Andretti: I Was as Quick as Senna

[Copef1]

I think al unser jr. Would have been the better American choice to go to F1 at that time

Its hard to say. Andretti had 42 wins and 32 poles in his IndyCar career. Unser jr. had 34 wins, and only 7 poles. I think on outright speed, Andretti was quicker. Also, tward the end of his career Al started having legal, and substance abuse problems.

 

[bgil66]

It's an awesome looking car in that pic though

 

[michelforest]

from the full interview:

There were also suggestions that Michael wasn’t fully committed to the F1 programme, because he frequently returned to the USA between races. He denies that was an issue.

“People loved to say that, and I think Ron liked to use that as an excuse. I spent one or two months in the heat of it over there. I could be there in six hours because of Concorde, and I never let myself get off the time, I always stayed on European time when I was in the US. I could get to Woking almost as quickly as Senna could, living in Monaco!”

Thanks for the quote.

That quote, by the way, sounds like a lot of B.S. from Michael Andretti. When Gilles Villeneuve was hired by Ferrari in 1978, he left Quebec for good and moved to Monaco with his family. He didn't fly from Montreal to Manarello every two weeks...

In Formula 1, you have to be totally commited.

 

[michelforest]

Just no
Ps. What you write is your opinion, it can't be a fact!

Well, winning five races in a Ford powered McLaren in 1993 against a completely dominant Williams-Renault indicates just how amazing Senna was that year. Just watch the Donington GP again, when he humiliated (no other word will do) Prost. Do you really believe any other driver on the grid that year could have done as well?

 

[Durge Driven]

I don't like drivers do these things, especially so the other is not around anymore

Rubens was another, after been given the best wins of his career by best team and crying and kissing his teamate on podium at USGP he then goes on to writer how "he could have done this and that" lol


For me but the best was F1 Monaco that year I think after Micheal retired first time
Coulthard and Eddie and Martin sat around the pool somewhere whining about Micheal

No class

 

[Gavkiwi]

There’s no doubt Andretti was an excellent driver. As fast as Senna? Well... it’s one thing to be fast in testing, but you have to deliver during the race and that’s where Andretti failed. I was disappointed because at the time, I was hoping he would do well. I have always liked the Andrettis, father and son... The fact is, in 1993, Senna was at his peak. He was absolutely phenomenal that year. Anybody would have been overshadowed by him.

I remember reading that he refused to live in Europe and was commuting from the US and Europe between races and testing... Is that true? It would certainly explain in part why he failed.

yes, on the concorde

 

[davehenrie]

I cannot remember the years, but Michael developed a certain talent in CART/Champcar. He learned to graze his front wing end-plate into the rear tire of a car he was following. Drivers like Al Jr, Jimmy Vasser and Robbie Gordon were among those suffering cut down rear tires while in front of Michael. Robbie Gordon became famous for yelling on the live team radio "GD Michael did it again..." (at Cleveland and I'm paraphrasing) He applied just enough pressure to damage the tread and NOT rip off his end plate.
We Yanks have seen the different way F1 teams operate compared to Champcar teams. Here each driver had their own Race Engineer, and they had complete freedom to set-up each ca completely different from the other, When Juan Pablo Montoya drove for Williams, he was constrained to use the team setup that was tailored to Ralf Schumacher. While Montoya had some F1 sucess, the two of them never rose to the level they displayed in the States.

 

[123rem]

Andretti's qualifying time difference to Senna:

Kyalami +3.002s
Brazil +0.938s
Donington +0.632s
Imola +0.786s
Barcelona +1.638s
Monaco +1.442s
Montreal +0.523s
Magny-Cours +1.395s
Silverstone +1.128s
Hockenheim +1.915s
Hungaroring +1.656s
Spa +1.899s
Monza +1.266s

 

[Tom Blackett]

Defo a 'yes dear' moment.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

Well, winning five races in a Ford powered McLaren in 1993 against a completely dominant Williams-Renault indicates just how amazing Senna was that year. Just watch the Donington GP again, when he humiliated (no other word will do) Prost. Do you really believe any other driver on the grid that year could have done as well?

You can't pick one race to illustrate an entire career - that's probably why Senna's been idolized so much. How about the rest of the season when he didn't humiliate Prost? how about all the way through the 80s too?

Ayrton was great and on a good day magical. Alain was also great ( personally I think he was a more complete racer & probably the best of the period, he was just terribly boring to watch most of the time ). Nigel was amazing on a good day, I could pick a whole bunch of races to show him being the best driver ever too even when it's obvious he wasn't because half the time he was a bonehead who threw it all away. There are others, I watched them all at the time & it was far more of a contest than people seem to remember.

Michael Andretti I mostly remember from PPG CART when it was on UK TV in the early morning - his F1 appearances just caused me to cringe & wonder when he was going to give up.

 

[Celtic Pharaoh]

In all honesty, I don't see where he said he was as quick as Senna. He said he was up there with him but that could mean he's within a couple or a few tenths of a second. I don't think he necessarily thought he was as quick as Senna. If Prost himself said that Senna was faster than him over 1 lap, key phrase there is over 1 lap, then I highly doubt anyone would have the nerve to say they were as quick as Senna, considering how good Prost was.

