Top 25 Formula 1 drivers of all-time
By Asher Fair
Top Formula 1 drivers of all-time: #19 – Mario Andretti
Arguably the greatest IndyCar driver of all-time and arguably the greatest race car driver — period — of all-time, Mario Andretti made his mark in other series outside of IndyCar, including NASCAR and Formula 1.
Unlike in IndyCar and NASCAR, where he won multiple crown jewel races (Indy 500 and Grand Prix of Long Beach in IndyCar, Daytona 500 in NASCAR), Andretti never won the crown jewel Monaco Grand Prix in Formula 1. But he did win the 1978 championship.
He is most known for his incredible success in American open-wheel racing, so it is quite fitting that he remains the most recent American Formula 1 world champion to this day, having won that title 43 seasons ago now.
He also won the iconic rain-soaked 1976 season finale at Fuji Speedway, the site of the conclusion of the epic championship battle between Niki Lauda and James Hunt. Even now, he admits that he couldn’t see a thing in what was one of the best wet weather performances of all-time.
In NBC Sports’ Drive Like Andretti documentary from 2019, rapper Ice-T referred to Mario Andretti as the “OG OG”. While Andretti may not have known what that meant had you told him that after he got out of his championship-winning car back in 1978, the fact that we are still having this discussion more than four decades later shows just how accurate that comment is.