#michael andretti

[logan-sargeant-wdc-truther]

guys imma be so real with you rn, bc the standard way into f1 didnt work out for logan, i think he could try the long way back into f1. he is probably gonna go to indycar and if he can land a ride at andretti sometime while he is in indycar, or even if he cant, he still has a good shot at being a top driver pick when andretti gets their f1 team. they are gonna want someone who has experience in f1, and can drive well. depending on how logan performs in indycar, he will probably fit the bill perfectly. on top of that, being a fully american team, and pushing the narrative about being the first "successful" american team in f1, they are gonna want to have american drivers. if logan plans to try to get back into f1, this is probably the best way. it will set him up with a professional, hard working team that is actually willing to cultivate him and grow with him. he also has a higher chance of having a good car.

so... PLEASE MARCO ANDRETTI SIGN LOGAN TO THE F1 TEAM AND MY LIFE IS YOURS

[pucksandpower]

The United States Congress is potentially threatening to investigate Liberty Media for violating anti-trust laws by refusing Andretti entry to Formula 1 despite FIA approval 🍿

[dailyfe]

Robert Wickens tests Formula E's Gen 3 car during the Portland E-Prix (28/06/24) by Simon Galloway (1-7) & Sam Bagnall (8)

[coimbrabertone]

The Backdoor Deals that Make Motorsport Go Round

This is going to be a bit of a different blogpost.

First things first, last weekend during the Las Vegas Grand Prix, we started hearing about the Andretti Cadillac to F1 story being resolved, at least on the Cadillac side. Today, we got confirmation, with the Cadillac F1 team confirmed to join for 2026. So far, we know this: Dan Towriss will be CEO, Mario Andretti (not Michael) will serve on the board, and Cadillac will initially use a Ferrari power unit while Cadillac develops their own unit in Michigan.

We also know that the team will retain all of Andretti's hires so far - Pat Symonds chief among them - and that the team will be based in Fishers, Indiana (where Andretti's new base will be) with a sort of forward operating base in Silverstone.

So...it's Andretti with the serial numbers filed off.

And I think this has been in the works for a long time.

Let me talk about a few things, and then we'll weave all these little threads together to show a bigger picture.

First things first, Michael Andretti launches Andretti Aquisition Corporation I - a Special-Purpose Acquisition Corporation, which is a public company that exists for the whole purpose of buying out a private company, merging with that private company, and using that to make the private company public in a streamlined manner - to merge into an AI company called Zapata.

Zapata starts trading at $10 a share, it almost immediately drops to $2.95 a share, and it keeps dropping. As of November 25th, 2024, Zapata AI stock is trading at $0.02 a share. That is quite literally two cents a share.

I don't need an economics degree to tell you that was a shitshow of a stock.

Second of all, at the Miami Grand Prix, Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei reportedly promised to do everything in his power to keep the Andretti name out of Formula One.

Third of all, in response, Mario Andretti goes to his friends on Capitol Hill - Mario is the big political donor of the family - and petitions Congress to begin an antitrust probe into Formula One and Liberty Media.

Fourth of all, at the end of the 2024 NTT Indycar Series, Michael Andretti announces his decision to step down from the day-to-day running of Andretti Global. Dan Towriss, co-owner and the man who brought in Group 1001 (and its Gainbridge and Delaware Life subsidiaries) to the team, has been taken control. Michael is still a strategic advisor and maintains that he will still be connected to this team, but...it's a change.

And for whatever it's worth, there are whispers that Michael Andretti stepping down wasn't entirely his own decision.

Fifth of all, two weeks ago, Greg Maffei announced he is stepping down from his role at Formula One and Liberty Media at the end of the year.

Finally, like I said, it has now been confirmed that Cadillac will enter Formula One as its eleventh team. Mario is on the board, Dan Towriss is in charge, and the team will be run on Cadillac's behalf by Towriss' TWG Global.

TWG Global is said to be the owner of Andretti Global in Indycar, Wayne Taylor Racing in IMSA, and Spire Motorsports in NASCAR. That last one is particularly notable because, while there have been rumors about Andretti buying into Spire and Towriss' companies consistently sponsor the Spire cars, this is the first time we've actually heard about him owning a piece of Spire.

