DARIO FRANCHITTI: THE CHIEF OF THE OVAL OFFICE
Three-time Indy 500 winner tackles MN readers’ questions
The three-time Indianapolis 500 winner answers readers’ questions about his glittering career and much else besides. By Graham Keilloh
What have I let myself in for?,” asked Dario Franchitti on Twitter when contemplating the prospect of answering Motorsport News readers’ questions. He need not have worried. It is hard to imagine anyone in motorsport better suited to the task, as Franchitti indeed went on to demonstrate with his responses covering a range of topics.
His recall is sharp, his engagement is deep and his range of motorsport interest is as wide as you’ll find.
And that’s without even mentioning his extraordinary on-track success, which three Indianapolis 500s and four Indycar titles showcase. Though, as we also discover amid the MN readers’ grilling, Franchitti has had plenty of motorsport experiences aside even from these.
We’ll start though at the beginning…
Question: “What was your first car?” Luke Crane
Via Twitter
Dario Franchitti: “The first car I actually owned was a Fiat Uno Turbo, which I have a model of it in my office! Before that and pretty much after that I was borrowing cars from various family members and friends because I couldn’t afford one. What did I have after that? A Golf GTI and then a Peugeot diesel after the Golf got nicked!”
MN: What was it about the Fiat Uno Turbo that tempted you to buy one?
DF: “A friend had it for sale and it was quick and fairly cheap which were two key parts in my decision making! It was a great car, right up until the alternator belt came off so the water pump stopped working, that did damage to the engine. So after that it had to be sold unfortunately. I had some fun drives in that car.”
MN sets the scene: A 19-year-old Franchitti claimed the 1992 Mclaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the
Year award, and Michael Andretti, then recently signed by Mclaren as a Formula 1 driver, was on stage as Franchitti accepted his accolade. In 2007 Franchitti won the Indianapolis 500, his first, with Andretti now his team boss, in the Andretti Green squad.
Question: “You first met Michael Andretti when you were a shy teenager winning your BRDC Young Driver Award. Could you ever have imagined winning the Indy 500 with him
15 years later?”
Andy Hallbery
Via Twitter
DF: “No. Michael and I laugh about it. We’ve sat at lunch and I’ve pulled that picture up on my phone and I just laughed and said ‘could you imagine Mike that we did all this stuff together?’the short answer is no. From there going to America wasn’t on the cards at that point.
“Winning that award was absolutely a life-changing experience. In my very first race in America I qualified beside Michael on the grid and raced with him wheel to
wheel for a couple of years and then became team-mates and then he became my boss after that. So from that point in 1992 we’ve had quite an incredible journey together, and we’re good pals today although we’re with opposite teams!”
MN: So what was it like in ’92 to meet someone like Michael Andretti?
DF: “I remember it well because the year before Ayrton Senna had been there and presented Oliver Gavin with his award, and Ayrton was supposed to be there that night as well but he got fogged in or something. I’d watched Michael’s exploits in America and it was from the moment my name was announced just an incredible feeling. And three years later I got to finally drive the Mclaren Formula 1 car which was a terrific experience. And the fact that the award is still going is incredible. Mclaren were such a big supporter of it, now Aston Martin have taken over the reins.
“Ron Dennis gets a hard time for a lot of things, [but he] has to get a lot of pats on the back for doing that [supporting the award]. And ultimately winning that award led to me going to Mercedes-benz and driving in DTM [from 1995].”
Question: “Which of the three Indy 500 wins was the most important one to you and why?”
Zakir Munawer
Via Twitter
DF: “It’s difficult to differentiate between them, they were very different races, very different times in my life. It was quite a short space of time [his first Indy 500 win was in 2007 and his last in ’12] but a lot of things had changed in that period.
Any time you can win at Indianapolis it’s incredible. They were all difficult for different reasons and they meant an incredible amount to me and they still do. It’s just such a fabulous fabulous race.” MN: Was becoming a twice winner and a three-times winner different to winning it for the first time?
