The last corner at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), a Grade 1 FIA-specification 5.514-kilometre motor racing track and facilities located within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of Austin, Texas, will be renamed in honour of former Scuderia Ferrari driver and Formula 1 legend Mario Andretti, with just a few days ahead of the United States Grand Prix.
Mario Andretti – who not long ago got behind the wheel of a 2013-spec McLaren – remains one of only two American drivers to have secured the Formula 1 World title, achieving this performance in 1978, 17 years after Phil Hill won the Formula 1 world championship for Scuderia Ferrari.
Mario Andretti was a winner in NASCAR and IndyCar by the time he moved to Grand Prix racing and secured race victories, with his 1978 Dutch success the last for an American driver in Formula 1.
During his long motorsport career, Mario Andretti became the only driver to win the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500, US Open-wheel title (now IndyCar), and the Formula 1 title. The former Ferrari driver also finished second overall in the 1995 Le Mans 24 Hours.
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Corner 20 at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), which will become ‘The Andretti’ following a ceremony on Thursday, is a medium-speed left-hander at the end of the Austin lap, that feeds onto the DRS-assisted start/finish straight before the climb up to Turn 1.
The IndyCar and NASCAR series have also raced on the purpose-built Grand Prix circuit, with MotoGP also heading to the state capital of Texas for events.
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