I guess Dan Towriss' thing is quietly acquiring racing teams without putting his name on them.

In any case, after all that, Cadillac is going to be in F1, the Andretti organization is going to run the team, but the Andretti name - particularly Michael Andretti - is not going to be attached to this project.

To illustrate that point, today, Michael Andretti tweeted about how proud he is about an American team entering Formula One and that he'll be cheering them on from the outside.

So...what has happened?

I think Michael Andretti got burnt bad on the Zapata stock, and I think it's possible that he might have been playing with some of Dan Towriss' money while doing so. So, Andretti now owes Towriss money, Towriss sees Formula One as a more lucrative return on investment than Indycar, and Michael Andretti has rubbed people the wrong way in Formula One.

Liberty Media and Formula One don't want Michael Andretti in Formula One.

Cadillac and Towriss want to be in F1.

Mario Andretti is a World Champion, so his name carries weight in Europe, but Michael Andretti's name does not. People in Europe either don't know who Michael is or remember him for that disastrous McLaren stint.

They don't care that Michael's bad 1993 was sandwiched either side by challenging for the championship in CART.

So...I think Michael Andretti had to get out of the way.

I think Greg Maffei had to get out of the way as well.

Cadillac is a big money name, Dan Towriss is a big money guy, and Formula One wants the American market, so an American manufacturer is an immense resource in that regard. So, in the name of the money, they got rid of the two big egos holding the deal up, and they got the team on the grid.

Now, I'm not a news source or anything, I'm just speculating on the bits and pieces of this that we know are public, but I find it hard to believe it's a complete coincidence that Michael steps down, Maffei announces his retirement, and then suddenly a Cadillac team is accepted with Andretti in more of a background role.

To me, it screams of a background deal for the greater good of the money people.

Liberty Media and Formula One don't want the Department of Justice sniffing around their business. Towriss and Cadillac want a piece of that Formula One pie. Mario Andretti wants to see his family's team in Formula One before he dies.

As for Michael, well...Andretti Global was his team, but he brought in investors, he started hiring people, he started building facilities in Indiana and in Motorsport Valley. The ball was already rolling, and Michael Andretti was the only thing holding it up.

Was he forced out? Maybe, but I think it's more likely that he was given a light push and a retirement package so that he can sit on his couch with his granddaughter and watch his team put a car on the Formula One grid.

Just without his name on it.

[frederikvesti]

The team of ANDRETTI GREEN RACING (BRYAN HERTA, TONY KANAAN & DAN WHELDON), plus team owner MICHAEL ANDRETTI, celebrate the victory of teammate DARIO FRANCHITTI at the 2005 Firestone Indy 200 at Nashville Superspeedway.

[flatoutin-eaurouge]

In another world Mika would be a hair stylist and shampoo commercial model. I would trust this man with my hair.

[anandrettisimp]

I figured I should really live up to the username.

So ladies, gentlemen and friends outside the binary, let’s talk about Michael Andretti, probably one of the most fascinating of next gen drivers.

For an adorable start, he didn’t fully understand what Mario did when he was young, once telling a teacher that his dad “Goes to the airport and makes bread.” because that was how Mario would explain it when asked where he was going.

But yeah, as much as Mario was out driving everything with an engine, he never encouraged his children to follow his career path. In fact, as Michael started to seriously consider a racing career, Mario had made him go to community college, where he studied business studies, just so he had something to fall back on if it didn’t work out.

So although Mario didn’t push him into racing, by the time he chose it, there was no getting around who his dad was.

An F1 and IndyCar champion.

And anyone who may of approached him expecting the same witty sound bites as they had came to expect from Mario were no doubt in for a surprise when they got his far more introverted son.

Which probably added to how overly focus in on racing he was to cope.

Like, sponsor doing a dinner the day before a race, Michael will show up. But was he there by the time the meal came out?

Probably not.

But he won races and the CART championship in 1991.

He also had one of the biggest heart breaks at Indy in 1992 where, after leading 160 laps and also having to compartmentalise his dad and brother’s crashes, on lap 189, his fuel pump failed as he had half a lap on the field.

