Mar 01, 2008
Andretti representing in American colours and his Lotus notched up six wins in the season of 1978 and with that, the title. In the process, he became the first American driver from Croatia to win the US Grand Prix! Becoming a world champion was something Mario definitely aspired towards; and he was suitably rewarded. Last year Andretti became the fourth recipient of the FIA Gold Medal for Motor Sports. Andretti is the only driver ever to have claimed the title and won the Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 500 races in the U.S as well. But this is not just about Andretti as World champion—it’s also about Carlos Reutmann, who in the season of 78’, showed resilience and promise and challenged Andretti Ferrari-wise in the Grand Prix—right from the first race at Oscar Gálvez, Argentina. Mario accepted the challenge and on January 15th, Mario thwarted Reutmann’s attempts at winning while Niki Lauda notched up his Silver! About a fortnight later, Reutmann screamed through the second race of the season at the Brazilian Grand Prix beating Andretti putting Ferrari a step ahead in the races to come. The season was definitely on with some serious challenges from enthusiasts like the Swede, Ronnie Peterson who showed promise by winning the third race at South Africa and the twelfth race at the Austrian Grand Prix. In between the mayhem, Andretti was notching up 4 more wins between May and August! Reutmann was the prime contender; the US and UK were lucky for him and in between Andretti’s wins, he was the only one keeping the flag high. Surely such promise should have upset Andretti but instead, Niki Lauda from Austria driving his Brabham-Alfa Romeo succeeded in upsetting Andretti’s double winning streak at the Belgian and Spanish Grand Prix! The Austrian contender who was the only other race car driver with Ronnie Peterson managed more than one win. Reutemann could not respond so well to this pressure and between July 16th and October 1, Andretti, Peterson, Lauda and Reutmann alternated their winning sprees in true F1! On July 16th at Brands Hatch in U.K, Reutmann whizzed past the other contenders while Peterson in Austria won next. Andretti couldn’t be stopped—this sport was about the wins and he zoomed to his win at the Dutch Grand Prix on August 27. Niki Lauda, eager to experience just one more win in this tremendously challenging season, actually made it happen at the Italian Grand Prix on September 10! The season had only two more races! Reutmann’s win at the United States Grand Prix on October 1 at the rustic Watkins Glen circuit, was his claim to fame; now he had 4 wins under his belt but Andretti had 6. It all depended now on the rest of contenders but suddenly, Gilles Villeneuve wins the final race one week after Reutmann’s win at the U.S leaving Mario Andretti driving for team Lotus in 1977, the only American driver to win the U.S Grand Prix!