The car was delayed, and finally ready with only enough time for Andretti to complete two short days of preseason testing. Longtime engine supplier Honda left F1 that year, and the team was forced to use Ford-Cosworth customer engines. Unfortunately, the ’93 season began inauspiciously for McLaren, more so for Andretti, and it mostly got worse. For the first time since the late 1970s, when Andretti’s father Mario raced and won for Lotus, there was American-bred talent driving for a team that was capable of winning F1 races. Finally, long suffering F1 fans in the States had something to be excited about. Andretti was fresh off a series-high five wins in the CART PPG World Series, and one of the most dominant drives ever in the Indianapolis 500 (which, unfortunately for him, ended with a failed fuel pump after leading 160 laps and lapping the field to third place). It was September 1992, during the Italian Grand Prix weekend at Monza, when McLaren announced that Andretti would join three-time world champion Ayrton Senna for 1993. And team owner Michael Andretti, now in partnership with GM’s Cadillac division, is hustling harder than ever to acquire ownership of an F1 team.įinally, long suffering F1 fans in the States had something to be excited about. Florida-native Logan Sargeant, the 22-year-old former FIA world karting champion and Formula 2 rookie of the year, joins the struggling but ever-optimistic Williams team as second driver. There’ll be a giant party of an F1 race under the lights of Las Vegas, following the smashing debut of the Miami Grand Prix last season, making for three U.S. It’s a really big year for Formula 1 fans in the United States, right? Andretti’s bid to return to F1 may offer some redemption to the now-team owner from his failures in the series as a driver.Andretti served as second driver behind three-time world champion Ayrton Senna, who he later described as his only ally at McLaren.In 1993, Michael Andretti left Indy car racing to drive in Formula 1 with McLaren, with many judging his single season in the series falling well short of expectations.
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