And then the McLaren call happened.

That chance at the pinnacle of racing.

That series that the last American race winner, never mind champion, was his dad.

And oh boy was it a crash and burn.

Between the change in engine supplier, Senna “leaving” and coming back, rule changes, it was a recipe for disaster.

Of course Michael didn’t help matters as he didn’t move to the England.

Mostly because his plan was to move his young family with him which apparently hadn’t gone down well with his then wife.

There were times were he would be at a test, there was issues with the car and Michael would be told to go home. The car would then be fixed and Mika Hakkinen (who would have been in the car in the first place if Senna hadn’t changed his mind) would continue the test.

Ron Dennis would have dropped Michael sooner but Mario begged him to let his son do Monza.

While it’s no longer the last points scored by an American thanks to loints, it’s still the last podium by one.

There was a story that I can no longer find that after he was dropped Michael showed up at a race and just invited himself into McLaren hospitality just to wind up Ron and like, respect.

So it was back to CART and in 1994, in his first race back, he won.

It’s at this point that I’m going to stop talking about Michael’s career cause I think you all have an idea now.

But now Marco, Michael’s eldest child, was getting into racing at the go kart level. He was winning races and championships yet Michael wasn’t happy. While he was now in his father’s position, he had also been in his son’s. Michael’s brother Jeff and cousin John also had racing careers in their own rights by then (though neither were as successful as Mario or Michael).

So he asked Marco a question.

Was he having fun.

Marco couldn’t answer, later on he admitted that he wasn’t as, as far as he was concerned, he was doing what was expected of him as an Andretti. Now I should point out this was what a nine year old was thinking.

As a result, Michael withdrew him from racing for a year so that Marco could decide if actually wanted to race or not.

That’s right, Michael put his child’s mental health and well being ahead of any family legacy desire. Did it work out in the long run? Probably not I mean, Marco managed to get bullied in a private school due to being an Andretti which is fucking wild but he supported his son decisions. Heck, he even let him apply for a certain seat at Penske that Will Power ended up getting (allegedly Marco was amongst the final drivers before they went for Will so there’s a hell of a what if for you all).

His second child Marissa, she went to university and as much as she could of and did work elsewhere, decided she wanted to join Andretti Autosport. She’s now Vice President of Andretti Global and the Managing Director of Andretti Technologies. Like, see that new base they’re building in Fishers, Indiana for all of Andretti’s teams? She’s the one in charge of that.

Middle child Lucca doesn’t seem to be involved at all in motorsport while his youngest children, twins Mia and Rio, are still in school and although Rio apparently likes playing in go karts, he’s got no desire to actually compete.

And Michael respects that.

He has been the son of.

He’s been the father of.

And he’s been able to give his children the option without putting pressure on them.

[velvetvexations]

Every day you should remind yourself that they won't let Michael Andretti, the single most iconic American open-wheel race car driver and also a Formula One champion, enter a team, but they let Nikita Mazepin drive.

[indycarnocontext]

[changing-my-username]

Andretti Andretti

Michael's F1 career is full of regretti

[thisisyourdriverspeaking]

Look at me posting two editions of these in two days. Here we go - onto the 2003 Indy 500. Enjoy this set of tunes 😊😊

