Mario Andretti is one of the most versatile racing drivers the world has seen. Among other successes, he won the Daytona 500 in 1967 and the Indianapolis 500 in ’69, was crowned Indy Car champion four times and Formula 1 World Champion once, and won the Pikes Peak Hillclimb. He retired from full-time racing in 1994, although he continued to race at various venues, including Indy and Le Mans.

Of particular interest to FORZA readers, Andretti joined the Ferrari works sports-car team in 1969, and in ’72 won four races and helped win the World Championship for Makes. He drove a partial season in F1 for the Scuderia in ’71, winning the season-opening South African Grand Prix in his first drive. In ’82, he returned briefly to Ferrari for his F1 swan song, sending the tifosi wild after taking pole position and finishing third at Monza.

FORZA spoke with Andretti, now 68 years old, at last year’s GP Live, an historic-racing event at Donington Park in England.

When you started your career, you were racing several times a week in all manner of different cars. Do you think there is any substitute for time behind the wheel?

Well, for me, I needed to be in a race car. I always felt that if there was a lull in my schedule, I had to fill it. It didn’t always go very well with the family, but that’s the way it was. That was typical of my whole career. I very much believe in that.

A good driver of any era can master whatever they do, if that’s what they want. It’s a personal thing about what is important to you as an individual. Me, I loved the versatility aspect, and I worked very hard at achieving it. Other drivers love to specialize in just one category and they are happy with it.

Could some of the top drivers from NASCAR excel at Formula 1? I can think of one or two who probably could, with the right team and having the right mindset. And vice versa. I think it is easier to go from road racing to ovals than it is to go from ovals to road racing, because you do a lot more work in the cockpit on a road course. But nevertheless, it’s all up to the individual.

If I could chose one, it would have to be proper road racing in a Grand Prix car. To me, that is the ultimate satisfaction. But I enjoyed all the others as well, and on any given day, equally; fortunately, I didn’t have to make a choice of just one.

It started with sports cars. The first time I was invited to drive a Ferrari was by Luigi Chinetti, the Ferrari importer. He was a three-time Le Mans winner himself, and was fielding the North American Race Team (NART). Pedro Rodriguez was one of his drivers at the time, and he asked me to do a Can-Am race at Bridgehampton in Long Island in 1966. I did that, and then I did the Daytona 24 (finishing fourth) and Sebring 12 Hours with him.

In 1969, I was first invited to drive for the factory. I remember I did Sebring (finishing second in ’69, winning in ’70 and ’72) and the 1,000-Kilometers at Monza. I think I also did Daytona (third in ’70, first in ’72) and Argentina (third in ’72).

My Ferrari F1 debut was in 1971. In 1968 and ’69, I drove a couple of races for Lotus, and I put the Lotus 49 on pole at Watkins Glen. Then in 1970, I drove for March. In 1971 for Ferrari, I think it might have been the first race of the season (the South African GP) that I won. And then the race right after that was the Questor GP, a non-championship race in the States, and I won that too.