How Mario worked his magic
We all know that Mario Andretti was one of the world’s most versatile drivers, winning in Formula 1, Indycars and long-distance sports cars, as well as NASCAR stock cars, sprint cars and USAC dirt championship cars. He enjoyed a long career, racing successfully into his fifties, so what was his secret?
Ed Nathman was Newman/Haas team manager during the final years of Andretti’s career. Today, he is engineering director for Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing in NASCAR, running Juan Pablo Montoya’s cars. He says Andretti had a rare talent for reading the car and reporting his findings to the team.
“Mario was exceptional,” says Nathman (below with Jimmy Vasser in 2003). “You could put him in the car and right away he’d tell you what it was doing, and not many drivers can do that. I liked working with Mario a lot. He loved testing; Goodyear liked Mario for testing tyres because there was nobody like him.”
Donnie Hoevel worked for Newman/Haas for 22 years until 2007. He was Andretti’s chief mechanic during his final seasons racing Indycars and tells of the last tyre test Mario did for Goodyear in 1994 at Indianapolis. “They had every Goodyear engineer known to man out there and they all said they were disappointed because they all loved to do tyre tests with the old man,” he recalls. “There were times when they’d slip in a set of control tyres without telling him and he’d say, ‘Ah, you guys are trying to fool me! You can’t fool me. I know what you’re doing.’ There aren’t too many people who have that kind of feel.”
Peter Gibbons (below with Mario and Marco) was with Newman/Haas for 13 years until 2004. During this time he engineered Michael Andretti’s car and was Nigel Mansell’s engineer in 1993-94. He also engineered Emerson Fittipaldi’s Indycars in the ’80s and was Rick Mears’s race engineer at Penske Racing from 1989-91. Gibbons moved to Michael’s IRL team in ’04 where he’s now technical director. He says he’s never seen another driver with Mario’s relentless work ethic.
“It was just remarkable. He worked harder then anyone I’ve ever [seen]. Mears was so amazingly naturally talented that he didn’t have to work at it. Emerson worked at it, but Mario loved working at it. He was just phenomenal. He was a major contributor to our effort until the day he retired. Mario was the team. His contributions to our set-ups were incredible and he thought about it all the time. I never got the impression that Michael enjoyed doing it, but Mario just lived for it. He set the standard.”
Mario with Johnny O’Connell during testing at Road Atlanta in 2000
Bruce Ashmore, Lola’s Indycar designer from 1988-93, says: “Mario would be in the car at nine o’clock in the morning and, if you had to, he’d run every hour until six o’clock with the sun in his eyes. Yet he would run every lap the same so that the component you were testing was the difference that made the lap time. A lot of people in motor racing get it wrong. They want something to work because it was their idea. But that’s a mistake. Mario had the ability to cut all that out and just assess the part on its performance and how it fitted into the package.”
Adds Hoevel: “The guy treated you with the utmost respect. If you worked hard for him, he worked hard for you. He was the utmost professional and he’s a great friend today. I can call him any time. Mario’s pretty far up the pedestal. He drove as hard as he could all the way ’til the last day he got out the car.”
Filed under: Blogs, Historic Racing, Personalities
Tags: Bruce Ashmore, Donnie Hoevel, Ed Nathman, Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Peter Gibbons
He’s been there and seen it all, but GK’s finger is still very much on the pulse of modern US racing. After over 30 years as the American editor of Autosport, he remains one of the most outspoken and authoritative voices on the US scene. Gordon is now Motor Sport’s US editor and monthly columnist, shedding light on everything that is happening on the other side of the Atlantic. 
Michael Wilson:
January 18th, 2010 3:13pm
Recent interviews in MOTORSPORT remind me of the fact that most American racing personalities don’t do so well on the international stage. There are many complicated reasons for this. But, there are 2 Americans who may have, in their total contribution, been beyond anyone’s reach.
I refer to Dan Gurney and Mario Andretti. Gurney has generally been considered the American racer of the 20th Century becuase he did it all – drove with distinction in all world major racing series, designed and built cars that succeeded everywhere and managed teams successfully on a similar scale.
Andretti has been named the American driver of the 20th Century. No-one has driven with such success, in so many series world-wide, for so long.
