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At Donington Park for the now-legendary European Grand Prix, where Ayrton Senna passed five cars in the first lap in a driving rain, Michael had again qualified reasonably well in sixth place. But in the course of his own first lap histrionics, Michael tried to make an exuberant and low percentage pass on Wendlinger, who had qualified fifth, and ended up putting both the McLaren and the Sauber into the mud and out of the race. To make matters worse, Michael's dad, who was an active CART driver at the time, had come to the race (even the late Princess Diana was there that day), and Michael had been better in warmup than Senna. But it was Senna who turned in one of his most memorable races, while Michael had embarrassed himself with a boneheaded move against Wendlinger, who he kept running into all year long. At the next race, at Imola, Andretti again qualified sixth and his shadow, Wendlinger, was again beside him in fifth. To this point in the season, Michael had put in exactly four race laps. He finally put in 32 laps at Imola before falling victim to a spin after racing with Wendlinger for fourth place, possibly a spin induced by a suspension or brake balance problem not entirely of his own making, but nobody wanted to hear about that as he registered his fourth DNF in as many races. On May 23rd 1993, when Michael would normally have been at the Indy 500 watching the last day of qualifying (his father Mario was on the front row that year, and Mansell had qualified Michael's former K-Mart team car in the third row), he found himself at the Monaco Grand Prix, qualifying back in ninth, with the clutch taking on a life of its own at the start and upshifting prematurely, dropping the revs and dropping Andretti back, letting the slower cars get by him. After he gathered himself up, Andretti faced his next challenge, coming upon a gaggle of cars at the Loews Hairpin, where he hit Fabrizio Barbazza's Minardi and was forced to pit to replace the McLaren's broken front wing, another Haste-Makes-Waste miscue that put him at the very back of the field. Only a remarkable run up through the field allowed Andretti to finish eighth, though two laps down to his teammate Senna, who won his fifth consecutive and last Monaco Grand Prix that day. In Canada, mechanical gremlins struck again - a dead battery in this case - as the grid moved off for the reconnaissance lap. By the time the repairs were finished, Andretti was three laps down and would end up classified fourteenth in the race; it was a bad day all around for McLaren, as Senna also had mechanical gremlins and finished eighteenth with an alternator failure. At Magny-Cours, the transmission glitches that had presented themselves at awkward times all year long erupted again in qualifying, with the semi-automatic shifting mechanism taking on a mind of its own; Andretti qualified sixteenth as a result. But after yet another bad start, Michael passed many cars and finished sixth, just ahead of Rubens Barrichello in his Jordan-Hart, and also ahead of Andretti's current CART teammate, Christian Fittipaldi, who finished eighth in his Minardi-Ford. For Silverstone McLaren had a higher spec Ford engine and Andretti had high hopes, since he had some familiarity with the Silverstone track from testing there in pre-season. But then his qualifying attempt was spoiled by the rain and he ended up eleventh; in making up ground after a good start, Andretti spun off, again on Lap 1, by going for too much too soon, as he had at Donington. At Hockenheim, Michael again qualified poorly in twelfth, after experiencing mechanical problems not of his making and ended up going out on Lap 4, after tangling with Berger and bending the suspension. Berger continued and finished sixth, but Andretti was out. The nightmare that would not end continued at a withering pace. At Hungaroring, the fly-by-wire throttle failed as Andretti was making a run up though the field, from his qualifying position in eleventh to as high as fourth by Lap 15, when the charge ended, his seventh DNF in eleven races. Senna went out two laps later, also with throttle problems. At Spa, the comedy of errors continued, including a distressingly long tire stop during which the engine shut off. Even Senna had trouble at Spa, finishing fourth, almost a lap down; Michael finished eighth. As had come to be expected, things conspired to limit Michael's practice time and he qualified ninth; Senna qualified fourth. But in the race, both McLaren-Fords had brake balance problems, causing both Senna and Andretti to spin out in the grass near the chicane. Senna could not resume after his spin, but Andretti was able to keep it going and, after pitting to remove the grass obstructing his radiators, Andretti proceeded to drive the best race of his Formula One career, fighting his way through the pack from twentieth to third (appropriately just nipping omnipresent Wendlinger who finished fourth), finally getting the chance to ascend the podium next to Damon Hill and Jean Alesi. Had Wendlinger - who had figured in at least half of Andretti's offs - been able to hold onto third that day at Monza, it would have been Wendlinger's highest career finish; instead, it was Michael's highest finish, so there must have been some satisfaction in achieving a podium for himself as well as denying it to Wendlinger in his last two hours in Formula One.
In the end, Andretti's year was every bit as bad as the confusing numerology suggested. Michael took to the grid in his No. 7 McLaren-Ford in 13 races, did not finish in 7 of the 13, and of those DNF's, 6 of the 7 were collisions or spins. He scored 7 points. Seven years later, Michael Andretti seems poised to make a stronger run for the CART championship than he has for years, which would make Michael a two-time CART Champion. After several years with the Newman-Haas team, he has announced that he is a "free agent" for next year and is looking for a way to run in the Indy 500 and perhaps become part-owner of a CART team. Plainly, Michael was then, and is now, a great driver, committed to his racing. Naggingly, then, it remains difficult to analyze how and why his one partial season in Formula One went so horribly wrong. |
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In Brazil, two weeks after the South African race, Andretti again flubbed the start after a promising qualifying session, which ended up with Senna third on the grid and Michael in fifth. As Andretti fumbled the shift from first to second (this time, it was driver error, not the clutch), the rest of the field engulfed him and a driver that would turn out to be his nemesis all year long - Karl Wendlinger, who had qualified in eighth place in his Sauber - made a move toward Andretti, which led Andretti to move right in front of Gerhard Berger, who had qualified way back in thirteenth and was making up places in a hurry. The result was a spectacular crash when their wheels locked, and the cars cartwheeled into the first turn. Michael was helicoptered to the hospital for a check-up but neither he nor Berger were seriously injured in the shunt.
Michael was out after Monza and Mika was in, permanently taking his place as a regular McLaren driver, a position he has now been in for eight years. While Mika outqualified teammate Senna at the Portugese Grand Prix in a hint of things to come, when it came to the race, Mika crashed out, following in Andretti's footsteps, and at Adelaide he went out after the brakes failed. But in the Japanese Grand Prix, Mika managed to equal Michael's best finish, mounting the podium at Suzuka, where Senna finished in first place and Mika finished in third.