DF: “It was a different feeling absolutely, the feeling of relief having won it the first time was incredible because I got the impression it was never going to happen. It’s the one thing I’ve done in my life that rather than the motivation tailing off because of a success, the motivation got stronger. When I won one I wanted to win two even more; when I won two I wanted to win three even more; when I got that third, the fourth was just so important and I only had one go at that before everything stopped [Franchitti retired from racing after an accident at Houston in 2013].” MN: The third as well, quite a close call with Takuma Sato on the last lap?
DF: “[Laughs] Yeah that got pretty close. I’ve actually got a painting of it on the wall! It all came down to that one thing. It was a crazy race in 2012.
“I thought his [Sato’s last-lap] move on me was very fair, I would have done exactly the same thing, but I gave him no more room than I had to give him and he held too tight a line and spun it. As he spun backwards the back of his car and the back of my car made contact so for a fraction of a second I got quite sideways. We’ve seen those battles at Indy throughout the years, and it seems everyone from 2012 until now they have those last-lap fights now.
“With Takuma, of course he’s going to go for it, why not, it’s the last lap of the Indy 500? I don’t think either of us were going to lift and we didn’t. But literally with the adrenaline I didn’t stop shaking for a lap, coming into Victory Lane my legs were still shaking. The adrenaline hit of that crazy last lap was incredible.”
Question: “What was it like driving on an oval for the first time?”
Charlotte
Via Twitter
DF: “[Laughs] Driving on an oval first time was Homestead, like a mini Indianapolis. That was Spring Training [prior to Franchitti’s 1997 CART debut season]. So my first oval experience was with the whole field there, with the likes of Alex Zanardi and Michael Andretti and all these people going round at full speed and I felt like a kid on my training wheels.
“My biggest shock actually was before
I went out, I was watching cars going round and Gil de Ferran went past and I went ‘oh OK, that’s doable’. What I didn’t realise was he was bedding in a new set of brakes and when he went past at full noise I just about jumped in the rental car and went back to the airport, it was terrifying!
“The first time [on an oval] I was trying to drive it like a road course. Luckily for me [Franchitti’s team boss at Hogan Racing in ‘97] Carl Hogan had such a good relationship with a lot of the drivers, Rick Mears came to talk to me about it and explained a lot of what I needed to do and what I was doing wrong and he was a massive help. And he still does that today, young drivers he’ll give advice to and I like to think I’d do the same thing now.
“But the problem I had on my first race on the oval, I was driving the car a bit too sideways. They kept saying don’t let the back end slide and I was sliding and sliding and, sure enough, I actually hit the wall moving out of the way about to get lapped. So I learnt a few lessons that first day. But I got up to speed fairly quickly,
over one lap. It was over the race that proved the harder challenge.”
Question: “If you had an opportunity to drive one more race, excluding the Indy 500, what race would it be and why?” Stuart Wilson
DF: “Two things have just popped into my head, 24 hours of Le Mans absolutely. I was scheduled to do Classic Le Mans this year. Now that I’m allowed to do races as an amateur, I was all booked in to do that. But 24 hours of Le Mans definitely was a race that I had actually planned to do before my accident.
“It was very close. It would have been 2015, we’d done quite a lot of the work,
I’d had a bunch of meetings about it.
But unfortunately it wasn’t to happen. It’s quite well known now [that] I’d spoken a lot to Porsche about driving the LMP1 car and that would have been an incredible car but to drive for Porsche too, I’m a Porsche fanatic. Clearly I was sad about that but I had to have a word with myself and realise all the amazing things that I did get to do and all the fun amazing cars I did get to drive, so can’t have everything.
“And another one that popped into my head was Bathurst. Either the 12 Hour or the Supercar race. I just love Australia and Bathurst would be a hell of a track to try and tame.”
Question: “Ten-year-old Jasmine would like to know, if it is OK, how close were you to Greg Moore?” Charlotte
Via Twitter
DF: “A lot of people have the idea that drivers shouldn’t be close to each other because of the competition and the potential for bad things to happen.
I’ve been lucky that I’ve been friends with and am still friends with a lot of the guys I competed against. And Greg was my best pal, from the point when we first met, it was literally my first test at Homestead in 1997.
“That was a terrible loss when Greg died, but what a great person, what an amazing driver. He’s still sorely missed. We had a party to celebrate him in Portland last year, I couldn’t believe it was 20 years since he died. And all his old pals from the paddock, and a bunch of the kids and the new people in the paddock, all came to this massive party and celebrated.you could tell what he meant to everyone.”
