entire career,” Andretti said. “I have friends and to me it’s like another home.

“Whether I go to a NASCAR race, an IndyCar race or a Formula One race, I have friends that have known each other and understand each other.

“I have more than one home.”

That is why it’s great to be Mario Andretti, a man who is welcomed into any home of motorsports around the world.