Why does everyone hate Michael Andretti Jr.?

[maddog76]

I'm relativly new to open wheel racing, and I noticed that at the LBGP several people where openly booing Michael (even though he is an American). Why does there seem to be a lot of anger towards him, what did he do?

[SevenGrain]

They are jealous of his many accomplishments. The same reason Jeff Gordon is openly booed.

Also, some percieve Andretti as a whiner, and others percieve him as spoiled. I tend to disagree.

As far as I'm concerned, I'll go on record as saying I'm an Andretti fan. Michael is talented and has demonstrated tremendous car control over the years running at the ragged edge.

While Michael has won more CART events than anybody, he only has one championship because he would never settle for second place, and either crashed or broke the car trying to win. Michael never drove conservatively thinking about the championship. He always tried to win on Sunday.

Not the smartest strategy, but it is the same kind of thing that has kept similar hard chargers like Paul Tracy from putting together a championship season.

Michael has also had his share of bad luck ; The "Andretti Luck" as it is known. Example, in 1992 he dominated the Indy 500, only to have a minor engine part fail with eleven laps to go in the event.

By the way, Michael Andretti is not a Jr. His dad's name was Mario.

[Muzza]

I believe that the reason why some people were booing Michael was simply because... they were supporting Jimmy Vasser. Jimmy is a local guy - he is from Canoga Park - and he has a strong fan base in SoCal (Vasser replaced Ricky Mears in the hearts of many LA fans).

On a different consideration, Michael is not a "fan pampering" guy - he is one of those that just want to be himself. He is not willing to be "Captain Nice" (as the - in my opinion - quite hypocritical Mr. Jeff Gordon) and in the entertainment-oriented, fun-bathed, media-correct American racing environment he fails to sparkle that "magic TV smile", simply because he does not seem to care.

He is said to be temperamental, but in the only two times I had the chance to get close to him he was just being Michael, neutral but not aggressive. Last weekend I exchanged a conversation with him and he politely replied to all my questions. I had the impression that he liked to talk about technical subjects, rather than posing to pictures with families eating hot dogs.

Maybe Liz and others know him better and could elaborate more.

[Muzza]

By the way, I made no remark whatsoever in my previous message to the true, original "Captain Nice", the late, great Mark Donohue. He did deserve his nickname.

What a pity Mark died so young.

[f1manoz]

I don't hate him. I'm just not a supporter.

Don't worry, there are no evil hexes on him or any voodoo dolls where I live either

[macdaddy]

"Wasn't my fault." "Somebody hit me." "Everybody else are idiots." "He squeezed me." "He slowed down too much." "Wasn't my fault, I can do no wrong!"

Although admittedly he's not whining so much lately.

Also, he isn't very approachable in the paddock. He skirts around on his scooter as quickly as he can and damn near runs into the trailer, so as to avoid signing a few autographs.

But it's not that I don't like him. He's just simply my least favourite. I'll give credit where credit is due... he's extremely talented and patient, and most importantly, he's clean.

[Liz]

My first memory of Mikey is seeing him at a dirt track with Mario --- Mario was his usual charming self, talking to everyone and signing autographs and posing for pictures -- and Mikey was about 19 and standing with a sullen look on his pimply face daring anybody to even speak to him.

At the Molson Indy Toronto he drove deliberately through a large puddle on his scooter, splattering his "fans" with muddy water, to get away from people who only wanted him to look at them when they yelled "Hi, Michael!"

In the race that day when he hit Greg Moore, he came on the television immediately and blamed Greg, although the accident was clearly his fault.

Whenever he is involved in an accident he blames others and whines that "Wally" should make the bad boy pay.

But most of all because .... he's not Mario.

[Raoul Duke]

I really don't know much about him outside of racing.

I wouldn't call myself a fan. But I do admire all that he has accomplished in the sport, and the fact that at aprox 40 years of age, and after close to 20 years of competing in the sport, he can still win races and be very competitive. Come to think of it, he would be great in Nascar.

[slicktoast]

Must have something to do with the name Michael. Just ask those folks over in F1.

[mac]

He just annoys me.

From where I stand, he just lacks that last little bit of aggression.

He is definitely a talented driver, but he annoys me. I don't know why - something about his attitude. And his driving style doesn't impress me that much.

