What do you guys think of Michael Andretti's try at F1 in 92?

[87lotus12]

Was it good, what you expected, or did he not have what it took.
I think he just didnt have it in him.

 

[vat_man]

Disastrous - talk about being thrown in at the deep end, against Senna. Andretti did himself no favours deciding not to base himself in Europe. I personally don't think he was prepared to fully commit himself to it - hard to tell if he was good enough.

 

[87lotus12]

One thing is for sure, he can not handle a standing start.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Originally posted by vat_man
Disastrous - talk about being thrown in at the deep end, against Senna. Andretti did himself no favours deciding not to base himself in Europe. I personally don't think he was prepared to fully commit himself to it - hard to tell if he was good enough.

I too think the descision to still run out of Philadelphia was a big problem for him. Meant he missed out on most of the testing, and that was one of the reasons he never got to grips with starts. Both Villeneuve and Montoya practised starts incessantly in testing.

 

[87lotus12]

I guess he thought just because he had the last name Andretti he thought he can just jump in. F1 is much more demanding than what he was used too. I think it was too intense for his taste.

 

[-Fred-]

93, not 92...

let's hope Da Matta will follow the Villeneuve/Montoya footsteps, and not the Andretti/Zanardi way.

 

[barryf1fan]

Not that it matters, but why are you bringing this up.
8 years after the fact at that...
Are you ticked he is taking his team to the IRL.
(I know I'm am)

 

[f1king]

I have lost all respect for michael, he is bringing the andretti name down, well actually he cant bring it down thanks to the greatest race car driver of all time Mario Andretti..

And now I have more reason to hate his ass. I didnt hear that he was going to IRL with his team that realy sucks.

As for F1 in 93 he did ok, his luck or should I say the Andretti luck was on full effect. I wished he had stayed and tried a little harder.

 

[Pupik]

Boy, nothing quite gets the passions all stirred up like talking about the Andretti-McLaren-1993 fiasco. He handled it all poorly, plain and simple.

 

[barryf1fan]

Originally posted by pupik
Boy, nothing quite gets the passions all stirred up like talking about the Andretti-McLaren-1993 fiasco. He handled it all poorly, plain and simple.

I'm not a Micheal Andretti fan, but I think it was handled
poorly by both McLaren and M.A.

 

[f1king]

Well what the hell were we all expecting him to do as rookie, driving alondside Senna.

 

[barryf1fan]

Originally posted by f1king
Well what the hell were we all expecting him to do as rookie, driving alondside Senna.

amen brother, amen.

 

[-Fred-]

Originally posted by f1king
Well what the hell were we all expecting him to do as rookie, driving alondside Senna.

look like a total fool? oh, wait, he already did that!


rumors have it Andretti will retire after this year's Indy 500. that's if he doesn't get killed before, in that circus clown like IRL series...

 

[Zero]

Originally posted by PunkRock
93, not 92...

let's hope Da Matta will follow the Villeneuve/Montoya footsteps, and not the Andretti/Zanardi way.

My thoughts exactly on Da Matta's situation.


On Topic, Michael's year in F1 was quite horrid.

 

[vat_man]

Originally posted by f1king
Well what the hell were we all expecting him to do as rookie, driving alondside Senna.

Well, he might have started out by not getting involved in so many crashes very early on in races (remember Brazil) and not waited until Monza to get on the podium.

He'd have been well advised to keep his nose clean and try to finish his early races to get his miles up (especially since he wasn't doing much testing - he didn't finish a race until his fifth gp, and didn't qualify higher than 5th (which he acheived on his second gp).

To sum up - I don't think he was fair dinkum about it. I've no doubt he had the talent.

 

[Pupik]

Let's put it this way, when Senna elects to do more testing than you, you're sunk. Ayrton hated testing (like most F1 superstars), and Hakkinen was more than willing considering he had no race-seat with the team.

Chilling at home in Pennsylvania while Senna and Hakkinen were hot lapping Paul Ricard (for example) is no way to get F1 experience.

 

[f1king]

Yeah you guys are right about that, he should have put in more time oh well its too Funking late.

So vat you think he had the talent, I think I agree with that.
And I think I remember some rule changes were made at the time he entered which did not help at all.