Mario Andretti

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#16

Post by Kai-Star »

Bottom post of the previous page:

Reutemann could have won in '82 too if hadn't quit the season early. So many 'what ifs' when it comes to '82. Probably the most crazy season there has been in F1.

Mario is definitely a great of motorsport when said in general, but just a borderline great when it comes to F1. He had his moments and the '78 championship was well earned. There's certainly been lesser drivers to win the championship. Like others have said here, he does have a good sense of himself, and seems like a very likable person. I hope he lives a long time and keeps giving back to the sport and the fans.
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#17

Post by MonteCristo »

Just watching the 1983 CART Cleveland race, and he fluffed things up there quite well. Certainly one of the best all-rounders, but not an outright speed demon.

He is a very nice guy though. I had the fortune of meeting him briefly and getting an autograph from him over the 2003 Surfers Paradise weekend (where the hell did I put that autograph?). Had the even greater fortune of overhearing his entire conversation with Dario Franchitti (I think Dario was out injured or something?), after Mario had his big testing flip at Indy a few months earlier - and it was right after Tony Renna got killed testing a Crapwagon at Indy as well. Dario came to him looking for advice, and Mario tried his best to tell him to steer well clear of the series. History shows that Dario didn't listen to him, but I guess he did the right thing in terms of his career - though that came back against him in the end, but could have been far worse.
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#18

Post by erwin greven »

Kai-Star wrote:Reutemann could have won in '82 too if hadn't quit the season early. So many 'what ifs' when it comes to '82. Probably the most crazy season there has been in F1.
Yes, many drivers that season scored only one or two victories. Keke won only at Dyon.
John Watson had a good first half of the season, but faded away in the second half. Rene Arnoux had a horrible start and Alain Prost had a bad mid season. And although Pironi had scored 7 points finishes in 10 races when coming to Hockenheim, he had only scored 39 points. At Hockenheim he had his career ending crash.

No one was dominating the whole season.
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#19

Post by neil28 »

Sadly, I always wondered if we lost the man who would have dominated the season on May 8th 1982. RIP, Gilles.
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#20

Post by Puhis »

erwin greven wrote:
Kai-Star wrote:Reutemann could have won in '82 too if hadn't quit the season early. So many 'what ifs' when it comes to '82. Probably the most crazy season there has been in F1.
Yes, many drivers that season scored only one or two victories. Keke won only at Dyon.
John Watson had a good first half of the season, but faded away in the second half. Rene Arnoux had a horrible start and Alain Prost had a bad mid season. And although Pironi had scored 7 points finishes in 10 races when coming to Hockenheim, he had only scored 39 points. At Hockenheim he had his career ending crash.

No one was dominating the whole season.
We also have to remember Brazil when discussing Keke. The whole water tank -scandal, and getting disqualified when many other teams were also using the same trick, cost him 6 points that day. Also, Brands Hatch, when his car failed on the grid probably cost him some points too.

Keke said himself that "That damn Interlagos fiasco was the only reason Watson was still in the hunt in Las Vegas."

It is true that 1982 was a weird season. Nobody was dominant. Turbos failed left, right and center. Pironi shattered his legs, and we all know what happened to Villeneuve. Still, I feel that Rosberg was a deserving champion. Maybe not that early, but definitely a deserving World Champion. He proved that in 1983, and was always fast when the machinery allowed him.

In 1986, he was badly outclassed by Prost. Of course, there are plenty of reasons why: Prost may have been the superior driver, but it was also their vastly different styles that led to the gap being so large. Rosberg attacked the corners hard, really drove the car and had this fighting style. It enabled him to shine on street circuits, but perhaps didn't suit the fuel economy era and growing need to be gentle on the car. Still, let's remember that he retired from the lead at Adelaide.

Keke Rosberg is a driver I grew to like the more I saw & read from him. His prime came before I was born, and as a kid, Häkkinen was the star. And they shared some of the same qualities. But Rosberg, his car control and that cold, honest and straightforward attitude is even more admirable.

Sorry to hijack the thread a little. Back to Andretti, I know far too little of him to give an educated opinion. However, just going off from what I've seen & read, he is one of the finest racing drivers ever. Perhaps not one of the finest F1 drivers, not one of the finest stock car drivers, but his versatility, pure speed and intelligence make him one of the all-time greats. You put that man in a racing car, and he will drive the wheels off it. That takes a special set of skills. And his story, moving from Italy to the US with his family, clawing his way through the local and national ranks and going on even after his brother Aldo was critically injured, is something to behold.

