Talk:Michael Andretti

Rewrite

This article needs a rewrite. It simply does not cover enough of his time in IndyCar/ChampCar. There is too much discussion about his ill fated season in F1, and not enough discussion about the rest of his career. I don't understand why Wikipedia highlights a driver's Formula 1 career so much when they were best known for being in another form of racing. It makes sense for drivers like Michael Schumacher or Aryton Senna, but not Andretti. What if Dale Earnhardt drove a season in F1, would that write out all of his NASCAR accomplishments? He has had a great IndyCar and ChampCar career, and there needs to be more emphasis on that. Tkd73

There is a large number of people working on F1 articles, and unfortunately not many on CART/Indycar. CART has lost favor, and NASCAR seems to have taken over the void. We occasionally have problems with too much F1 in WikiProject NASCAR drivers too (but there have been very few crossovers - "Marshall Teague"). When I think of Andretti I only thing about his CART career, and his F1 career is an afterthought. Royalbroil 03:50, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

F1 is considered...and considers itself...the absolute pinnacle of all racing, period. While it would not cancel out a driver's NASCAR perfomances, international motor racing would care vastly more about Earnhardt's theorized single season (or single race) in F1 than all his NASCAR performances combined...and on that vein, most F1 fans consider Montoya's move to NASCAR from F1 idiotic, or worse, throwing in the towel against the absolute best, or worse. Not my opinion, just reporting F1's. --Chr.K. 03:37, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

In other news, we're the ones who have to get cracking at putting up, and putting in, drivers' American open-wheel racing series statistics. --Chr.K. 03:38, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Now doing so, volunteers for the prose on his American Open Wheel career are invited. --Chr.K. (talk) 18:16, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

It's also fair to note that his short career in F1 was high profile within the F1 world and amongst its fans for a couple of reasons, firstly his surname and also that the series he came from gained a vastly increased profile amongst the F1 fans due to Nigel Mansell's transfer in th eopposite direction - much was made at the time of the contrast between Andretti's failure and Mansell's success respectively. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.113.170.97 (talk) 15:16, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

The series he owns a team in is no longer Indy Racing League, it is Indycar —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.54.174.98 (talk) 15:33, 17 September 2010 (UTC)

Roman Catholic

He is a famous Roman Catholic [1], but I don't know where to put it in the article. Royalbroil 13:42, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Gee, don't you think there's lots of Roman Catholics in high places? Does it really matter what his religion is? You dont know where to put it in the article? Just leave it out. 74.166.156.250 (talk) 01:03, 13 March 2012 (UTC)

High school

I am trying to update high school affiliations for Lehigh Valley people. Does anyone know where he went to high school? PAWiki 18:53, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one article was rated and this bot brought all the other ratings up to at least that level. BetacommandBot 23:47, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Results tables

I recommend combining the two "Champcar" tables into a single table (labelled "CART" - I think the series was called "CART" the whole time Andretti competed in it). I don't think it matters that he did a year of F1 in the middle. DH85868993 (talk) 06:46, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Celebrity Apprentice

There should be a paragraph regarding Michael Andretti's participation in the 2012 season of Celebrity Apprentice. Let me add, when they had the boardroom deliberations on who should be fired, the accusation was that Michael did not contribute enough to the project, which was a presentation to Buick executives, and other studio guests, of a new Buick vehicle, the Verano. The other celebrities said Michael did not make clever use of his status as a famous racecar driver, to promote the vehicle. "I'm not a salesman" was Michael Andretti's defense of himself. However neither Trump nor the contestants articulated a key point which was obvious to me, but apparently not obvious to them. Michael Andretti sat in the driver's seat for the mens team's test-drive of the Buick Verano. Michael Andretti has the professional understanding of why a car performs the way it does; So it begs the question: did Michael Andretti learn something about the Buick Verano during that test drive? And the most important point, which nobody addressed during that episode, was why didnt Michael Andretti transfer what he learned from that test drive into a communicable piece of information during the final presentation? Marc Smilen, Dania Florida, writing as 206.192.35.125 (talk) 21:27, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

Why is the participation on a TV game show that has nothing to do with the subjects core notability even worth mentioning? --Falcadore (talk) 14:45, 13 March 2012 (UTC)

Because he was one of the stars of a major network TV series and a Google News Search for "andretti apprentice" comes up with 194 results. Seriously, there's no argument for omitting it from the article completely. I have added a paragraph about his participation (which is already practically the only content in the article referenced to reliable sources). Theoldsparkle (talk) 18:27, 13 March 2012 (UTC)

