Mario Andretti has recently turned 84 years old, but he’s as fast as ever. He answers the phone and, in the minutes before boarding a plane for a business trip, gets excited about Ferrari’s win in the third round of the 2024 Formula 1 season at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne. A victory that, in his opinion, holds great significance. “I saw the race, it was fantastic. Congratulations to Ferrari! This victory was not handed to them, even though Max Verstappen dropped out early. Carlos Sainz in particular had a great pace from the start and drove a beautiful race. I’m always happy to see a red car win, let alone scoring a one-two finish like in Australia.”
Here is Mario Andretti’s interview for the Italian daily newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport:
Is Red Bull still the absolute ruler of Formula 1? Or was this just an isolated incident?
“No, results like these are real, tangible. It wasn’t a fluke: Ferrari had the pace in free practice and in qualifying. They did everything right from Friday, and it was great to see Carlos at 100% after the surgery that sidelined him in Arabia. He and Leclerc are now there, they can take on anyone.”
So, can this happen again during the year?
“Absolutely yes, Ferrari has closed the gap. This was a well-constructed feat from the start. It will be interesting to watch the rest of the season, but I’ve seen good signs. This time Ferrari did everything right, with the tires and also with the strategies, two areas that were weaknesses in the past.”
Is Carlos Sainz, who has won the last two GPs for the team, a surprise?
“Not at all. I’ve always said that both Carlos and Charles are drivers capable of winning races and even a championship. They are both ‘championship material,’ we’ve seen it and continue to see it.”
The Spaniard was superb, while Charles Leclerc changed his setup in qualifying and said goodbye to pole. A costly mistake.
“You always have to try to do better, adapt the car to your driving style: it’s not a mistake to change the setup to try and get something more out of it. Of course, you’re taking a risk and sometimes it doesn’t pay off, it’s not guaranteed to be the right direction. Carlos, compared to Charles, had everything set up well from the start in Melbourne, a better feeling with the SF-24. I’m a bit sorry to see that he was sacrificed to make room for Lewis Hamilton. But for sure, with the way he’s racing, he deserves to find a seat with which to fight for wins: he has earned a top team for the future.”
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Max Verstappen hadn’t retired in two years, his knockout is a rarity: could the atmosphere at Red Bull have played a part?
“No, it was a coincidence. It’s also hard to think that it could have been a mechanic’s distraction. Anyway, what happened inside the team is still a bad blow for everyone: the tension might leave some slag, it’s negative.”
Mercedes is in crisis but Hamilton is always behind Russell: has he lost his shine?
“Lewis has often had a means to try to win in his career, he didn’t need to bring out 100% and so he rarely made mistakes. Russell was fighting every minute with a non-competitive Williams, when he moved to Mercedes he thought he had arrived in heaven and instead found himself fighting again: he is used to it and so he is ahead of his teammate. Hamilton seemed superhuman but he too is human, as happened to Schumacher when after his successes with Ferrari he returned to Formula 1 with Mercedes and the impossible no longer worked for him. But it will still be very interesting to see Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, with his great desire to end his career in Maranello.”
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