“I had nothing else to do”

Mario Andretti made a surprise return to Formula 1 driving one of the Williams FW07Ds at the 1982 United States Grand Prix West, held on the streets of Long Beach, California.

Indeed, exactly five days after the previous round in Brazil, Carlos Reutemann announced his retirement with immediate effect, to the great surprise of his boss Frank Williams and the entire paddock.

Williams first approached their former driver Alan Jones to replace him, but Jones insisted he wasn’t interested, and Frank had the idea of ​​calling Mario Andretti. Since his IndyCar commitments with the Patrick team were not a problem, Mario accepted, saying, “I had nothing else to do, so I accepted.”

Mario Andretti qualified in 14th position, 9 tenths of a second behind his teammate Keke Rosberg (8th), but had to retire on lap 14, eliminated in a collision. Niki Lauda won the race in his McLaren ahead of Keke Rosberg (Williams). Andretti would be seen again a few months later at the wheel of a Ferrari at Monza (see articles on the site).