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Along with Dan Gurney, Mario Andretti is one of two drivers to win races in Formula One, IndyCar, NASCAR and World Championship Sports Car events. Picture: SUPPLIED
Along with Dan Gurney, Mario Andretti is one of two drivers to win races in Formula One, IndyCar, NASCAR and World Championship Sports Car events. Picture: SUPPLIED

Organisers have confirmed that 1978 Formula One world champion Mario Andretti will attend the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

The American is scheduled to appear on all four days of the event and will drive his 1978 championship-winning Lotus 79 up the Goodwood Hill. His participation forms part of a collaboration between the Festival of Speed and F1 to mark the 75th anniversary of the F1 world championship.

Born in Italy, Andretti developed an interest in motorsport after attending the Mille Miglia and Italian Grand Prix in 1954. His family later emigrated to Nazareth, Pennsylvania, where he began racing on dirt tracks in 1959 alongside his twin brother, Aldo.

Over the course of his career, which ended with a 15th-place finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2000, Andretti recorded more than 100 wins across multiple racing disciplines.

Mario Andretti is scheduled to appear on all four days of the event and will drive his 1978 championship-winning Lotus 79 up the Goodwood Hill. DON MORLEY/Getty Images
Mario Andretti is scheduled to appear on all four days of the event and will drive his 1978 championship-winning Lotus 79 up the Goodwood Hill. DON MORLEY/Getty Images

Along with Dan Gurney, Andretti is one of two drivers to win races in F1, Indycar, NASCAR and World Sportscar Championship events. He remains the only driver to have won the Daytona 500 (1967), Indianapolis 500 (1969), and Formula 1 World Championship (1978). During his 1978 F1 title campaign, he also competed in eight Indycar events.

Andretti comes from a multigenerational racing family. Besides Aldo, his sons Michael and Jeff, nephew John and grandson Mario have all competed in top-level motorsport.

At the 1991 and 1992 Indianapolis 500, four members of the Andretti family — Mario, Michael, Jeff and John — were on the grid. He also participated in 24-hour races at Le Mans in 1988 and Daytona in 1991 as part of all-Andretti line-ups.

Andretti remains involved in motorsport as a driver of the Indycar Experience two-seater programme as a board member of the Cadillac Formula One Team, which is set to enter F1 in 2026.

At this year’s Festival of Speed, Andretti will appear in the “Champions” class, which marks the 75th anniversary of the F1 World Championship. He will again drive his Lotus 79, last seen at the event in 2021. Joining him are four-time world champion Alain Prost and other former F1 drivers, still to be announced.

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