by Linus O'Howell
With the news announced that the FIA has officially accepted Andretti’s proposal for a place on the Formula 1 grid in the near future. Whilst there’s still a while to go before we can officially dream of seeing the famous team line up alongside the likes of Red Bull, Ferrari, and Aston Martin at Monaco, it’s definetly fair to say that this would be a great thing for all parties and fans. It’s also worth mentioning that Andretti Autosport have had plenty of success in other racing categories and with that in mind, I’m going to take you through the success of Andretti in other categories and why they should believe they can achieve things if they eventually join Formula 1.
Andretti in IndyCar
After appearing in a couple of Indy 500’s in the early 2000s, Andretti officially joined the IndyCar grid in 2003 and they have since gone on to win four Drivers’ Championships.
The first one came for Tony Kanaan in 2004 before Kanaan was beaten to the title by his teammate Dan Wheldon in 2005. Andretti then recaptured the Drivers’ Title in 2007 thanks to Dario Franchitti before American driver Ryan Hunter-Reay won the title in 2012.
📸 The late Dan Wheldon won a title with Andretti.
Since then, however, Andretti Autosport haven’t won another IndyCar Championship, with Alexander Rossi coming the closest in 2018. Still, Andretti have had a pretty successful time in IndyCar winning 4 Team’s Championships and 95 races with six of them being the Indy 500 which is pretty good going.
Formula E
Andretti joined Formula E when the series started back in 2014 and they’ve had plenty of partnerships over the years with the likes of Amlin, BMW I and Avalanche.
Andretti never had the easiest of times in Formula E and it took until their 46th E-Prix in the first race of Season 5 for them to finally pick up their first win in the series (thanks to Antonio Felix da Costa).
📸 Andretti are the reigning driver's championship winners, with Jake Dennis the winner of the 2022-23 season.
Since then, Andretti have gotten better and closer to a championship title before finally, in London this year, Jake Dennis was crowned ABB FIA Formula E Champion to the delight of everyone in the Avalanche Andretti team. As someone that’s watched every Formula E race since Season 7, I can say that Dennis is a super driver and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Andretti win a few more titles in Formula E over the next few years.
Other Notable Series/Championships
📸 Hunter McElrea - Indy NXT.
Andretti have also competed in a bunch of other championships(IMSA, Indy NXT, Extreme E and more) over the years and have had lots of success in them. Andretti have won 5 Drivers’ title in Indy Lights (think of it as/like F2) with the likes of Raphael Matos, Pato O’Ward, and Oliver Askew (who went on to drive for them in Formula E) whilst they also won the Teams’ Championship 3 times (2018,19,22).
Andretti also won five Rallycross titles in a row (3 in Global and 2 in America) and amazingly, Scott Speed won four of them (for Volkswagen Andretti). Andretti also won the CART Championship in 1995, the USF2000 Title in 2010 and they are currently in their third season of Extreme E having won their one and only race in Greenland (in 2021).
To summarise, Andretti is one of the most iconic names in the history of Motorsport and I think it would be great to see them on the Formula 1 grid. If they do get accepted into F1, who would you like to see as their driver line-up?
📸 Could the 'Kyle Kirkwood thumb' be part of Andretti's F1 future?
📸 Image credits: Andretti Global, Andretti Avalanche, Indy NXT, NTT IndyCar Series.
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