CART drivers who raced in F1: From Andretti to Zanardi part 1
Champ Car is no more. Once the top American single-seater racing series, home to past and future F1 drivers, it came to an end on April 20th with its final race at Long Beach.
Its influence on Formula 1 was huge. F1 nicked all manner of innovations from CART* including refuelling pit stops and today’s tyre rules. At its height in the early 1990s Bernie Ecclestone even tried to organise race between top F1 and CART drivers, and looked at putting oval races on the F1 schedule.
In three decades of Champ Car from 1979 to 2008 72 drivers from the American series also started F1 races – and a further 26 had F1 tests. Starting today this nine-part feature will recall the careers of each any every one of them.
Mario Andretti
Best known to Formula 1 fans as the 1978 world champion (pictured top), Andretti had an extensive racing career in America that lasted until 1994. He won the Champ Car title for Newman/Haas in 1984 and took 19 victories from 209 starts.
Read more about Mario Andretti: Mario Andretti biography
Michael Andretti
A giant in Champ car with 42 wins from 309 starts, he should have won the Indianapolis 500 but for some serious bad luck. At Michigan in 2000 he was narrowly pipped to victory by Juan Pablo Montoya in one of the most thrilling ends to a race I have ever seen (pictured above).
His son Marco (now in Indy Car) recently claimed sinister forces at McLaren were responsible for Michael’s torrid F1 season in 1993. Wiser observed suggested that commuting from Florida and partnering Ayrton Senna were never the smartest ways of going F1 racing.
Read more about Michael Andretti: Michael Andretti biography
Ian Ashley
Ashley had a brief F1 career in the 1970s, starting only four races from 11 attempts. He had a similarly brief Champ Car CV of five starts from 1985-87.
Mauro Baldi
Baldi struggled with uncompetitive Arrows, Alfa Romeos and Spirit entries in F1, managing a best finish of fifth at Zandvoort in 1985. He made a single Champ Car start for Dale Coyne in 1994.
Fabrizio Barbazza
Twelve appearances for AGS in 1991 yielded not a single race start for Barbazza in 1991. But two consecutive points finishes for Minardi in 1993 hinted at his potential, though he was dropped mid-season.
In between those efforts he returned to Arciero Wells Champ Car team who he had also driven for in 1987 and 1989. A huge crash in an IMSA race in 1995 left Barabazza in a coma, and he hasn’t raced since.
Enrique Bernoldi
Bernoldi only achieved fame in F1 when he spent half of the 2001 Monaco Grand Prix holding up David Coulthard, who had fallen to the back of the field following problems at the start. Bernoldi started the final Champ Car race for Conquest this year and finished fourth.
Mark Blundell
Blundell scored two podiums for Ligier in 1993 and added a third for Tyrrell in 1994. The following year he got a break for McLaren after Nigel Mansell left the team, but the first Mercedes-powered car was an uncompetitive proposition.
He found himself out of F1 and switched to Champ Car where he enjoyed some success, winning an incredibly close race at Portland in 1997 where 0.055s covered the top three. That came after a gigantic crash in only his second race in Rio de Janeiro when his brakes failed, Blundell later admitting he had tried to soften the blow by hitting the siter car of fellow ex-F1 driver Mauricio Gugelmin, but missed. His Champ Car career ended in 2000.
Read more about Mark Blundell: Mark Blundell biography
Raul Boesel
Boesel raced the generally uncompetitive March and Ligier cars in 1982 and 1983. He had a much longer career in Champ Cars, but never scored a win in 172 starts between 1985 and 1999.
Incidentally, he was the car in third place behind Blundell at Portland in 1997, sandwiching Gil de Ferran. De Ferran, a two-times Champ Car champion, who tested for Williams and Footwork (Arrows) in 1991.
Watch video of the five greatest Champ Car moments at F1 Fanatic’s sister site Maximum Motorsport.
*I’ve used the terms CART and Champ Car interchangeably in the feature, although they are not quite the same thing. CART went bankrupt in 2003 but the series persisted as Champ Car until this year.
Read more about Indy Car and other motor sports on F1 Fanatic’s sister site, Maximum Motorsport
I thought De Ferran tested a Williams back in 1991/2?
It appears De Ferran also tested a Footwork:
http://www.motorsportsalmanac.com/mastuff/fullsize/f1/1993/00/f1_199300_test_gil_de_ferran_01.jpg
And here he is in a Williams:
http://www.motorsportsalmanac.com/mastuff/fullsize/f1/1992/00/f1_199200_test_gil_de_ferran_02.jpg
Well I didn’t know that! I’ll have to edit that, thanks Rohan.
I was going to ask about Emerson Fittipaldi until I realized (quite late, indeed) that it was an alphabetical list.
Great series, can’t wait for the next part!
Mario Andretti arrived in F1 with a pole position at his first start with a Lotus 49.
The Unsers were the first clan Legend. But before Cart there was another mithic drivers. Dan Gurney (”Gurneys” invention).
And “Beleive if you can” AJFoyt with an old front engine “Dirty Truck” leading Jim Clark with modern rear engine Lotus in Milwaukee is something of the other world.
http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=okpj28E55U4&…feature=related
I thought he was starting with the best, but indeed, part one ends at “B”. Nice piece, as some of these names I don’t necessarily recall being in CART although I’ve watched it on and off since I was a teenager. (That is, much longer than Formula 1.)
If I remember correctly, Andretti couldn’t handle the starts, being used to a rolling start. Most of his races finished early. He couldn’t figure out how to drive the car either. I think they had to put eveything possible on auto for him. Dark forces at McLaren? Well, he would say that, wouldn;t he. He was simply embarrassing.