Andretti: McLaren 'wanted' my dad to fail.

Marco Andretti has claimed that McLaren 'sabotaged' his father's efforts during his one and only season in Formula 1 in 1993, insisting the Woking-based outfit went out of their way to 'make him look bad'.

Andretti Snr scored just three times in 13 races in the top flight 15 years ago, before being replaced in the car by test driver Mika Hakkinen towards the end of the campaign, with the Finn subsequently going on to clinch 20 grand prix victories, 51 rostrum finishes and two world championship crowns for the squad. The American, though, enjoyed no such good fortune, packing his bags prior to the Portuguese Grand Prix and returning across the Pond, proverbial tail between his legs. That, however, his son insists, is not 'the real story'.

"If you ask me, it was sabotage," Andretti Jnr - the third generation of one of international motor racing's most illustrious families - told The Associated Press as he prepares for his third participation in the celebrated Indianapolis 500 this weekend. "They wanted him to fail.

"It was a very bad deal. The reality of it was, they had Mika Hakkinen ready to come in for a lot less than what my dad was getting paid, and that's all it was. Right then and there, they had to make him look [bad]."

The word at the time was that Andretti's F1 venture had been a spectacular failure, with the Pennsylvania native ending every one of his first four races in the gravel trap - on two occasions failing to make it beyond even the opening lap, with further such 'rookie' errors at Silverstone and Hockenheim - and failing to out-qualify triple world champion team-mate Ayrton Senna season-long, even if he did make the top ten on the starting grid seven times.

The paddock whispers suggested he had been either unable or unwilling to commit himself fully or adapt to the European way of life after the best part of a decade spent living and racing in America, but Andretti Jnr went further than to merely suggest that McLaren gave Senna preferential treatment and equipment within the team.

"They would make the car do weird things in the corner electronically, stuff out of his control," the 21-year-old continued of his father's plight. "I think my dad's biggest supporter over there was Ayrton Senna, because he was one of the few who knew what was really happening in the team, and I think he believed in my father. It was Monza that he really said, 'Give him my car - give him exactly what I had'."

Though Andretti finished third in the Italian Grand Prix - to register the only rostrum finish of his abortive career in the top flight - it would also prove to be his last race, as McLaren replaced him with Hakkinen just a fortnight later, the Finn going on to lead on his debut for the team.

The American - now 45 and co-owner of the highly successful Andretti Green Racing concern, for whom Marco drives in the IndyCar Series - went on to claim a top four finish in five of the subsequent eight Champ Car campaigns, though he would never again replicate his title-winning glory of 1991.

"I'm not going to go into all of it," he underlined. "Let's just say it was not a pleasant experience. It was a time where I think I was sort of caught in a political battle of auto racing, and because of that it wasn't a very good experience.

"If my dad [1978 Formula 1 World Champion Mario Andretti] went through that, I would obviously probably approach it a different way and tell that story, but it sounds like sour grapes coming from me."

Whilst McLaren were unavailable for comment on the matter, Marco Andretti nevertheless admitted that he would like to have a crack at the uppermost echelon in the future - even if he has had his eyes opened wide to the dark world of politics and back-stabbing that exists within the grand prix paddock. He tested for Honda back in 2006, and though he acknowledges that he could quite happily see out the remainder of his racing days in IndyCar circles, should an opportunity present itself to make the switch to F1 he would grab it - but only, he insists, if it is the right one.

"I want to tackle it," he summarised. "The reason it's tough right now is, if I go win Kentucky, Ferrari's not going to come say, 'Hey, we want you'. Maybe [winning] a championship and the Indy 500, that could help.

"I don't have any mentality other than to go over there and win, because I think it's a bigger story if I go over there and fail, really. It really is. That's what people are waiting for, to be honest, over there."