‘F1 is back to stay in US’: Mario Andretti relives the American dream

The enthusiasm and passion is expected but oh, what a joy it is to share in the manifest pleasure of Formula One that still courses through Mario Andretti. He may be 82 but there is youthful ebullience radiating from the revered American driver before Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix.

After he had some heartbreaking personal losses in recent years, F1 at least really feels like it is coming home for the world champion who fell in love with the sport as a teenager. In the past four years Andretti has endured the deaths of some of his closest loved ones but has refused to be cowed.

“My home is much quieter,” he says with a thoughtful honesty that brings a lump to the throat. “No question, there was a degree of loneliness. You try to keep your chin up but it never goes away. You have never prepared for that, it’s there forever. A loss is a loss, your life changes in so many ways.”

Yet his presence still lights up any event, fizzing with the same exuberance F1 is now enjoying in the country that for so long since Andretti’s heyday looked all but lost to the sport. He could not be happier at F1’s American resurgence in the nation that took him in as a child and then took him to their heart. He believes the race in Miami, F1’s first here, is a tipping point.

“It will be awesome,” he says with the zeal of a true fan. “There is something beautiful about it. It is going to be long term, I can guarantee that. F1 is back to stay in the US.”

F1 is enjoying a new dawn in the Florida sunshine this weekend, the first of two races in the United States this year. With three scheduled for 2023, the sport is riding a wave of popularity not seen since the 60s and 70s and Andretti is revelling in it. “If you are a race fan and for those of us for