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Michael Andretti

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Michael Andretti
Nationality American

Formula One World Championship career
Active years	1993
Teams	McLaren
Races	13
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podium finishes	1
Career points	7
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	1993 South African Grand Prix
Last race	1993 Italian Grand Prix

Andretti racing at Monterey, California, October 1991

Practicing for the 2007 Indianapolis 500

Michael (right) practicing against Marco at Indy

Michael Mario Andretti (born October 5, 1962 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) is an American retired CART and Formula One driver with Italian heritage. He now co-owns the Andretti Green Racing team in the Indy Racing League. He qualified eleventh for the 2007 Indianapolis 500 after finishing third in the 2006 Indianapolis 500. He is the son of Mario Andretti who is one of the most successful auto racing drivers of all time.

1 Racing career
2 Semi-retirement and team owner
- 2.1 Return to racing at Indy
3 Personal life
4 Andretti family
- 4.1 Complete Formula One results
- 4.2 Indy 500 results
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

Racing career

Early career

Michael Andretti started his racing career at the wheel of a 1980 Formula Ford. In 1982, he won six of the 11 Super Vee races and went on to win the championship. ^[1] After that, he went into Formula Atlantic, where he won the Formula Atlantic Championship.

CART

During that same year, he made his CART debut and also finished third in the Le Mans 24 Hours. In 1984, he won the Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year award. He went on to win his first IndyCar race in 1986, finishing that year as championship runner-up. Andretti achieved major title success by winning the 1991 CART/PPG Indycar World Series for the Newman-Haas team.

Futility at Indianapolis

The Andretti family's bad luck at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is known as the Andretti Curse. As a driver, he is largely remembered for being unlucky at the Indianapolis 500. In 1991, he led with twelve laps remaining, but finished second to Rick Mears after battling the multiple Indy 500 winner. In 1992, he dominated the race but, with eleven laps to go, his fuel pump failed, and his car coasted to a stop. He finished in 13th place. He also dropped out while leading the Indy 500 in 1989, 1995 and 2003. Michael holds the record for most laps led in the Indy 500, but has yet to achieve victory.

Formula One

Andretti joined the McLaren Formula One team for 1993, alongside the triple World Champion Ayrton Senna. Unfortunately, the season was not a success. A string of collisions meant that he only completed three laps in his first three races, and he never fully got to grips with Formula 1 cars. Highly technical aspects which he was not used to in the more simple Indycar series such as active suspension and traction control hampered Andretti's chances for the 1993 F1 season. This combined with the fact that he commuted to races and test sessions from the USA, rather than re-locating full-time to Europe were also contributing factors to his lack of success in Formula One. Three points-scoring finishes, including a third place at Monza, were perceived as too little, too late, and he left the team and the championship by mutual agreement after that race.

Return to CART

After McLaren replaced Andretti with Finnish driver Mika Häkkinen, Michael returned to the CART series for 1994, where he once again proved very successful. He went on to win in his very first race back in the series at the 1994 Surfers Paradise event in Australia. He finished as runner-up in 1996 and more race wins followed in the years to come, but his 1991 championship success remained his only title in CART/Indycar racing. His career in CART ended in 2002, in which he took his 42nd and final career victory at the Grand Prix of Long Beach - placing him in third place for all-time victories in championship car racing behind his father, Mario Andretti (52 wins) and A.J. Foyt (67 wins). Michael Andretti is also tied with Al Unser Jr for the most wins in a CART/Indycar season with eight victories. He achieved this during his championship-winning season of 1991.

Semi-retirement and team owner

After competing in the 2003 Indianapolis 500, Andretti retired from full-time Indycar racing. He led the race for 28 of the opening 94 laps before a throttle linkage failure put him out of contention once again. That year he bought into the "Team Green" squad run by brothers Kim and Barry Green in the Champ Car World Series. It became Andretti Green Racing and for 2004 the team 'defected' to the rival Indy Racing League. That year, Tony Kanaan won the 2004 IndyCar Series Championship for Andretti Green Racing. In 2005, Britain's Dan Wheldon won the Indianapolis 500, and the IndyCar Series Championship for the team. In 2007 Scotland's Dario Franchitti won the Indianapolis 500 and the IndyCar Series title for AGR.