Helio Castroneves (Car 3) - Daniel Bedingfield - If You're Not The One

Tony Kanaan (Car 11) - Snoop Dogg ft Pharrell & Uncle Charlie Wilson - Beautiful

Robby Gordon (Car 27) - Ginuwine ft Baby - Hell Yeah

Scott Dixon (Car 9) - 3 Doors Down - When I'm Gone

Dan Wheldon (Car 26) - Floetry - Say Yes

Kenny Brack (Car 15) - Tyrese - How You Gonna Act Like That

Tora Takagi (Car 12) - Wayne Wonder - No Letting Go

Tony Renna (Car 32) - Jennifer Lopez - I'm Glad

Scott Sharp (Car 8) - Evanescence ft Paul McCoy - Bring Me To Life

Gil De Ferran (Car 6) - 50 Cent - In Da Club

Roger Yasukawa (Car 55) - Rascal Flatts - Love You Out Loud

Tomas Scheckter (Car 10) - Kid Rock ft Sheryl Crow - Picture

Michael Andretti (Car 7) - Justin Timberlake - Rock Your Body

Greg Ray (Car 13) - Lil' Kim ft 50 Cent - Magic Stick

Shinji Nakano (Car 54) - Lil' Kim ft Mr Cheeks - The Jump Off

Felipe Giaffone (Car 21) - Monica - So Gone

Al Unser Jr (Car 31) - Audioslave - Like A Stone

Sam Hornish Jr (Car 4) - Busta Rhymes & Mariah Carey ft The Flipmode Squad - I Know What You Want

Buddy Rice (Car 52) - Trapt - Headstrong

Jaques Lazier (Car 2) - 50 Cent ft Nate Dogg - 21 Questions

Buddy Lazier (Car 91) - Red Hot Chili Peppers - Can't Stop

Robbie Buhl (Car 24) - Uncle Kracker ft Dobie Gray - Drift Away

AJ Foyt IV (Car 14) - Matchbox Twenty - Unwell

Sarah Fisher (Car 23) - Jaheim - Put That Woman First

Alex Barron (Car 20) - Christina Aguilera - Fighter

Vitor Meira (Car 22) - Ashanti - Rock Wit U (Awww Baby)

Jimmy Vasser (Car 19) - Nas - I Can

Richie Hearn (Car 99) - Bowling For Soup - Girl All The Bad Guys Want

Billy Boat (Car 98) - Nelly - Pimp Juice

Shigeaki Hattori (Car 5) - Fabolous ft Mike Shorey & Lil' Mo - Can't Let You Go

Robbie McGehee (Car 44) - Lonestar - My Front Porch Looking In

Jimmy Kite (Car 18) - Aaliyah - Miss You

Airton Dare (Car 41) - Toby Keith & Willie Nelson - Beer For My Horses

All added to this playlist 😊😊😊

[fake-f1-news]

Andretti Banned "Because They'd Be Too Fast"

Andretti's recent attempt to join the F1 grid from 2025 was rejected because F1 "feared they would be too quick", dffsadg understands.

"When F1 announced the news, they claimed that Andretti would not "be a competitive participant". Total poppycock, of course, as demonstrated by the newest F1 team, Haas, who finished 2023 last in the constructors championship for the 2nd time in 3 seasons. The only logical explanation is that F1 found some evidence that Andretti would be far too competitive straight away, which they could never allow!" claimed F1 fan Flibberts McGee.

"Call me a conspiracy theorist all you like, but think about it. How embarrassing would it be for F1, if a new team joined, and immediately started winning races? That would give potential future F1 teams hope, and we can't have that! Hope that they could be competitive in the sport. Hope that they won't be 3 seconds off the pace of the next best car, as was the case with the 3 teams that joined F1 in 2010. And don't forget to pay your exorbitant entrance fee, designed to bankrupt new teams before their first race!"

F1 officials seeing Andretti cars pulling away from Max Verstappen in their 3rd race.

When these comments were put to F1 insiders, F1 responded:

"You should all be glad that we rejected Andretti. Back in the olden days, any old bastard could rock up to the circuit, and attempt to qualify their shitty cars. There was even that shoe company that effectively tried to kill one of their drivers in 1992. Just be grateful these idiots can no longer drive their shitboxes willy nilly. We're just trying to protect the sport from unprepared teams. Are Andretti REALLY ready for F1? McLaren thought Michael Andretti was ready in 1993, and look how that turned out. Do you really think 30+ years out of the sport is enough time to prepare to return?! Also, Andretti's refusal to insert the line "We're Andretti, we've eaten too much spaghetti, and we're full of regretti" in their application/initial pitch was a disgusting oversight by the owners/upper management, and the line's absence immediately showed questionable judgement from the team."

[superstar49]

ANDRETTI TO F1 IS IMMINENT.

[coimbrabertone]

The Full Story of the Andretti Indycar Team

On September 27th, 2024, Jay Penske's sportico.com website reported that Michael Andretti was relinquishing ownership of Andretti Global and stepping back into a strategic role.

