He was also one of only three drivers to have won major races on road courses, paved ovals, and dirt tracks in one season, a feat that he accomplished four times. He was the only person to be named United States Driver of the Year in three decades (1967, 1978, and 1984). Andretti had 109 career wins on major circuits.Īndretti had a long career in racing. No American has won a Formula One race since Andretti's victory at the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix. To date, he remains the only driver ever to win the Indianapolis 500 (1969), Daytona 500 (1967) and the Formula One World Championship, and, along with Juan Pablo Montoya, the only driver to have won a race in the NASCAR Cup Series, Formula One, and an Indianapolis 500. During his career, Andretti won the 1978 Formula One World Championship, four Ind圜ar titles (three under USAC-sanctioning, one under CART), and IROC VI.
He also won races in midget cars, and sprint cars. He is one of only two drivers to have won races in Formula One, Ind圜ar, World Sportscar Championship and NASCAR (the other being Dan Gurney). The car helped Lotus to take the most wins in a single season since the famous Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows of 1955, with Andretti and Ronnie Peterson delivering four 1-2 finishes.Mario Gabriele Andretti (born February 28, 1940) is an Italian-born American former racing driver, one of the most successful Americans in the history of the sport. Lotus had invented ‘ground effect’ and if the Type 78 is where they first showed it, the Type 79 is where they perfected it.Īlso known as the John Player Special MkIV to please the sponsor, the car did much to cement Chapman’s reputation as one of motorsport’s greatest designers. It formed a simple seal between car and track, creating a vacuum and further sucking the chassis to the road. The idea was straightforward the principle of flight is based on low pressure under a wing creating lift, so by inverting the wing you get the opposite – the car is forced into the ground.,įurther innovation came in the form of long narrow skirts which dropped from the car’s body to touch the road.
The concept had started with the earlier Type 78, the first ‘wing’ car where Lotus founder Colin Chapman started to explore the potential of reducing drag and maximising downforce to achieve race-winning performance. Race cars today are as they are because of this innovative Lotus. However, that simple fact ignores its significance as one of the most pioneering race cars of all time, one which fundamentally changed the core principles of motorsport engineering. The black and gold Type 79 is the car in which Mario Andretti and Lotus won the 1978 Formula 1 Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships respectively.
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