MN: Have you found a difference generally between European racing and American racing in terms of drivers’friendships?
DF: “In the US the friendships are more open. In Europe it’s a bit more hidden, they like to have this atmosphere of a bit of friction. Some of the friendship in America too is because of the danger factor, you realise that you’ve got to look after each other out there. But don’t confuse that with it being any less competitive than in Europe. Greg, for instance, we raced each other so hard on the track and then had a laugh about it afterwards like two mates. I always likened it to two pals going to the go-kart track and just having fun. Dan Wheldon was the same, Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon.”
MN sets the scene: In 1994 Franchitti won the British Formula 3 seasonopening race at Silverstone, but didn’t win again that year and his Paul Stewart Racing team-mate Jan Magnussen dominated the season. Franchitti took a distant fourth place in the standings. Question: “Why did your pace drop off so quickly in 1994 in British F3 after you dominated Round 1 at Silverstone?” Charlotte
Via Twitter
DF: “[Laughs] Good question. It was a most frustrating year, I won the first race and it all quickly unravelled from there. There was all kind of conspiracy theories at the time. When I retired, Andy Miller, he’s in charge of the whole team, he came out and said there’s a big weight disadvantage, something in the region of 10, 15 kilos, just pure driver weight.
“It was just that. Jan’s a little dude and he was skinny. I’m not big, I was 5ft 10in, but I was probably 73 kilos and Jan was maybe 60 and with a Formula 3 car with no horsepower that made quite a difference.
“Nobody made me aware of that at the time, and I just kept pushing harder and harder and trying harder and it was a disaster. Any time I felt I had a chance of winning or whatever something would break, just one of those years. That being said, Jan did a fabulous job. He was, is, a fabulous talent.
“So I learned a lot that year. I got really beaten up mentally with that whole thing and that was one of the reasons I left Paul Stewart Racing rather than do another year in Formula 3 because I really felt the team were not behind me and so I went to DTM. And I felt with Jan I redressed the balance, I was able to have the upper hand [in DTM].
“But not an easy year by any stretch that Formula 3 year! But those are the years you learn the lessons from, that really helps you throughout the rest of your career.”
Question: “How shocked were you and how did it feel to take pole in your first DTM race at Hockenheim in 1995?” Charlotte
Via Twitter
DF: “After the Formula 3 year, it wasn’t so important later in my career but at this point it was so important that I felt the team believed in me. I got in that [D2 Amg-mercedes] team and I knew straight away they thought I was their guy. From the first day I was quick in the car but when the pressure was on, DTM was one-lap qualifying and so to get that pole position was a pretty special feeling.
“Toni Mathis who was the trainer at Mercedes he really helped me with my focus and everything and really ironed out some of the kinks that I’d developed in Formula 3.
“And to get that pole position was good because the prototype car I destroyed it in testing, just a young guy pushing too hard, and that was nearly the end of my Mercedes career before the first race. So the fact I got pole position was a timely thing and a way of saying sorry!”
MN: And a supplementary from Charlotte: is it true the car had airbags but they never seemed to work?
DF: “[Laughs] Good question Charlotte! Well, all I can tell you, it was supposed to have airbags and I crashed that car pretty hard on a number of occasions and I never saw the airbag. We’ll leave it at that!
“It [the airbags] was a marketing person’s dream but I’m not sure it was… it didn’t matter, the car was unbelievably safe and the Mercedes guys did such of good job. But yeah I’m not sure the airbag was actually connected.”
Question: “Describe your first lap driving the Nordschleife for a
Mercedes PR day.”
Andy Hallbery
Via Twitter
DF: “[Laughs] I don’t know if it was the first lap; I know what he’s referring to! As part of driving for Mercedes [in DTM], I was 21, 22 years old at this point, they gave us these amazing cars, the C36, the all-singing all-dancing went-likethe-wind car. And we would bring those to certain events and they’d want us to do passenger laps.
“So Nurburgring they said we’re going to do some laps of the Nordschleife. [Bernd] Schneider took me around [to show Franchitti the track] and did a great job of narrating, but he was saying I crashed here, I broke my shoulder there, oh here’s where Niki [Lauda] crashed. I’m thinking ‘God’s sake’.
