Mario
Andretti

Mario Andretti was born on 28 February 1940 in Montona, Istria, which was then part of Italy and is now Motovun in Croatia. His family left the region in 1948, spent several years in a refugee camp in Lucca and emigrated to the United States in 1955, settling in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. In 1959 he began racing on dirt tracks with his twin brother Aldo. Through midget and sprint cars he reached the USAC championship in 1964, and went on to win the title in 1965, 1966 and 1969. He took the Indianapolis 500 in 1969, the Daytona 500 in 1967, and the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1967, 1970 and 1972.

He made his Formula One debut with Lotus in 1968. At the United States Grand Prix, his first start, he lined up on pole position. In 1970 he scored his first podium in Spain, driving a privately run March. He joined Ferrari in 1971 and won his first Grand Prix in the season opener in South Africa. After outings for Ferrari in 1972 and Parnelli in 1974, he drove a full season for Parnelli in 1975 and finished 14th in the championship. In 1976 he was back at Lotus, helped develop the Lotus 78 and won the season finale in Japan.

In 1977 he won four races and finished third in the standings. In 1978 he won six times and became World Champion with Lotus. The title was settled at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, where his team-mate Ronnie Peterson was involved in a serious accident and died later that night. Andretti never won another Grand Prix. He raced for Lotus in 1979 and 1980 and for Alfa Romeo in 1981. In 1982 he stood in for Williams and for Ferrari. For Ferrari he took pole position and third place at Monza. The season finale, the Caesars Palace Grand Prix, was his last Formula One race. In total he made 128 starts, with 12 wins, 19 podiums and 18 pole positions.

From 1982 he returned to full-time American IndyCar racing. With Newman/Haas he won his fourth IndyCar title in 1984, aged 44. In 1993 he won at Phoenix at the age of 53, making him the oldest winner of an IndyCar race. He ended his full-time career after the 1994 season with 52 IndyCar wins, and continued to appear at Le Mans until 2000. His sons Michael and Jeff also became racing drivers, and Michael won the CART title in 1991. Andretti was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2000.

Source: Wikipedia, “Mario Andretti”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.