Categories: Look backRace and classic pictures

The family business: happy birthday, Marco Andretti

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Happy birthday today to Marco Andretti, the grandson of motor racing legend Mario Andretti, who turns 29 today.

While Marco has never made it into Formula One, he's still a racing veteran having competed for the last ten years in the US open wheel IndyCar Series for his father Michael's race team, Andretti Autosport.

Michael himself did spend a year taking part in Grand Prix races with McLaren in 1993, although the retirements outnumbered the finishes. He bowed out three races before the end of the season, but did so with a flourish when he claimed a podium for third place at Monza.

To celebrate Marco's birthday today, here's a picture of him in his 'office' at the 2013 GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma in California.

The new season of the Verizon IndyCar Series gets underway today with the first race of the year, the Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg in Florida. Among the drivers lining up on the grid are former Marussia Manor drivers Max Chilton and Alexander Rossi making their maiden starts in the competition.

Other familiar Formula One faces taking part in today's race are Takuma Sato and Juan Pablo Montoya (last year's event winner), and former GP2/3 drivers Luca Filippi and Conor Daly.

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.