“So my first lap round [driving], it was all my mates [in the car]. And we came down just before Adenau Bridge and I had the traction control switched off and I was doing a couple of big slides because it was wet, and I came out of the hairpin there and put a big bit of opposite lock and got a big power slide and it snapped back the opposite way, and it went into the banking. I thought ‘I’ve wrecked the car!’
“So I drove back and the car feels fine, got to the pits, got out, we all ran round to the front to see the damage and all that was done was a scratch across the middle of the number plate, and that scratch was there until the day I gave the car back! So yeah, ran out of talent.”
MN sets the scene: In mid-1998
Franchitti had yet to win his first CART race, and he dashed a great chance to do so when dominating in Toronto. Fortunately his freshman win wasn’t too far in the future, at Road America. Question: “What happened in
Toronto in 1998 when you were so close to winning when you spun out and how much of a relief was it to win your first race?”
Charlotte
Via Twitter
DF: “I had found a lot of different ways to lose races in ’98. I’d been qualifying well, been on the podium and Toronto I’d qualified pole and the car was so fast that year, just the tyres, the way that the team set it up, the way we worked together.
“And then I was over 10 seconds in the lead with something like 10 or 15 laps to go and I made one of those, not rookie errors but young stupid errors that I was going to show them that I couldn’t only win a race but I was going to destroy the field.
“I was concerned I was going to get out of my rhythm but I should have started backing off. I remember like it was yesterday, I went across the startfinish line and I’d moved slightly over to the right from the lap before, and I hit a bump, a bigger bump than I hit on my normal line, so when I went for the brakes in Turn 1 it knocked the pads back, and because I right-foot braked I went in, pressed the pedal, it went to the bulkhead, took a load of throttle, I spun, Paul Tracy came around and hit me.
“It was completely my fault, and I should have just backed off. So second part of the question, the relief winning at Road America was massive and they always told me when you win one you’ll win multiples and I went out the next weekend and won again and then, not long after that, again. But God the frustration level after Toronto was very high.”
MN sets the scene: CART’S race at Texas Motor Speedway in 2001 was called off hours before it was due to start, with around 65,000 fans in attendance, due to concerns about driver safety from excessive g-forces experienced on the 1.5-mile oval. Question: “How scary was the 2001 Texas CART race that was cancelled due to safety?”
Charlotte
Via Twitter
DF: “It was not a good experience. We actually tested [there in advance] and it felt quick but it felt reasonably OK. I don’t know what changed between the test and the race because we went about 10mph quicker.
“I remember having absolutely no control over the car, I was guiding the car around this track and that was it.
And if the thing broke loose I was going to crash, I wouldn’t be able to catch it. The speed that things were coming at me was shocking and it was only as we started to do longer runs at the end of practice that we realised that we were having problems. I didn’t black out, my peripheral vision was going away, which I guess is the first stage to starting to black out.
“But that was not a good situation, all the fans had showed up and then the finger pointing between Texas Motor Speedway and CART happened and there was no winners in that one at all. Actually the only winners were us that didn’t have to race that day because it would have been an absolute disaster.” MN: There was criticism that organisers had left everything too late before they called it off?
DF: “Yeah of course things could be done different, but what you also had was the medical team headed by Dr [Terry] Trammell and Steve Olvey, the two guys who were instrumental in saving Alex Zanardi’s life and rebuilding me many times and many other drivers going back to Rick
Mears and before, these guys knew what they were doing.
“They were just trying to get all the answers before pulling the trigger.
They were on the phone to people like NASA trying to get answers because nobody had experienced anything like this before. I felt for the fans in the stands, it was not a good situation either, for them it was particularly bad.”
Question: “What was the 2008 Daytona 500 like?”
Matt James
Via email
DF: “[Laughs] Total nightmare! It was my first Cup race. Over the winter I’d done Busch Series, ARCA, Trucks, so my first time [in the Cup series] and it was just a disaster. I didn’t enjoy this style of racing running round back of the pack. Jacques Villeneuve got hit and spun and took out my good car. The next car that we had was a bit of an old plug, and I used that for the Daytona 500 and I just had no fun. I can’t think of one positive of that race for me, just nothing. In a difficult year where it was like drinking out of a firehose trying to learn, I think Daytona was a pretty low point!” MN: Did things get any easier over time in NASCAR?
