Michael
Andretti

Michael Andretti was born on 5 October 1962 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. His father, Mario Andretti, was a racing driver who won the Formula One world championship in 1978. Michael began in karting, winning 50 of his 75 races over eight years. He took the SCCA Northeast Division Formula Ford title in 1981 and the US Formula Super Vee championship in 1982.

He made his CART debut in 1983 with Kraco. In 1984 he finished seventh overall and shared the Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year award with Roberto Guerrero after finishing fifth in the race. His first win came at Long Beach in 1986. In 1987 he was runner-up to Bobby Rahal, having also finished second in the championship the year before. From 1989 he drove for Newman/Haas, with his father as team-mate for four seasons. He was second to Al Unser Jr. in 1990 and won the CART title in 1991, taking eight victories from 17 races. In 1992 he lost the championship to Rahal by four points.

In 1993 Andretti moved to Formula One with McLaren, alongside Ayrton Senna. The season began with crashes in South Africa and Brazil. He finished fifth in Spain and scored points three times in all. At the Italian Grand Prix at Monza he took third place, his only podium. It proved to be his final race, as he left the team by mutual agreement with three races remaining. From 13 starts, with no wins and no pole positions, he finished eleventh in the championship.

He returned to CART in 1994 and won his first race back for Chip Ganassi, at Surfers Paradise. In 1996 he was runner-up to Jimmy Vasser. His CART career ended in 2002 with his 42nd win, at Long Beach. He started the Indianapolis 500 16 times, finishing second in 1991, and led 431 laps there without winning the race. His last Indianapolis 500 as a driver came in 2007. He was later the owner of Andretti Autosport, whose drivers won several IndyCar titles and Indianapolis 500 races.

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