Comments on: Marco Andretti Defends His Father & Criticises McLaren

By: Beauregarde

Beauregarde — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:12:28 +0000

Sounds like Marco is brainwashed and suffers from post tramatic stress.
He is only parrotting what his Dad’s point of view is.
Maybe MArco’s Dad could take some parenting lessons from Bobby Rahal; a real class act!
Marco seems to have a conflicted life and really it’s not his fault.
Formula 1 is for grown ups and maybe MArco was just rushed a couple of years too soon, at any cost.
Should 18 year olds really be racing in this transitional sport? Only children of race car drivers could go from high school- racecar driving. Many people get hurt while they are rushing through, and also trying to defend a legacy….1970-80 was a different time and place
Maybe MArco needs some time abroad!

By: emily

emily — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:32:36 +0000

you are all proving his point. you wouldnt even care if he won. you are all just waiting for him to fail

By: Oliver White

Oliver White — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:30:44 +0000

@C.D.: I’d love an American in F1 as well. In fact, I’d love a few! I’m certain it isn’t all American racers that come across as whiney children, and I hate to think what American’s think of ‘European’ racers. Moany old Coulthard, emotionless Raikkonen…

By: C.D.

C.D. — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:24:47 +0000

I’d love an American in F1, but we don’t do much to raise our stock in the eyes of the world, do we? Our sense of entitlement is disheartening.

That said, the high pitched whine that comes out of Nazareth, Pennsylvania is world renown.

By: Oliver White

Oliver White — Fri, 23 May 2008 00:15:00 +0000

Heh, yeah, I would defend my father, only I would do it better. My real gripe with Marco here is the way he comes across. The nature of this story reminded me of how Scott Speed used to grumble. I’m not saying he is right or wrong (as I said in the post), just that I feel he should leave the past in the past and concentrate on the future. And to perhaps not burn bridges before they’re built.

By: Ago

Ago — Thu, 22 May 2008 23:26:01 +0000

LoL ! A McLaren story again.
Marco defends his father wouldn’t you defend yours? If Michael told a few things to his son there might be some good reasons for it, after all he was in the team and none of us was there…. The world is not black or white you know…

By: Haplo

Haplo — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:50:01 +0000

Wait, are we talking about Fernando Alonso here?

By: Keith Collantine

Keith Collantine — Thu, 22 May 2008 20:18:34 +0000

They would make the car do weird things in the corner electronically, stuff out of his control.

For pity’s sake, why? For what possible reason would anyone do something so dangerous, so counter-productive, so…stupid.

Another moronic conspiracy theory.

By: Haplo

Haplo — Thu, 22 May 2008 19:30:09 +0000

Oh, yes, please let his son come over. The F1 guys will mop the floor with him

By: links for 2008-05-22 » vee8 - a Formula 1 blog

links for 2008-05-22 » vee8 - a Formula 1 blog — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:32:05 +0000

[...] Marco Andretti Defends His Father & Criticises McLaren – BlogF1 “Scott [Speed], and now Marco are giving Formula One fans in Europe-and-beyond an interesting view of American racers and their attitudes.” (tags: ScottSpeed MarcoAndretti MichaelAndretti McLaren USA) [...]

By: George

George — Thu, 22 May 2008 14:02:17 +0000

Well, I have to say that I find Marco’s version of events highly speculative, to say the least. And, of course, Michael would be suggestively non-committal – his failure to make the grade in F1 is one hell of a blot on his outstanding career. I think the truth of the matter is what Oliver states has always been assumed early on in the article – lack of preparation, failure to base himself in Europe, difficulty adapting to the complexity of the engineering of early 90s F1 cars, and so on. If you genuinely doubt that, see if you can get hold of a copy of the excellent BBC TV series from 1993 ‘The Team: A Season With McLaren’ (which I still hold onto on ageing VHS!) – the behind the scenes footage is extremely illuminating, and tells its own story of the Andretti/McLaren relationship (in particular the one specific episode that focuses exclusively on Andretti’s Canadian GP weekend). Andretti was a great, combative racing driver but he was, and remains, I suspect a hometown American (unlike his worldly-wise and rather more cosmopolitan father Mario), who was uncomfortable in the European racing system. His lack of physical preparation and mental and emotional committment to F1 was, I still believe, at the root of his lack of success. It’s a great shame, because he had the latent ability to have been a seriously successful GP driver. On the other hand, I always thought that as long as he was happy with his choices, that was that. It appears that, all these years later, a little bitterness and, perhaps, regret, remains. I think that is what is behind these latest remarks.