Illustration: Mario Andretti’s Ferrari 126 Turbo
Mario Andretti started on pole position in his first and second to last Formula 1 Grand Prix. Mario set the racing world alight when he put his Lotus 49 on pole, on debut, at the U.S. Grand Prix at Watkins Glen in 1968. And things were no different in 1982 when Mario thrilled the Tifosi with pole at the Italian Grand Prix.
In 1982 Andretti couldn’t resist when Enzo Ferrari asked him to race in the 1982 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, in the place of the injured Didier Pironi. There, at the circuit where he first caught the Formula One bug as an impressionable teen, the 42-year-old Andretti qualified his Ferrari 126 Turbo on pole and finished an impressive third.
Mario won 12 Grands Prix and the 1978 Formula One World Championship in a career that spanned 14 seasons.