I wish there was a movie about him. Or even better, a miniseries. I don't think a 90-minute flick could do his career justice.
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#21

Post by PTRACER »

Mario's twin brother Aldo passed away just before New Year's Eve. Aldo's son John Andretti died early in January and Mario lost his wife in 2018. A really tough few years for the family.
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#22

Post by Michael Ferner »

Puhis wrote: 8 years ago Keke said himself that "That damn Interlagos fiasco was the only reason Watson was still in the hunt in Las Vegas."
Strange that Keke would remember that race for so long. And finishing ninth is hardly a fiasco at that, even considering he lost two places in the last two laps - he was still almost half a minute ahead of Wattie!
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#23

Post by jimclark »

PTRACER wrote: 3 years ago Mario's twin brother Aldo passed away just before New Year's Eve. Aldo's son John Andretti died early in January and Mario lost his wife in 2018. A really toughfew years for the family.
:(

Met Aldo once, 54 years ago, Indy car race at Trenton, NJ,1966. I was getting autographs at the registration booth (iirc, outside turn 4) and asked who I thought was Mario (I was 11 or 12, spring or fall, my birthday was in summer) for one. He told me he was Aldo, not Mario, but having already read about them, I just told him "You were great too." He signed my program with a smile.

See my signature. :)


Aldo in T-shirt, '68.
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#24

Post by Ruslan »

Well, bye Aldo. A career that could have been. I gather they were identical twins. Two serious accidents in his career caused him to leave racing. Meanwhile Mario wins 52 Indy Car races, four Indy Car titles, 12 F1 races, one world driver's championship, 7 major sports car races, Pike's Pike, the Daytona 500, etc., and was never seriously injured.

Two identical twins with a very different racing career. Luck or destiny?
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#25

Post by jimclark »

Ruslan wrote: 3 years agoI gather they were identical twins.
Oh yeah @Ruslan, They most definitely were!!!

So identical were they, that after Mario winning the 500, the promotional photos after the race were actually Aldo, not Mario. Mario still had the facial burns from his crashing his Lotus 64 in practice, so Aldo was substituted.
If you get a chance, check out the pics of Mario right after the race finished, you can see the scars. Then look at promos.....he's (actually Aldo) pristine. If I find any, I'll PM you.


edit: Oooopppsss. I was mistaken. It was the front row photos after qualifying that Aldo took Mario's place. :whistling:
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#26

Post by jimclark »

@Ruslan here ya' go....

"The bottom seemingly came in 1968, when Mario started fourth but suffered a blown engine on the first lap, placing him 33rd and last. But Andretti’s Month of May 1969 started out even worse when his Lotus-Ford shed its right rear wheel in Turn 4 and he suffered a huge, fiery crash that left him nursing facial burns."

"This photo was taken May 25, 1969 after qualifications. That is actually Aldo Andretti in this photo not Mario. Mario was sick that day so they chose to put his twin brother Aldo in for the photo shoot." ("sick" was erroneous)
(Excepted from: https://www.amazon.com/OnlyClassics-FRO ... B07D313QW3 )

"He was uninjured except for burns on his upper lip and elsewhere on his face," Aldo recalled. "Mario didn't want to be photographed like that. So I did the favor and had my picture taken."
(excerpted from: https://www.indystar.com/picture-galler ... 102810001/ )



:)
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#27

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

@jimclark Nice story I dont think I had heard . Thanks.

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#28

Post by jimclark »

Everso Biggyballies wrote: 3 years ago@jimclark Nice story I dont think I had heard . Thanks.
Yeah. I had a feeling it was Mario's year and he and the 64 couldn't be touched in practice. I wanted to see Chapman's 2nd revenge for the USAC debacles (not letting Clark and the 29 win in '63 and then the same in '68, the '56s).
https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/392 ... -Ford.html

'Woulda' been better tho' if the hubs on the 64s weren't "defective"; If that was even true....'wouldna' put it past USAC :evil: ....Chapman never came back***.....three screwin's the limit???..... :angry:
I'm not usually a conspiracy theorist and this time I am; I've told my story of sitting with Art Pollard at Trenton after the turbine "screwing". Supported more by***......

***(excerpted from above link)
"Eventually Chapman stormed out and famously announced 'Bring the cars back to Hethel. I will personally put a hack-saw through them, I will personally dig a hole and I will personally bury them.' The cars were indeed shipped back to England, but Chapman never picked up a power tool. Instead he stored the engine-less cars for many years in a shed on the company property. It was a sad end to Chapman's brief and at times successful fling with American single seater racing.
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#29

Post by Cheeveer »

So, I (and my colleague Anna) had the honor to speak with Mario Andretti on my podcast yesterday. No real scoops or anything, just a nice chat about his career.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6VHaUA ... QZ2ADMkE3Q

Was a bit unreal, nice.
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#30

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

Cheeveer wrote: 3 years ago So, I (and my colleague Anna) had the honor to speak with Mario Andretti on my podcast yesterday. No real scoops or anything, just a nice chat about his career.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6VHaUA ... QZ2ADMkE3Q

Was a bit unreal, nice.
Wow. Just wow. Oh and thank goodness it is in English!
I listened to the first part only so far but will defo get back to it and take in the rest.


Thanks for sharing. :thumbsup:

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#31

Post by Cheeveer »

Hope you'll like it!
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The universe, look at the hugeness of it... it is a dizzying thought that little ol' me is the centre of it all!***
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