DF: “[Laughs] In the Nationwide [NASCAR’S second-tier competition, now the Xfinity series] I started to do OK. I had some top fives, and I qualified on pole at Watkins Glen, had a great race with Jimmie Johnson at the front of the field which when you look back at the people that were in that race I feel quite good about that. I led a bunch of laps at Bristol, so I was starting to get the hang of that part. In the Cup series, no it was just like getting beaten over the head with a cricket bat every week.”
MN: So why did you make the switch to NASCAR?
DF: “After ’07 I would have been 10 years doing Indycar in various guises and after accomplishing the goal of winning the 500 I needed a new challenge. It’s ‘the grass is greener’, and honestly within five minutes of driving the [NASCAR] car I realised I had made the wrong choice, and there was nothing I could do. I tried my best, I pushed myself as hard as I could, but it was very difficult. The only [positive] thing about NASCAR, I met really cool people. But God it was just frustrating.
“And when I got back in the Indycar the end of ’08, my first test within two laps it was ‘yeah this thing takes my breath away’, it’s so fast, it’s so much fun. That was what I wanted, that’s what I enjoy driving. So I learnt a lot in NASCAR, learnt a lot mentally, very much like the ’94 season you learn a lot from the tough bits and it made me a more complete driver when I came back to Indycar.”
Question: “Would you have liked to race in the era of your motor racing hero (and mine), Jim Clark? If so, would we have seen you in a Lotus Cortina taking on Mustangs and Camaros at the F1 Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park?”
David Harbey
Via Twitter
DF: “I would have loved to have done that, I would love to be a part of that era, I’m not sure I would have survived it. A time machine would be a great thing, I’d love to sample most periods of racing from Silver Arrows right through. The 1960s, clearly, the 1970s were when I really started to fall in love with racing, the late 1970s. I’d like to have had a go at everything.”
MN: Do you feel it’s a lost element of motorsport that Jim Clark was able to take part in several races in a single meeting, was that something you would have liked to have done?
DF: “That was incredible what Jim did, the fact that he could jump in the Cortina and then he’d be in the Lotus, he’d be in a sportscar and then he’d be in something else,’64, ’65, that period was just unbelievable.
“To do it all in one day now would be very difficult, but we’ve seen more and more of it and for me it started when I was allowed to race at Daytona 24 Hours and then Andretti got the little Acura P2 car so I was able to do that and Indycar, and Michael let me do the historic cars. Chip [Ganassi] is very much of that idea too, Roger Penske does it. Look at Scott Dixon, he’s racing at Daytona 24 Hours for Wayne Taylor this year, he’s gone to Bathurst and he’s driving in the 12-hour in the Aston Martin, so we’re seeing people sampling different types of car again and I really think that’s fantastic.”
Question: “If you were in charge of gathering a small grid of 10 drivers for a charity race, which drivers would you invite, which charity would it be for and on which track? (Any driver, track and type of car is allowed)”
Savanah Ases
Via Twitter
DF: “Let’s go with Road America. I’m sitting here looking at a Lotus 79, I’m tempted to say Lotus 79 or Reynard ’98 car with a Honda engine. Let’s go Reynard. And then as far as the grid, people that are alive?
MN: The question says “any driver”, so it could include ones from the past... DF: “Oh it’s too difficult! Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Greg Moore. My grid would have to be 30. Parnelli Jones, Dan Gurney, so many of the great drivers
I’d want on that grid. Scott Dixon I’d want in there, Jimmie Johnson,
Colin Mcrae, where would you start? Fantastic question and I’m sorry I’m not really doing it justice. Allan Mcnish, my little brother Marino, and on and on and on. Niki Lauda, definitely.”
MN: I make it 11 names you’ve got! DF: “I want 30! We’ve got to put the caveat there that I wanted 30 and that’s just the first names I pulled out of the top of my head! Yeah, that’s a fantastic question.
“Charity would be, it’s either a children’s charity or an animal charity. I’d like to spread the love a bit, a lot of the charities are needing a bit of help.”