So a well sourced appearance in a TV game show is more important to the article than the article subjects reason for being a "celebrity" in the first instance? Is cataloging TV show appearances really that important to Wikipedia? --Falcadore (talk) 21:25, 13 March 2012 (UTC)

194 isn't a lot of hits. If this deserves a mention at all, and I'm not sure it does, it should be a brief mention. We really don't need to give it undue weight by banging on about what he should or shouldn't have done on this pointless show. Bretonbanquet (talk) 21:28, 13 March 2012 (UTC)

Indded, to take a previous example, is it importnant now some ten years later to write extensively about Andretti's appearances on Home Improvement? While it was a very popular sitcom for its time, it is not necessary to mention beyond the briefest of single sentence mentions as it does not describe any form of Andrettis primary notability. If you had the describe Andretti now would you describe him as a racing driver and guest actor on sitcoms, or just racing driver? Game show appearances is similar. Celebrity Apprentice does not really need to be described on this article anything other than he appeared on this show. To suggest any significance beyond that is WP:RECENTISM. --Falcadore (talk) 03:07, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

It's unclear to me what the objection is. Are you objecting to the information about Celebrity Apprentice currently in the article, which is one 1k paragraph in a 55k article? (And, as I pointed out before, that one paragraph currently provides 1/5 of the references cited throughout the whole article? And I could easily provide a dozen more sources for that one paragraph, because it received widespread media coverage, because a starring role on a major network TV series is notable, regardless of whether you personally have any interest in it.) If, on the other hand, you're objecting to some imaginary version that suggests the TV role is "more important" than his work as a racing driver, I would agree that that imaginary version sounds pretty stupid and shouldn't be implemented. Please clarify what, if any, change from the current version you are advocating. Theoldsparkle (talk) 15:20, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

Falcadore: You completely miss the point. Yes, Andretti has either done many appearances, or had the celebrity credential to do many appearances. But the appearance on Celebrity Apprentice had DIRECT RELEVANCE. Andretti is a RACE CAR driver, and he was fired from Apprentice for his performance on a project which was to promote a BUICK VEHICLE!!!! .....Theoldsparkle: I edited your paragraph again. It is completely incorrect for you to say Andretti's firing from Celebrity Apprentice was due to "reluctance to lead his team." Theo: It was NOT Andretti's job to lead the team. It was Adam Carolla's job to lead the team. Adam Carolla was the mens' team project manager on the Buick Verano presentation. ...And you really should add at least one sentence stating that Andretti was in the driver's seat for the test-drive. Marc Smilen, Dania Florida AKA 206.192.35.125 (talk) 19:46, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

Being a racing driver does not give you any insight whatsoever in selling cars. Your analogy is such that you believe the 15-year-old girl running the counter at a 7-Eleven should be able to explain how the milk she sells is produced. There is no connection between racing open-wheelers and selling Buick sedans. I don't think Andretti has even raced a Buick or even a Buick powered open-wheeler. You are assuming "direct" relevance based on an incomplete understanding the subject material. I did not miss your point. Your point just has no foundation in reality. --Falcadore (talk) 22:27, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm with Falcadore on this one. It's a huge leap from driving a racing car to knowing how to promote or sell a road car. Different world. Plus I don't see any sources backing up 206.192's implication that Andretti was somehow deficient because he didn't seem able to deduce some gem of information from driving the Buick and be able to translate that into promoting the car. Maybe the Buick was a shitbox and he had nothing good to say about it. Who knows, and who cares. These minutiae of his appearance on the show are way above what is required for his article. Bretonbanquet (talk) 22:37, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

And even if it was, it is not Wikipedia's role to analyse or criticise people's performance. An encyclopeida records what IS and does so without providing opinions. I refer you to WP:NPOV. --Falcadore (talk) 22:56, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

Andretti understands braking. He understands skidding. He understands how to steer in a skid. He understands vehicle response to acceleration. Andretti understands wheel-base, and suspension, and how a car takes turns. So don't tell me there's no relevance. There are inherent principles in a road vehicle that Michael Andretti understands more than the average driver on the city road. Legal Highway speeds are up to 75, which means some jerks are going to try to do 85 on the highway. Skills like Andretti's are more important on todays highways than they were twenty years ago. Todays four cylinder engine completely blows away any four cylinder engine from twenty five years ago. Theoldsparkle, where are you???? Whats your response? MArc Smilen, Dania Florida 74.166.156.250 (talk) 02:36, 15 March 2012 (UTC)