Return to racing at Indy

Andretti returned to the driver's seat for the 2006 Indianapolis 500 in an one-time effort to assist the development of his son, Marco, an Indycar rookie for the '06 season. Michael led the race with four laps to go, before falling to second behind his son a lap later. He went on to finish third, while Marco only just missed out on the 500 victory after he was passed just before the start/finish line on the last lap by three-time Indycar champion Sam Hornish Jr. After qualifying his car in 11th place for the 2007 Indianapolis 500, Andretti went on to finish 13th. He then announced that this would be his last Indy 500 as a driver. Andretti leaves Indy with a frustrating distinction - the driver who's led the most laps (431) without winning the race. He competed in 16 Indy 500s, with a top finish of second in 1991, but led the race nine times. However, Indy 2007 was another success for Michael's team, Andretti-Green racing. His Scottish driver Dario Franchitti took the victory after the race was halted while he was in the lead due to heavy rain after 166 of the scheduled 200 laps.

Personal life

Andretti was married to Sandra Spinozzi from November 1985 to 1996 and they had two children, son Marco (born March 13, 1987) and daughter Marissa (born October 31, 1990). He remarried on December 24, 1997, to Leslie Wood. They had a child, Lucca, born September 16, 1999. On September 7 2004, Andretti filed for divorce. Two years later on July 15 2006, Andretti announced his engagement to model, actress, and 2000 Playboy Playmate of the Year Jodi Ann Paterson. The couple were married on October 7 2006 at the Andretti Winery in Napa Valley, California.

Andretti family

Michael is from the famous Andretti racing family. His brother Jeff Andretti competed in IndyCar. Michael's uncle Aldo Andretti was an open wheel racer until an accident ended his racing career. Aldo's son John Andretti (Michael's cousin) raced in IndyCar before he became a NASCAR regular. Aldo's other son, Adam also is a racecar driver, most recently sponsored to run in the IndyCar pro series in 2008. The Andretti family became the first family to have four relatives (Michael, Mario, Jeff, and John) compete in the same series (CART). ^[2] Michael Andretti has an estate upon an adjacent tract of land to his father's mansion of "Montona" in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, where he grew up. Michael's other homes include a property in downtown Indianapolis (near his championship race team headquarters), a residence in Miami Beach, and several other properties for investment purposes.

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Yr	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
1993	Marlboro McLaren	McLaren MP4/8	Ford V8	RSA Ret	BRA Ret	EUR Ret	SMR Ret	ESP 5	MON 8	CAN 14	FRA 6	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL 8	ITA 3	POR	JPN	AUS	11th	7

Indy 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish
1984	March	Cosworth	4th	5th
1985	Lola	Cosworth	15th	8th
1986	March	Cosworth	3rd	6th
1987	March	Cosworth	9th	29th
1988	March	Cosworth	10th	4th
1989	Lola	Chevrolet	21st	17th
1990	Lola	Chevrolet	5th	20th
1991	Lola	Chevrolet	5th	2nd
1992	Lola	Ford-Cosworth	6th	13th
1994	Reynard	Ford-Cosworth	5th	6th
1995	Lola	Ford-Cosworth	4th	25th
2001	Dallara	Oldsmobile	21st	3rd
2002	Dallara	Chevrolet	25th	7th
2003	Dallara	Honda	13th	27th
2006	Dallara	Honda	13th	3rd
2007	Dallara	Honda	11th	13th

References

^ Texaco/Havoline CART History Michael Andretti
^ Schwartz, Larry. Mario Andretti synonymous with racing. Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. ESPN. Retrieved on 2007-02-22.

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by Dave McMillan	North American Formula Mondial Champion 1983	Succeeded by Dan Marvin
Preceded by Al Unser Jr	CART Series Champion 1991	Succeeded by Bobby Rahal

Andretti Green Racing
IRL IndyCar Series drivers	Danica Patrick (#7) \| Tony Kanaan (#11) \| Marco Andretti (#26) \| Hideki Mutoh (#27)
Indy Pro Series drivers	Jaime Camara (#11) \| Wade Cunningham (#27)
American Le Mans Series drivers	Christian Fittipaldi \| Bryan Herta \| Tony Kanaan \| Vitor Meira
Other	Michael Andretti