 

[tchelogomes]

Poor guy

 

[Frosty]

hahahahahahahahahaha this must be a g up. Senna is and always be the name and man who changed MOTORSPORT FOR EVA simply u are short of this desire Mr Andretti Typical american response really living in the shadows of legends.made me giggle cheers on the post.

 

[gecco]

...If Prost himself said that Senna was faster than him over 1 lap, key phrase there is over 1 lap, then I highly doubt anyone would have the nerve to say they were as quick as Senna, considering how good Prost was.

Thats the key point really.
I watched F1 very closely in the late 80s and early 90s, and while Senna was an all around brilliant driver, it were his astounding capabilities over one timed lap that made him so special at that time. Time and again, he would go out for his quali lap, with the then qualifying tyres really only good for one quick lap, and on the spot, right then and there, extracted pace from the car others did not believe was in it. Not only did Prost acknowledge this, but also Berger, whom I remember saying something along the lines of "we were both pushing each other for the fastest lap, always topping the others best time, and then on Saturday, Aytron goes out for his quali lap, and goes another 0,5sec faster..." He has his 60+ pole positions for a reason...

With regards of the whole Senna fanboyism, Senna was quite certainly the best driver of his generation (mind you though, I personally rate Prost equally good), but other then that, drivers of different generations can not be compared, for the required profile of drivers capabilities ever changes with the constant evolution of the rulework in F1.

 

[John-Eric Saxén]

Yeah, Hakkinen out qualified Senna, then threw the car into the wall on lap 33 of the race.

Yes, he made a mistake in the race, but the point was he out-qualified Senna in his first GP. Was there a GP where Andretti even came close to out-qualifying Senna? Looking at the results it seems he was miles off in quali pace. Yet Hakkinen got within tenths of Senna in two out of three qualifyings.

Hakkinen also had two full seasons under his belt at this point with lotus, where he had plenty of DNF's, just like Andretti.

Yes and guess why, because the car was a Lotus, which especially in Hakkinen's first season was an ancient chassis with no reliability.

Hakkinen had 6 full seasons in F1 before he won, Michael had 13 races.

Hakkinen would have won already in 1994 had McLaren had a decent engine, he still managed to get countless podiums with the useless Peugeot engine and outperformed his team mates massively ever year. Just like Alonso who hasn't won a race in five years, it doesn't mean he suddenly got useless.

 

[jpalesi]

In the end, it depends on what you call being "right there".
If I, random dude, go in a F1 car for a test and I'm 0.5 to 1 second slower than a world champion, I consider I'm "right there".
But an IndyCar champion with plenty of experience ? it's not being "right there".
And no matter some people here say, Hakkinen made Andretti look worse. At least Hakkinen's podium was earned on pace, he was on the top 3 all race.

Yeah, Hakkinen out qualified Senna, then threw the car into the wall on lap 33 of the race.

Ok, that's one Hakkinen crash. How many for Andretti, should we count them ?

Hakkinen also had two full seasons under his belt at this point with lotus, where he had plenty of DNF's, just like Andretti.

And Andretti had like 10 seasons in IndyCar. Hardly an inexperienced driver.

Michael says he was on pace with Senna in testing

We will crown Andretti testing world champion for the 1993 then. Points are earned on sundays (not that Andretti was any good on fridays and saturdays considering he got within 1 second of Senna exactly twice).

Hakkinen had 6 full seasons in F1 before he won, Michael had 13 races.

1994 to 1996 McLaren cars didn't exactly set the world on fire. With some exceptions though. Unless you expect a driver to win in F1 with a crap car.

When he got back to IndyCar he started winning again right away, if fact he won his first race back at Surfers Paradise.

And didn't win the rest of the season. And won just the one race the following year too. And was more involved in silly crashes than fighting for the championship.

 

[jpalesi]

Yes and guess why, because the car was a Lotus, which especially in Hakkinen's first season was an ancient chassis with no reliability.

I had a look at the results for both drivers.
Andretti : 13 races, 7 DNFs - 1 mechanical, 6 driver errors
Hakkinen 91-92 : 30 races, 13 DNFs - 10 mechanical, 3 driver errors
Hakkinen 93 : 3 races, 2 DNFs - 1 mechanical, 1 driver error

Andretti had more race ending mistakes in a partial season than Hakkinen in 2 years. Make of that what you will.

 

[Edward Gonzales]

stupid things were happening that were unexplainable...I like that!

 

[mungopark]

Senna: 2nd in Championship, 73 points/16 races
Andretti: 11th in Championship, 7 points/13 races.

And Senna defeated him in each Qualifying.

 

[AyrtonForever]

Incredible! he was undoubtedly Senna's worst team-mate, pathetically slow and unable to make two consecutive laps without errors. I remember that once Senna had to use his car to do a few laps in qualifying and got knocked out by the absurd setup ... they replaced him with Hakkineno in the last three GPs for obvious incapacity