Italian-born, American-raised Mario Andretti’s motorsport dream began at the 1954 Italian Formula 1 Grand Prix at Monza. Andretti, 14, along with his twin brother, watched in awe as the Ferrari of their first racing idol and hometown hero, Alberto Ascari, sped down the track, unaware that that precious childhood moment was also It would define his career. .
Monza holds a special place in Andretti’s heart and he declares that he could not have written a better script: he won the Formula 1 World Championship there in 1978, twenty-four years after attending his first race. That fateful weekend in 1954 set in motion a series of events that would ultimately lead to an outstanding career spanning five decades, 879 races, and 111 victories in various motorsport classes.
I sat down with the racing icon to talk about his remarkable career, his thoughts on Formula 1 today, taking a trip down memory lane back to where it all began.
EH: Let’s start with Monza, and what it meant to you as a 14-year-old to see your first big race there.
ME: Good monza. I could say that it was probably the real beginning of my dream of being a racing driver, and I couldn’t have written a better script because this was in 1954 and in 1978 that’s where I achieved the [Formula 1] World Championship. For me it was amazing of course to win the race, I won the race the year before. win that year [1978] also, but I was penalized along with Gilles Villeneuve for supposedly early start, which I think was debatable, I just reacted to Gilles saying that he left; I reacted and stopped and left. But anyway that’s another story. And the reason I didn’t protest was because my teammate Ronnie Petersen was killed that day, so I didn’t have the energy to go and continue the protest. But just to repeat what I said about how important that particular day or weekend was in 1954 at age 14, that’s where it all started. Not just for me, but I also have a twin brother. [Aldo] and we both had the same dream and that’s what we were chasing.
EH: And then a year later your family moved to Nazareth and you and Aldo discovered a race track nearby.
ME: We had no idea what to expect when we moved to the United States, but we soon found out three days after arriving here that there was a racetrack nearby. We had no idea about oval racing, you know, American type racing, but the sound was good and it seemed like a lot of action and at the same time it seemed very doable to me at that level. As you can imagine when we saw Monza, the Grand Prix cars [of] Mercedes, Ferrari, Maserati, all of that seemed so far away, so unattainable, that when we saw these cars racing locally, they looked really brutish. But again it seemed doable, it seemed like something we could build. In fact, that’s what we started, two years later, at 17 years old, that’s when we started building a race car and we started driving two years later.
EH: How did it go with that car?
ME: In fact, we were winning. That was really a great launch pad for us because it was one car, two drivers. Obviously Aldo and I had to share, but he started first, he won the toss and it’s a matter of record, he won the first race. The following weekend I did. But we won races. That year we crashed and did all the good things that are normal for young racing drivers. That was a very auspicious start for us, as you can imagine, and he encouraged us along the way. We had a very good season, except that at the end of that season, my brother was seriously injured because in the last race of the season, which he pretty much determined his race at that point. He raced for ten more years, but then he had another big accident that retired him. But for me it was a first step that launched me to the next level and I continued and was much more fortunate. I started my career in 1959 and my last race was Le Mans in 2000, so basically I had a 41-year career.
EH: In 1969 you won the Indianapolis 500, what did that victory mean to you?
ME: Well, it’s one of the ambitious goals you set yourself, to win the classics. And if you’re racing in the United States, the classic event that’s known around the world is the Indianapolis 500. I felt very comfortable from the very beginning there, which was in 1965 and I was Rookie of the Year, finished third and carried on. and I also won the National Championship, and I was the youngest driver to do it at the time. And then winning it four years later was a huge thing for my career and it opened a lot of doors for me. But two years before that I won the Daytona 500, which is the big shiny event for stock cars, which is very popular here. And two weeks after winning Daytona, I won my first 12 Hours of Sebring with Bruce McLaren as my teammate, so my career was shaping up pretty well. But as you can imagine, winning the most popular events in the world is the most important part, that’s what can really change my life, which it was for me in many ways.
EH: In 1991 in Milwaukee we saw the Andretti Podium, which must have been a very proud moment for you to share with your family.