Michael Andretti, who spent over twenty years racing in Indycar in his own right and spent just as long as a team owner, was stepping away from team ownership, handing the reins to investor Dan Towriss.

Now, a lot of people have speculated as to why:

Some people say that Michael and Dan had a falling out earlier this season and Michael ultimately left.

Others say that Michael promised Dan an entry into Formula One, and now that the teams have firmly blocked that, Dan demanded some kind of return on his investment.

Others yet think that Michael stepping away is a way to smooth over the friction between Michael and the F1 team bosses, potentially giving an avenue for the Towriss-led Andretti Cadillac to make it into F1 after all.

There is also, you know, the possibility that Michael Andretti was being entirely truthful. He simply wants to step back to a more strategic role rather than dealing with team ownership.

We don't know the real answer though.

Nor is it the topic of this blog.

Instead, this blog is a retrospective on Andretti as a race team, particularly in Indycar. How they started, how the Andrettis got involved, some of the high points, and what the team means to Indycar now that, in one way or another, it won't even been the same.

The story starts in 1993, when Barry Green (a senior Australian engineer who worked with teams like Forsythe and Kraco) and Gerry Forsythe himself (who had run an Indycar team in the early and mid 80s) partnered with Player's cigarettes out of Canada to create a Formula Atlantic team, with Quebecois drivers Claude Bourbonnais and Jacques Villeneuve.

Claude finished second in the standings that year, Jacques just behind in third.

With a promising debut, the team moved up to CART in 1994, fielding Jacques Villeneuve in a Player's sponsored car. Jacques would finish second at Indy and take his debut win at Road America, to finish sixth in the standings and snatch rookie of the year.

Come 1995, the team experienced an ownership split. Barry Green kept Players and Villeneuve initially, while Gerry Forsythe started his own team with Teo Fabi - who had previously driven for Forsythe in 1983 - as the driver.

That didn't stop Team Green from continuing to be successful.

Villeneuve won the season opening Grand Prix of Miami, the Indianapolis 500, Road America yet again, and Cleveland to win the championship.

All of this was enough for Frank Williams to snatch Villeneuve out of Indycar and bring him over to Formula One.

Furthermore, Forsythe secured the Player's sponsorship for his own team for 1996, hiring Greg Moore to drive.

Meanwhile, Team Green had a pair of mediocre seasons in 1996 and 1997, with Raul Boesel and Parker Johnstone, respectively, however, by 1998, the team was ready to compete.

Barry's brother Kim joined in as co-manager of the team, KOOL cigarettes signed up as sponsor for 1997, and they switched to Honda engines that same year.

Then for 1998, they brought on Penske's Paul Tracy and Hogan's Dario Franchitti as drivers. Paul and Dario in those white, green, and gold KOOL cars would be defining drivers in those golden era of CART.

Dario struck first, winning Road America, Vancouver, and Houston in 1998, finishing third in the standings.

Come 1999, and Dario won Toronto, Detroit, and Surfers Paradise, whilst Paul Tracy won at Milwaukee and Houston. Dario finished second to Juan Pablo Montoya on countback, whilst Paul Tracy finished third.

This was Team Green's finest hour.

Paul Tracy won at Long Beach, Road America, and Vancouver in 2000 to finish fifth, but Dario struggled, and more than that, the two gained a reputation for crashing into each other. They crashed into each other at Houstin in 1998 (which Dario won), Gateway in 1999, Chicago in 2000...they were quite literally doing it once a year.

That wasn't the end of it either, since it happened again in Denver in 2002.

Anyway, also in 2001, Michael Andretti enters the story.

Now, Michael had worked with Barry Green at Kraco, but after that, Michael joined his father at Newman/Haas. From 1989 to 1992, Mario and Michael were teammates, and when Mario retired at the end of the 1994 season, it paved the way for Michael to return to Newman/Haas through the end of the 2000 season.

However, Michael wanted to race in the Indianapolis 500, and Newman/Haas was a CART diehard team. Thus, in 2001, Michael partnered with Motorola, Kevin Savoree, and Kim Green to create a satellite entry in the form of Team Motorola.

