Mario Andretti (Montona, now Motovun, in Istria, 28 February 1940) is a retired Italian-American driver, Formula 1 world champion in 1978 with Lotus and four-time IndyCar champion. He is the only driver to have won the Indianapolis 500 (1969), the Daytona 500 (1967) and the Formula 1 world title. In Formula 1 he raced from 1968 to 1982: 128 grands prix, 12 wins and 18 pole positions.

Updated October 2026.

In 1968, at his first Formula 1 grand prix, at Watkins Glen, Andretti started from pole position. Almost fifteen years later, in 1982, Ferrari called him back and at 42 he started from pole again. In between lies a career that crossed four decades and nearly every category of motorsport. This is the story of Mario Andretti, and of a surname that today also appears on the designation of a Formula 1 car.

Mario Andretti at a glance

• Born in Montona, Istria (then the Kingdom of Italy, now Motovun, Croatia), on 28 February 1940, together with his twin brother Aldo.
• Formula 1 world champion in 1978 with Lotus.
• IndyCar: four titles (1965, 1966, 1969 and 1984) and 52 wins.
• Landmark wins: 1969 Indianapolis 500, 1967 Daytona 500, 12 Hours of Sebring in 1967, 1970 and 1972.
• Formula 1: 128 grands prix, 12 wins, 18 pole positions, 10 fastest laps.

From Istria to Pennsylvania

Andretti was born in Montona, in Istria, on 28 February 1940. The family left Istria after the war and in 1955 emigrated to the United States, to Nazareth, Pennsylvania: Mario was fifteen. He began racing on dirt tracks in 1959, at nineteen. His IndyCar debut was on 19 April 1964 at Trenton.

The American years: IndyCar, Indianapolis and Daytona

In the United States Andretti won the national single-seater championship four times: in 1965, 1966, 1969 and 1984. In 1969 he also won the Indianapolis 500, the only one of his career. He had already won the Daytona 500 in NASCAR in 1967, and among endurance races he took the 12 Hours of Sebring three times: in 1967, 1970 and 1972.

His last IndyCar win came on 4 April 1993 at Phoenix, at 53 years and 34 days: he is the oldest winner in the history of the series, and it was his 52nd victory. After the “Arrivederci Mario” farewell tour, he retired from IndyCar racing on 9 October 1994 at Laguna Seca. He is still third on the series’ all-time wins list, behind A.J. Foyt (67) and Scott Dixon.

In 1995, at 55, he raced the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Courage, alongside Bob Wollek and Eric Hélary: he finished second overall, behind the winning McLaren, his best result in the French race.

Formula 1: from a pole-position debut to the 1978 title

Andretti made his Formula 1 debut in the 1968 United States Grand Prix, at Watkins Glen, with Lotus, and started from pole position. His first win came on 6 March 1971 in the South African Grand Prix at Kyalami, with Ferrari. Over his career he also raced for March, Parnelli, Alfa Romeo and Williams, but he committed to F1 full time only from 1976, when he returned to Lotus.

1978 was his season. With the Lotus 79, an innovative ground-effect car, Andretti won six races (five of them with the 79) and finished the championship with 64 points, 13 more than his team-mate Ronnie Peterson, second with 51. The title was settled at Monza, in the grand prix marked by the Swede’s fatal accident.

Andretti is the second American driver to become Formula 1 world champion, after Phil Hill (1961, with Ferrari). Unlike Hill, however, he was not born in the United States.

His last great day in F1 was 12 September 1982 at Monza. Ferrari called him back to replace Didier Pironi, injured at Hockenheim: Andretti, at 42, took pole position with a time of 1’28″472 and finished third, behind René Arnoux and Patrick Tambay.

A record that still stands

Andretti is the only driver to have won the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500 and the Formula 1 world title: Guinness World Records lists him as the first to do it, in 1978. He was also the first to win races in four different decades, from the 1960s to the 1990s. In 2000 he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, in the same class as Ayrton Senna and A.J. Foyt. For a comparison with another great name of the Formula 1 of those years, read the profile of Ayrton Senna.

The Andretti surname: from Michael to Cadillac F1

His son Michael, CART champion in 1991, built a team, Andretti Global, that tried to enter Formula 1: the application was rejected by F1 on 31 January 2024. On 25 November 2024 Formula 1 instead approved as its eleventh team from 2026 the General Motors project with Cadillac, led by Dan Towriss, majority shareholder of Andretti Global, with Michael out of the project.

Mario sits on Cadillac’s board of directors as a non-executive director, with no day-to-day operational duties. On 27 February 2026, on the eve of his 86th birthday, the team named its first Formula 1 chassis MAC-26 (Mario Andretti Cadillac). The drivers are Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez, and the season started in Australia on 8 March.

An open question remains for those who sponsor: what is a surname that is already a story worth on a starting grid?

Images, from top: Mario Andretti, Lotus 79, 1978 British Grand Prix, Druids (Martin Lee, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0); Mario Andretti, Lotus 80, 1979 Monaco Grand Prix, Rascasse (Martin Lee, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0).

Sources: Wikipedia, Mario Andretti; Formula 1, Hall of Fame, Mario Andretti; Motor Sport Magazine, Mario Andretti; Formula 1, 1978 drivers’ standings; Guinness World Records, Indianapolis 500, Daytona 500 and F1 title; Wikipedia, 1982 Italian Grand Prix; Wikipedia, 1971 South African Grand Prix; IndyCar, Arrivederci Mario; IndyCar, Andretti’s last win at Phoenix; 24h-lemans.com, Andretti’s legacy at Le Mans; The Race, F1 rejects the Andretti bid; Crash.net, Mario Andretti’s role at Cadillac; GrandPrix247, the MAC-26 chassis.