It’s great that Mario Andretti is racing in Formula 1 again. Exactly fifty-five years after he recorded his first Grand Prix victory in a Ferrari, he is racing across the circuits again. Mario Andretti, from war refugee to Formula 1 world champion in 1978, also winner of the Indy 500 in 1969.
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A pity he never won Le Mans. Who doesn’t love Mario? In recent years, I didn’t understand why the collective Formula 1 teams were so incredibly against the Andrettis. Only if the Andrettis withdrew was Cadillac allowed to participate in Formula 1. It was probably more about the big mouth of Mario’s son Michael, who, by the way, had a very different Formula 1 career.
But Mario is completely back. Because Cadillac has named its first Formula 1 racer after him. The Cadillac MAC-26. MA stands for Mario Andretti. A pity that the C for Cadillac had to be included, but oh well.
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I think it’s beautiful; it shows a sense of history. Something that Formula 1 is increasingly losing. In my opinion, car manufacturers and team bosses are a rather dry bunch anyway. In the past, they named their cars rather weakly Project or Type (BRM P160, Cooper T51), or only after themselves: think of the FW of Williams or the RB of Red Bull. By the way: the W of the Mercedes does not stand for Wolff; it means, rather prosaically, ‘Wagen’.
There are some beautiful exceptions. Guy Ligier named his cars after his friend Jo Schlesser, who died in an accident: JS; Gene Haas names his racers after his first computer-controlled milling machine VF (the ‘Very First One’); and at the top of the list is, of course, Peter Sauber, who gave all his cars the letter C, referring to his wife Christiane—that’s how you do it.
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So let’s go Mario, although it will probably mean starting at the back…
