THE UNFORTUNATE TEAM SWAP THAT ENDED MARIO ANDRETTI’S F1 CAREER

In an impressive Formula 1 career that featured starts with March, Ferrari, and Lotus, it took just one unfortunate car to bring Mario Andretti’s international open-wheel legacy to an end.

Heading into the 1981 season, Mario Andretti told PlanetF1.com that he had a choice between two Formula 1 teams — and he feels that ending up at the wrong outfit brought his time in F1 to a premature close.

Mario Andretti “went with my heart, not with my head” in 1981

The year is 1980. Alan Jones has won the World Drivers’ Championship in Formula 1, and Team Lotus has just wrapped up a challenging season.

Just two years prior, lead driver Mario Andretti had won the championship with Lotus; in 1980, he managed to score just one point — good enough only for 20th overall in the WDC.

What had happened?

“[Colin Chapman] got bored and started going crazy with other things that were outside of the rules,” Mario Andretti explained in an exclusive interview with PlanetF1.com.

Ever the visionary, Chapman was gunning for a way to improve upon the stunning success he found with ground effect in the Lotus 78 and 79. He dreamed up an all-carbon fiber car composed of two chassis in an effort to bypass a ban on moveable skirts; only the outer chassis would experience the effects of downforce, while the inner chassis holding the driver’s cockpit was independently sprung.

It was an ingenious innovation, the kind that infuriated the competition to such an extent that the FIA was inundated with protests against the Lotus 88. The sanctioning body decided to ban the dual-chassis technology, leaving Team Lotus stuck using out-of-date machinery that couldn’t maintain pace with the competition. Andretti’s 20th place in the championship was proof of that struggle.

“I figured, OK, time to change,” Andretti told PlanetF1.com.

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Because Andretti was a former champion, he had earned his place as a number-one driver on the team he’d move to next — but there were only two open seats on the grid where that would be possible: One at Alfa Romeo, and one at McLaren.

“The big sponsor at the time, Marlboro, said ‘Have your choice, Mario,'” the 1978 champion recalled.

“I went with Alfa Romeo because one the engineers was a very good friend of mine, who had been at Ferrari.”

It was the wrong move.

In 1981, Alfa Romeo finished ninth in the Constructors’ Championship as drivers Andretti and Bruno Giacomelli cycled through three different machines: the 179C, the 179B, and the 179D. Andretti’s best finish all season long was a fourth place in the season opener at Long Beach.

Andretti stepped back from full-time F1 competition at the close of 1981. In 1982, he entered one race with Williams and two with Ferrari, taking a third place finish in the penultimate race of the year. But that was the end of Andretti’s 14-year-long F1 career.

“I went with my heart instead of my head, and I made a mistake,” Andretti explained to PlanetF1.com regarding his decision to move to Alfa.

“If I would have gone with McLaren, I think I could have potentially come away with another championship, or stayed longer.

“It taught me that sometimes, for as smart as you think you are, you can make mistakes.”

Now, in his 84th year of life, Andretti has the ability to reflect on a prosperous career and to contextualize that move.

“It was a regret for sure,” he admitted, “but at the same time, when I came back to the States, I resumed my IndyCar career, and I think I made the right choice after all.

“I won another championship and 18 more IndyCar races, and I retired a very happy guy.”

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2025-01-15T20:21:10Z