Gurney and Andretti – perhaps the world’s greatest total racer and driver?
Mchael Wilson
Ottawa, CANADA
Rob Swaynie:
January 18th, 2010 10:58pm
He just had trouble seeing parked cars and he was excellent at causing yellows for the little one!
Mario Carneiro Neto:
January 19th, 2010 7:28pm
Michael Wilson:
I always thought Phil Hill could join in on that list. Great driver too, and an American.
Santiago Fernández:
January 19th, 2010 8:08pm
I agree with Mario in that such a list would not be complete (for me anyways) without Phil Hill. He was also very good in sportcars, but had suffered from being fielded in some rather unreliable ones, if I recall correctly.
Also the 3 seem to have very distinct personalities, while being charismatic in their own way. Phil Hill was introspective, Andretti had that knack with the press and desire to drive anything, and Gurney was/is always tinkering with something (his own team, aero design, that odd looking motorcycle he’s built). The 3 also have a huge amount of talent, and respect.
R Tanveer:
January 19th, 2010 8:29pm
Didn’t Jimmy Clark’s father say that Dan Gurney was the only driver of their era which he (Jimmy) worried about?
If so, high praise indeed!
I don’t know how high to ‘rate’ the senior Andretti. There were some All Time Greats during his successful years in F1 (Lauda, Villeneuve and Prost, in order and for instance) so I don’t know what to make of it.
Perhaps Mr Roebuck – whose book ‘Mario Andretti World Champion’ I bought as a youngster a few decades back – can shed some light on the order in which he would rate the likes of Lauda-Andretti-Villeneuve-Prost…?
Rich Carter:
January 19th, 2010 10:01pm
I’ll never forget seeing a very young Mario on a dirt track in Pennsylvania – he was brand new-almost an unknown, but he looked like he was going 20 mph faster through the turns. He would come out of the turn with his inside front wheel way off the ground and his throttle pegged wfo. Even though guys like Foyt, Jones and Sachs were there he was the only guy I watched. I was brand new to racing and would see Mario again at Indy, Brands Hatch, Watkins Glen Mosport and Daytona in cars from F-1 to Can Am to NASCAR but I never saw anything like that day.
Gordon Kirby:
January 19th, 2010 10:37pm
Yes, it’s true that Jim Clark’s father made that comment about Dan and when Dan talks about it you can barely hear his voice because he’s so emotional about his relationship with Jimmy on and off the track.
And dare I say that while Lauda, Gilles and Prost were true greats they never achieved success in anything but F1 while Mario won in F1, Indy cars, long-distance sports cars and NASCAR stockers, as did Dan. That’s why they are two of the greatest drivers the world has ever seen. And of course, Mario also achieved great success on the dirt in midgets, sprint cars and Championship dirt cars so that his career was even more diverse than Dan’s. Nobody today can begin to match the breadth of Mario & Dan’s accomplishments.
And as Mario says in my 2001 book, ‘Mario Andretti–A Driving Passion’, Dan was his hero when he was racing midgets and sprint cars in the early sixties.
Mario Carneiro Neto:
January 20th, 2010 8:01am
Dan Gurney is supposed to come out with an auto biography soon. I’m really excited to get it, but I don’t know when & where it will come out…
There is a documentary on youtube that aired in a series on the BBC about Jim Clark, and Dan Gurney gives a few interviews. When the subject f his death comes up, Dan can barely talk.
They did one on Jackie Stewart, one on Graham Hill and one on Jim. All on youtube
Casey:
January 21st, 2010 5:11am
Wonderful story and quotes Gordon, thank you.
Trappeur Coller:
January 21st, 2010 11:31pm
I first saw Mario at Langhorne (Among other tracks) in the 60’s, with Foyt and all the other American greats, and that included Gurney.
I saw Clark and all the GP greats throughout the years as well, and that included Mario and Gurney and Hill.
I would never rate one over the other, it cannot be done. But Mario is, and always will be, one of the very few greatest racers that ever lived.
It is a very short list, and he is one of the few drivers that will always occupy a place on that list.
He is a God.
Trappeur
Phil Harris:
January 22nd, 2010 12:22am
Greatest American drivers would have to include Andretti , Gurney, Foyt, and Hill.