Honda Calling for Marco Test in F1 Practice Plans
Written by Allan Brewer · February 3, 2007
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Photo: ShaunPayneIRL
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Youngest Andretti Wooed By Two Day Return Engagement in Jerez
Family and Racing Ties Open Doors for Nineteen Year Old Racer
by Allan Brewer
allan@fastmachines.com
The Andretti family bids to send a third generation to Formula 1, or at least flirt with the idea, when Andretti Green Racing’s nineteen year-old Marco Andretti flies to Jerez, Spain next Wednesday for his second try-out for Honda Racing.
Honda supplies the engines for the Indy Racing League, the series in which Marco currently competes as the 2006 Rookie of the Year.
Andretti previously tested the Honda RA106 that the team ran in 2006 back in December, with encouraging results. He was not, however, offered a position on the team or its practice/testing roster at that time.
Honda Racing’s Sporting Director Gil de Ferran extended a new opportunity to test the car to Andretti this week, and the reigning Indy Racing League Rookie of the Year consented.
The two-day affair will give both driver and team the time to indulge more of the finer points of F1 driving.
The extended test should afford Marco a chance to familiarize himself thoroughly with the car’s advanced technology and abilities compared to his IRL machine.
“I am obviously very pleased to have been invited back,” Andretti said when the announcement came on Friday. “I felt that I did a good job in December but on the first day you spend more time getting used to the car and familiarizing yourself with the circuit. When I get in the car this time, I am sure I will be able to hit the ground running. I’m looking forward to it.”
Marco’s dad Michael had a checkered, brief career in F1 during his tenure at McLaren in the early 1990’s. Under their contractual relationship, father retains the services of son through the remaining two racing seasons.
Grandfather Mario raced the primarily European series sporadically from 1968 to 1983, with much greater success, claming only the second American World Championship in 1978. Phil Hill won the series’ crown in 1961 and remains the only American-born driver to take the championship.
Marco Andretti’s drive in the RA106 parallels the “reward” test offered to AGR’s Tony Kanaan after his IRL championship season in 2004. Kanaan, however, was never granted a return visit to test for the team in an extended trial run.
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If you are as old a fan as I am, ya gotta love Andrettis racing anything with wheels. Ican remember pulling for Mario in that redass turbine. (he should have won!!)
if your as old as me then you also remember mario kickin up the dirt as I as remember seeing him do at ascot park the saturday nights before the F1 races in long beach, now thats something we’ll never see again no matter what last name the driver has.
for those of you too young to remember, mario drove in those f1 races the same weekend as running sprint cars the night before at ascot park, he would go out and qualify the f1 car and drive himself over to ascot park, jump in a sprinter and usually win the feature there, get up the next day and win in the john player lotus, now those were some memorable days. I worked for the agajanians(owners of ascot park) at the time and was thrilled to be around all of my heros for such extended days. we would be there before the long beach track opened and close ascot down, head to the party till 2 or 3 am, then back to long beach by 7am to get ready for the warm up and race.