Indianapolis, Oct 01: Former F1 World Champion Mario Andretti was at Indianapolis this weekend to visit the F1 paddock, before flying to Miami on Sunday to see the CART race.
The 63 years old American enjoyed the show but he is still worried about the long term success of Formula One in the United States.
"I had some doubts about the new regulation but little by little they disappeared," said Andretti. "The championship is very entertaining this year."
Very entertaining for usual F1 fans but is it enough interesting to captivate the general public in the United States ? The American organisers notice a lack of interest from the local public for this race, without finding a solution at the moment. Are they going to throw in the towel ?
"Tony George (the owner of the Indianapolis circuit) has some problems to make the race profitable," explained Andretti. "but I am sure that he will continue because he really care about it. I know that it costs him a lot of money but knowing him, this is not going to stop him. The American government could give him a hand but here this never happens, not for a sports event."



Mario Andretti has a solution : "To save the US GP, there has to be an American driver as soon as possible in F1," mentioned Andretti. "the public needs to identify with a familiar name. There has been no F1 driver since my son drove for McLaren in 1993."



"What I don't understand is why a team like Ferrari or other major teams cannot enter a third car with a local driver," added Andretti. "I am sure that this would bring an additional 40.000 spectators for the race. I think that this idea would be easy to implement. I am surprised that no one else thought about that."


Bureau Report