[Jay]

I think he lead for the amount of complaining about other drivers... He always seems to be the one out of the race for one reason or another, and then immediately saying someone was driving dangerously or stupidly. This gets annoying after awhile.

Also, he's not the most fan friendly driver around the paddock. He always goes straight from his car to his motorhome. This is very unlike a number of other drivers in the series, and his father who has got to be the most fan friendly person in the paddock. From what I hear, this is nothing new for him.

[macdaddy]

Yes, Cheers to Mario! He truly is very approachable. And he makes himself available to the fans. Maybe Michael likes to play a game, in which he pretends that he's really an F1 driver and he's about to run a Grand Prix and that he's actually at Silverstone. I thought it odd when he won the "Most Popular Driver" last season. Would make me wonder if much of the voting wasn't done by people who didn't recognize any other name. Because when you go to the races you hear more people in the stands trash-talking him than anything else. At least at the Michigan races that I've been to. And Mac (who is not my son) touched on something when he said "he just lacks that last little bit of aggression", because I agree with him. Sure, he knows how to pass, and he's done it many many times before. But it seems like he seldom just "goes for it" and forces his way around others. You've got to give him credit that he's got maturity and patience, and that has won him a ton of races, but it doesn't seem to winning him very many championships.

But that's not why I don't like him. It all boils down to his attitude toward the fans. "Just give me my paycheck and leave me alone."

[TheColonel]

Michael is not as extraverted person as his dad. He gets more of his personality from his mom. He is a great talent and in his prime, one of the best ever. When he was testing in that winter of 92-93 for McLaren, he was never outdone by Mika Hakinen, their full-time test driver at that time. From 90-92 he was always the man to beat and dominated the Indy 500 in '92 before a mechanical problem put him out late in the race. I believe Michael to be a much smarter cat now and may have a great shot at that second championship this year. Like him or not, the Andretti name is great for CART and, as a CART fan, I just hope he stays around competitively until Marco comes on the scene, if marco does do CART. Thanks, The Colonel

[Liz]

In his 10 race tryout in F1 I believe he had 8 crashes, most of them his fault whether he said so or not. The 1993 highlight reel goes so far as to laugh at him the way they used to laugh at DeCeseris "where will he crash today?"

Mikey blamed the car, but once he got fired, er, his tryout was up, Mika stepped straight into that car and was competitive with Senna.

He was good in his prime in Champ Cars, but as said above, it isn't his driving I'm faulting. It's his attitude.

[TheColonel]

I think Michael needed more time in the McLaren. Also, having Senna as his team mate was tough to measure up to - as it would be to any driver. If Michael would have spent an entire season as an F1 test driver, as did Montoya, his F1 career may have been much different. You don't win 42 races in any major series without being very good.

[Sato san]

Well , by the time he was dumped by Ron Dennis he was actually holding his own .

shame really , wrong team , wrong time .

Even though mikey is "in his twilight years" he is still fun to watch and my favorite CART driver just because he wont get over-excieted over a victory some people dont like him

[SteveA]

He had no commitment to F1 at all. Apparently he never tested, he would simply jump on the Concorde, have his drive, and return home as quickly as possible.

I think he made a fool of himself, and he's probably still embarrassed about it, which is a shame, because I think he could have adapted to F1 well and started to win races.

As for ignoring fans, well doesn't bother me because "celebrities" don't impress me either! He's welcome to ignore me in the Paddock at Rockingham this year and I'll return the favour.

[mac]

Steve, I heard very similar stories from his time in F1.

[Liz]

Apparently his All American Wife refused point blank to live in Europe, and for some reason he decided that this was more important than a commitment to F1. Later he divorced her, so maybe he changed his mind.

But you'll notice that nearly all his accidents in F1 were similar; he hit the other guy up the bootlid and generally took someone else off with him, and it was never, ever his fault.

As far as his attitude toward fans goes, I used to date someone (a minor English actor) who took that attitude at first until someone said to him, "Well, Greta Garbo, if you want to be ignored and left alone, perhaps you should become a Nun instead of an actor." The other fellow told him too that his attitude was really just a thinly veiled attempt to make himself look more important than he was. He'd have had a fit if he really HAD been ignored.