REFLECTING ON F1'S NEW RULES; 1978 world champion Mario Andretti compares F1 racing then and now.(Motorsports)

Byline: PATRICK C. PATERNIE

this year marks the silver anniversary of Mario Andretti's Formula One world championship. In 1978, he became only the second American driver to win the title, Phil Hill being the first.

Andretti's championship is also significant because it came just as the sport was ramping up to engage in the highly sophisticated technological warfare that Max Mosley and the FIA are now trying to abolish. Mosley's new rules package banning telemetry, radios and other electronic forms of driver assistance would relegate next year's F1 pilots to cockpit conditions similar to those when Andretti reigned.

So we asked Mario, 63, what Grand Prix racing was like a quarter of a century ago and how he feels about the proposed changes?

``It just doesn't seem that long ago,'' Andretti remarked when first reminded about the anniversary of his world championship. Andretti, whose son Michael is 40 and plans to retire from racing after this year's Indy 500, was 38 years old in 1978.

Although he understands and appreciates his son's decision, he couldn't resist joking about the irony.

``I feel like I'm 37 and he's 40 and retiring. What's wrong with this picture?''