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Mario Andretti, F1 champion, Indy 500 winner and general motorsport hero, likes to keep himself busy. ‘Busy’ for most pensioners means watching Homes Under the Hammer and doing some gardening. And yet at 82 years old here Mario is, driving a modern Formula 1 car at Laguna Seca. Clearly Mario doesn’t like gardening.
Video: Mario Andretti drives modern McLaren F1 car
The event was the 2022 Velocity Invitational, the car a McLaren MP4/28, as driven by Jenson Button and Sergio Pérez in the 2013 F1 season. Andretti never raced for McLaren in Formula 1, driving for a number of teams including Ferrari and, in his title-winning year, Lotus. But racing for Penske in IndyCar in 1976 and 1977 he found himself behind the wheel of McLarens. Little wonder, then, current McLaren boss Zak Brown was more than happy to throw Mario into the MP4/28.
His opening lap isn’t quick – this is the very first drive he had in the car – but on the second lap he starts to get the throttle pedal down. It’s quite odd to see an F1 car cutting the kerbs through the Corkscrew and knowing the man behind the wheel was born in 1940. What a legend.
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