ME: Yes it was indeed. And that’s pride with a capital “P” really, because as you can imagine having my own son Michael and my nephew John, Aldo’s son, and me on the same podium. Then later, Michael actually became my teammate. He and I shared the front row many times in qualifying and we’ve also been on pole position, I think 12 times together. And we were first and second like eight times in IndyCar. You can imagine how sweet it is for a family to be able to share those moments, you can never even technically plan for it, it will just happen or it won’t. And I’ve had such satisfaction over the years from that point of view to see the family continue. Both of my sons are in the races and like my brother, my second son Jeffrey was not as lucky as his brother or me. He suffered a devastating injury in 1992 at Indianapolis that nearly cost him both legs and marked his career. But then something like this puts things in perspective, like how lucky Michael and I have been in sports. And it’s not a given, you know, because both my brother and my other son paid dearly for what they tried to do and we know how much we can appreciate the luck we’ve had on our side throughout our careers.
EH: How do you handle the competitiveness and tensions that arise between peers when that partner is your child?
ME: Well, the competitive juices were there. He wasn’t willing to give her an inch or receive an inch. But the one that was really on the pins and needles, as you can imagine, was my wife because she was on the sidelines watching us fight, and a lot of the time we were actually touching wheels and stuff. Not too much, she wanted to make sure that we would take care of each other and that we weren’t doing anything stupid to put my son in danger or for him to put me in danger, but we weren’t giving anything. In fact, the first pass, the first pass that my son gave me to compete for the lead, we touched the wheels throughout the entire corner and it was very forceful. But at the end of the day there was a lot of satisfaction. When it happened, I was thinking “how dare you, Michael!” and then when he’s gone into the sunset i think “that’s my boy”. He is a double edged sword. You know we had the closest finish in IndyCar in 1986 at the Portland Grand Prix.
EH: Yes, Father’s Day. I bet his wife’s heart sped up seeing that at the finish line.
ME: Yes actually. However, here’s the thing. In fact, he definitely deserved to win that because he had a bit of an advantage over me as we neared the end of the race. There were three laps to go and my engineer was yelling in my ear that Michael was having some fuel issues. At that point he had settled for second and I knew I couldn’t catch up. And I really stood in my seat, and here he was getting closer and closer. On the last lap we basically had a drag race to the finish line and I only bit him by an inch. And I was so upset. When we were at the podium, he realized it was Father’s Day and he said, well, Happy Father’s Day, Dad. [laughs]. He probably thought he could give him a break and let him win, but no way!
EH: You’ve raced pretty much everything there is to do on four wheels, so of all the motorsport classes you’ve competed in, which is your favorite?
ME: It has to be Formula 1, mainly because that’s where my love for the sport really started. And of course the opportunity to get into the sports camera in America, so I had a very satisfying whole career here in the US with IndyCar, then with stock cars and so on. But if someone said that you can only choose one discipline, then I would choose Formula 1. It’s that simple.
EH: After three decades of racing in Formula 1 and now as a spectator, how do you see the evolution of this sport?
ME: Well, changes are expected, and they are subtle changes, if you will. If you’re as close to the sport as I am, the changes are almost natural, they’re not a big deal. What allows me to understand things quite well is that I have gone through decades and I have seen enormous changes materialize, but it was gradual and now it is the same. What I understand, what makes me quite happy, is that I led to the age of computers that it is now. We started computer instruments in the car. [in IndyCar] in the mid 80’s so I drove up to the so called modern computer age until the mid 90’s. passenger, but all technology and everything is the same. So being up to date with things makes it easier to accept and understand. I love progress and I love technology, and I like how the sport is today. It’s obviously a lot more regulated because there’s so much knowledge that can make cars undriveable, but there’s a human element, so it has to be regulated, which is fair enough. In fact, in IndyCar we were reaching the speeds, the records that were set in the mid 90s when I was still driving still stand, they had to slow the cars down from a safety standpoint, so As you can see, I’ve been driving faster. what they are doing today. I’m not outdated by any means.
EH: What is your favorite track you have raced on?
ME: Any clue I won [laughs]. That’s the only way I can answer that. The other question is, what is your favorite race car? Every race car I’ve won a race in. So it’s as simple as that. I don’t know how else to say it because it’s a fact.
EH: And which of your 111 career victories is the most memorable?
ME: The most memorable would probably have to be winning Indianapolis for what it really meant career-wise. But for personal satisfaction it had to be winning the Monza Grand Prix in 1977. In 1974 I won the 1000 kilometers of Monza for Alfa Romeo with Arturo Merzario, which was really my first Monza victory. But winning the race, the Grand Prix in ’77, was huge for me because of what Monza represented in my life. I don’t think I could have gotten more satisfaction than that. I count my blessings every day. I think I won more races than I deserved and I’m grateful for that every day, so I don’t take anything for granted. My life in motorsport has been absolutely complete.