Will Andretti rhyme with Indy again?

One man has established himself in four different decades at the wheel of racing cars (all categories): Mario Andretti. The champion of Formula 1 1978 (with Lotus) is, with his compatriot Dan Gurney, the only victorious driver in F1, in Indycar, in the world sports car championship and in Nascar.

The native of Istria (Italy) has participated in the Indianapolis 29 500 times but has only seen the finish line five times. In his time, the event was renamed “the Andretti curse” because Mario experienced a number of accidents and often came close to victory.

The 1987 edition is a notable example. Andretti took pole and led 170 of the first 182 laps before suffering an electrical failure. He still won the race in 1969 and was the first driver to exceed 320km/h on the terrible oval in 1977. His last participation in the 500 Miles, in 2003, ended with a series of loops in the air, after having rolled on a piece of debris, during the tests from which he emerged practically unscathed.

Mario's 1st son, Michael, joins the Newman stable/Haas in 1989 to team up with his father. They were even joined the following year by the youngest son, Jeff, and the nephew, John.

Michael Andretti was one of the most brilliant drivers of his generation in CART. He won the world championship in 1991 and was recruited by the team McLaren, in F1, two years later to team up with Ayrton Senna. His performance is surprisingly disappointing and his lack of work is widely criticized internally. Although he finished on the podium at the Italian Grand Prix, he was immediately replaced by a certain Mika Häkkinen.

Mario Andretti's eldest son participated in the 500 Miles from 1984 to 2003, initially, but never achieved the same success as his father. He retired after the 2003 edition and founded his team, Andretti-Green Racing, alongside entrepreneur Kim Green.

This new career was a success since the team crowned Tony Kanaan in 2004 in the IndyCar Series and obtained a double in the championship, in addition to victory in the 500 Miles the following year.

Three years after hanging up his helmet, Michael returned to competition at the Indianapolis 500 to support his son Marco, making his debut in the family team. This return was very noticeable since Michael won his third and final podium at the Indy 500 just behind Marco who finished on the second step of the podium.

He definitively put an end to his racing career after a last edition without success in 2007.

Marco Andretti, finally, was propelled to the highest level in his father's team in 2006. Mario's grandson quickly silenced the criticism mainly focused on his young age and his lack of experience during his first participation in the Indy Motor Speedway that same year.

Constantly at the top of the rankings during the event, he overtook Michael at the end of the race and saw victory reach out to him before being overtaken himself by Sam Hornish Jr (Penske-Racing) a few meters from the finish. Marco becomes the youngest driver to finish second in the 500 Miles and the youngest winner in IndyCar at Sonoma (California) the same year.

Since then, Marco Andretti has had difficulty confirming his good debut, partly due to a car lacking in performance. He has four podiums in total at the Indy 500 to date but is still chasing his first victory.

In pole position 33 years after the last one obtained by his grandfather on the legendary oval, Marco has, since 2006, never seemed to be so well placed to win this victory. “I was emotional, we put so much into it, this place means so much to us as a family.”

The emotion was perhaps even stronger for the family's only winner, for the moment at least, of the 500 Miles. “ When he crossed the line and he was on pole I jumped so high I hit my head on the ceiling and it's a nine foot ceiling (2,7 meters),” Andretti Sr. told the press.

Let's hope for Mario Andretti that he follows his grandson's race under an even higher ceiling in the event of a victory for the latter.