Michael won Toronto in 2001 and Long Beach in 2002 with Team Motorola, while also finishing 3rd and 7th, respectively, at Indianapolis in those years.

For 2002, Paul Tracy and Dario joined him, in 7Eleven sponsored cars - really a business-to-business (B2B) deal between KOOL and 7Eleven, effectively saying "come buy your cigarettes here!" - and Paul Tracy was pulling off a pass for the lead on Helio Castroneves as the caution came out.

Helio was deemed to have been ahead as Paul complained on the radio, saying that it was the IRL trying to cheat a CART driver out of the win, but the race finished under caution and Castroneves won his second consecutive Indy 500.

For 2003, Michael bought out Barry, with Kim Green and Kevin Savoree initially staying on as smaller partners.

Thus, Team KOOL Green became Andretti Green Racing, and they moved over to the IRL Indycar Series.

Dario Franchitti remained in the #27 car, picking up the Motorola sponsorship, while the 7Eleven sponsorship led to the other two cars becoming the #7 and the #11. The #7 would be driven by Michael Andretti through the end of the Indianapolis 500, while the #11 would be taken over by Tony Kanaan - Paul Tracy had refused to move over to the IRL, so he signed for Forsythe in CART instead.

Dan Wheldon, in a Jim Beam sponsored #26 car, would effectively replace the retiring Michael Andretti after the Indy 500.

In 2004, with the team adding on Bryan Herta in a fourth car - the XM Satellite Radio sponsored #7 - Andretti Green Racing would become the Indycar superteam. They had more cars than anybody else, their Honda engines were better than the Toyota and Chevrolet engines the competition were running, and the likes of Wheldon, Kanaan, and Franchitti would go on a tear.

Tony Kanaan would win the 2004 championship, Dan Wheldon finished second.

Dan Wheldon won the 2005 championship, Tony Kanaan finished second.

Also in 2005, the team achieved two massive milestones.

First, they swept the top four positions at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The race in Florida was the first IRL event on a road or street circuit rather than an oval, and Andretti dominated it.

Dan Wheldon first, Tony Kanaan second, Dario Franchitti third, and Bryan Herta fourth.

Second, they won their first Indianapolis 500, capping off a career year for Dan Wheldon.

With Wheldon going to Ganassi for 2006, while Chevy and Toyota pulled out - meaning Penske and Ganassi now had those same Honda engines that Andretti was so successful with - marked a bit of a stumble for the team.

Nevertheless, with Marco Andretti replacing Wheldon in the #26, Michael returned for the Indianapolis, the father-son duo finishing second and third, narrowly losing out to Penske's Sam Hornish.

Still, Tony Kanaan won at Milwaukee and Marco won at Sonoma.

2007 marked a return to form, with Dario Franchitti winning at Indianapolis, Iowa, Richmond, and Chicagoland to take his first championship. Five wins for Tony Kanaan ensured he finished third in the standings as well.

Also, Danica Patrick took over the #7 car, putting a woman in top machinery in Indycar for the first time. She'd finish seventh that year, behind Dario and Tony, but ahead of eleventh placed Marco.

In 2008, Tony would win at Richmond to finish third in the standings again, however, the biggest story around Andretti Green Racing that year was Danica Patrick winning at Motegi. Now, a lot of people diminish this win, saying that half the Indycar world was in Long Beach for the the final Champ Car race.

However, those people don't seem to say that for all the wins that Tony, Dario, and Dan Wheldon got for that team.

Furthermore, at this point, the IRL had won the war. Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves, all the Andretti guys...sure it wasn't a peak field, but neither was Champ Car at this point. There is a reason that the two series had no choice but to merge.

In any case, the team was on a bit of a decline as well, with the team going winless in a 2009 season where Danica beat out TK by seven points to be Andretti's top driver that season, finishing fifth.

Ryan Hunter-Reay would join the team in 2010 - now rebranded from Andretti Green Racing to Andretti Autosport - and lead them back towards the front of the field, eventually winning the championship in 2012 and the Indianapolis 500 in 2014.

Meanwhile, James Hinchcliffe won at St. Pete, Sao Paulo, and Iowa in 2013 to give the team that one-two punch again.

