Yep. When aked about whether he'd like to drive in Formula One, Marco Andretti came out with this gem, claiming that he is well aware of the sort of underhand tactics that come as part of a drive in Formula One.
There is no denying that Formula One is far from squeaky clean. You only have to look at last years Stepney-gate fiasco between McLaren and Ferrari and the fighting between the teams at the back of the grid to try and get each other kicked out due to percieved idea that customer cars are illegal (Note: they're not, but soon will be). However, trying underhand back-stabbing to try and get one over on your competitors in a multi-million pound sport is nothing new. I could cite hundreds of cheating cases that would prove that for just about every sport going, but sabataging your own team. Now even for Formula One that seems a bit extreme.
The story goes like this. Micheal Andretti was brought over to F1 by McLaren in 1993 after 10 years in CART and a place as a runner up in the 1992 Championship. At the time McLaren were one of the big teams, having finished second in the constructors title to the dominant Williams team whose drivers took 1st and 2nd in that years drivers championship. To follow up they paired up multi-world champion Aryton Senna with Michael Andretti.
One thing about the following season is certain. Senna finished second in the drivers race and Andretti garnered only 7 points, and was replaced by a yound Finn called Mika Hakkinen for the final three races of the season.
Conventional wisdom is, like many drivers who have moved quickly from one form of racing to another, that Andretti struggled to come to terms with the differences in the Indycar's he was familiar with and the Formula One cars. Even in 1993 Formula One cars were massively spohisticated with a dazzling array of electrics and driver aids.
However, this is where Marco's opinion comes in, did McLaren use these electonics to sabotage his dad. Micheal did have a shocker, retiring in 7 out of his 13 races. Marco insists that the sabotage only stopped when Senna himself, who apparently knew what was going on, stepped in. Admitedly, Michael's performance picks up. An 8th in Belgium, before at podium in his final race at Monza. Had Senna got the team to stop doing what ever skull-duggering they were up to, or was the Monza result because of the high attrition rate that day - with 6 out of the 10 drivers eventually to finish above Andretti in championship retiring and champion Alain Prost coming home 12th.
Either way the damage was done. Andretti was fired before the last three races of the season, to be replaced by Hakkinen, who had been the team's test driver and was (according to Marco) going to be paid far less. Andretti went back to the US and was never heard of again in F1.
McLaren are being predictably tight lipped about the whole thing, and any record of Senna's part in the story was lost into the wall at Tamberello corner in 1994. Even Michael has stayed silent so far.
What to make of it. The Truth? A young man taking advantage of a media opportunity the week before his biggest race of the year? A Formula One question that stirred the memories of a bedtime story that was told to a 6-year-old by his dad when he couldn't find "The Little Engine That Could".
The biggest question here is - Why would anyone ask Marco Andretti if he was interested in driving in Formula One?
What exactly has he done in the IRL to warrant that question? He certainly has wrecked quite a bit. Doesn't he have the same number of career wins as Danica?
Wheldon, Dixon, Castroneves or Kanaan could legitimately be asked that question. Heck, even Paul Tracy could have been asked that question five years ago. Marco, no way.
I think Hakkinen did alright, didn't he, broomy? I loved Michael, but come on, driving against Senna, Prost, Mansell. He wasn't on their level.
Mika Hakkinen went on to win the driver's title in 1998 and 1999. Not such a bad replacement, and when Mika decided to retire in 2001, McLaren brought in another Finn to fill that race seat. Some dude by the name of Kimi Raikkonen.
I'll be honest, I never thought Michael Andretti going to F1 was a wise move, and it seemed like he was doing it more because his dad was a past champion rather than his own F1 dreams. Sure, Michael was a passionate driver and very aggressive, but I was never impressed with his technical driving abilities - and those skills are put in a premium in F1. And when he was teamed up with Senna, I think Michael was unfortunately destined to be overwhelmed.
The really sad part is that Michael's disaster seems to still hurt the chances of prospective American F1 pilots.
As moseby wondered, why would anyone ask Marco? And, as bc525 stated, what the heck was Michael doing in F-1? I wouldn't rate Michael, then, any better than Bourdais is now. Who thinks Sea Bass should be in F-1? Raise your hands.
There was clearly a perception by many here in the US that Michael wasn't welcomed into F1 (who is?).
But his retirements also weren't a surprise to many - Michael (and Mario for that matter) wasn't a stranger to broken components. Andretti's tend not to be the most smooth of all drivers in a competition, hard on the accelerator and hard on the brakes, with relatively sharp steering adjustments too. Water over the dam ...
I know back when this was going on, I had hoped Al Jr. would have gotten a similar chance - - I always thought he was INCREDIBLY smooth and fast. Well, at least before his substance abuse problems overcame his seemingly limitless talent. Water stuck behind the dam ...
odd....I just figured that Michael couldn't figure out what the heck Ron Dennis was talking about the entire time because, let's face it, Dennis-speak is an impossible language to understand :P
I see Lewis was fastest in practice though....and rain could be a factor. I hope it does rain, those 96 and 97 races were quite exciting (particularly 96 when Panis won) :)
Hey Hey..JB did you mess with my car. It doesn't feel right. What the heck the temp gauge says 180 and steam is coming out. What the heck did you do...Ok stop messing with cars boys. we will settle this on the track..
At the time Michael Andretti was in F1, they had curtailed a lot of testing at the tracks for the teams that year. Since Michael had never raced at any of these venues before...he was at an even bigger disadvantage with the limited testing schedule F1 rules had that season.
The prior season they were much more generous with testing, and perhaps Andretti might have had a better time adapting to the tracks. But alas, those were not the conditions offered at the time.
Kind of sad to see his window of opportunity hampered by the circumstances.
Noahspop - sorry, didn't hear you, I was too busy wiping the grease and engine oil off my hands.
Gerrel - I didn't know about the testing cutbacks, but probably proves the point that Andretti was caught out by the change, just like many others who have switched. Remember Zanardi in the Williams (although that Williams was a dod anyway). In recent years only Villeneuve has made the move well.
I have no idea what they were talking to Marco for - probably some "hot-shot" journo trying to spin a story....
Rain looks good for some point over the weekend, let the Monaco carnage begin.
I always want to write something witty here, but my wit is always confused with something worse ------------- ------------- ----NASCAR and Auto Racing in general mostly here, but I get distracted by shiny sporting objects as well and give them an airing too---------- ------------- -----Pastimes include rooting for the underdog and trying to fathom why Golf is considered a sport-------- ------------- ---
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