2015 was another struggle, only winning a single win - Detroit Race 1 with Carlos Munoz - but the team bounced back in 2016, with Alexander Rossi winning the Indianapolis 500 in the Andretti/Herta #98.

Takuma Sato in the #26 would give the team back-to-back Indianapolis 500 victories with his win in 2017, the first ever for a Japanese driver.

Then in 2018, wins at Long Beach, Mid-Ohio, and Pocono, Alexander Rossi would finish second in the championship.

Wins at Long Beach and Road America in 2019 would give Rossi another title challenge, finishing third this time.

Rossi - and Andretti proper - would go winless in 2020, but the affiliated Harding-Steinbrenner car of Colton Herta won the second race at Mid-Ohio.

On top of wins at COTA and Laguna Seca in 2019 before Harding-Steinbrenner joined up with Andretti, this marked Colton's ascendancy at the team his dad once drove for. He would finish third in the standings in 2020.

He won St. Pete, Laguna Seca, and Long Beach in 2021 but regressed to fifth, whilst Rossi, Hunter-Reay, and the returning Hinchcliffe all went winless.

A win for Herta at the first IMS Road Course race and a win for Rossi at the second marked a somewhat better 2022, but with Penske and Ganassi continuing their dominance of the series, while Arrow McLaren emerged as best of the rest, it marked a serious decline for Andretti. Especially once Rossi left Andretti to join an expanding Arrow McLaren team.

To add insult to injury, Rossi in ninth was Andretti's best car in 2022.

This got even worse in 2023, when Rossi's replacement, Kyle Kirkwood won at Long Beach and Nashville, but he was eleventh, and Colton Herta was tenth.

This was bad.

The team was making a lot of noise about trying to get into Formula One, and it even rebranded to Andretti Global as part of those efforts, but how were they going to build their own car for Formula One when they weren't even doing well in a spec series like Indycar?

More bad news for 2024 as DHL left the #28 car - most recently driven by Romain Grosjean - to sponsor Alex Palou for 2024. Andretti Global went from four car super team in 2005 to mid table in 2024 - they needed to consolidate resources if they wanted to get back to the front.

So they did.

Colton Herta in the #26 and Kyle Kirkwood in the #27 remained, but the #28 was taken over by Marcus Ericsson, while the #29 of Devlin DeFrancesco went away entirely. The four-car team was down to a comparatively sleek three, and they hoped to consolidate resources.

Well, wins at Toronto and Nashville Superspeedway ensured Colton Herta finished second in the standings, while Kyle Kirkwood was seventh, and Marcus Ericsson was fifteenth.

The team bounced back somewhat, and things looked good in the offseason.

Sure, Andretti seemed no closer to joining Formula One than they had before, but they consolidated resources to improve in Indycar, while getting ready to move into their fancy new headquarters in Fishers, Indiana.

There was some grumblings that two teams held out on signing Indycar's charter agreement all the way up until the final moment, but it wasn't exactly clear who the holdouts were.

Then Michael Andretti announced he was stepping back at Andretti Global. That...was interesting. That could mean he was the hold out, or maybe not.

It could mean that Towriss seized control of the team, or maybe not.

It could be a ploy to win over the Formula One teams, or maybe not.

It's unclear what will happen to Andretti Global going forward, but this is the story of what has happened to Andretti thus far.

[frederikvesti]

DAN WHELDON, BRYAN HERTA & MICHAEL ANDRETTI - 2005 Indianapolis 500

[alexandrawiky]

“Offspring.” He sighed and cleared his voice. “I want to be honest. I would have rathered life to have gone on the way it was going. I feel too old to be a father. I don’t want you to be misled about how I feel about you. I’m not sure if I can love you ever, but I want to know you. I want to be part of your life.

“You see, it’s different to normally having a kid,” he told me. “You see them as lovable babies and then watch them grow. With you I feel as if I’ve started reading a book from the middle and have to try and figure out the beginning.”

Michael Andretti 💬

Sometimes, even an estranged parent deserves a second chance 💗

Looking for Alibrandi - Melina Marchetta