Rookie Fittipaldi Excited to Continue Family Legacy of Success at Indianapolis
April 17, 2018 | By Paul Kelly, Indianapolis Motor Speedway
There’s one name among the rookies assigned to cars for the 102nd Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil that stands out for race fans even though that driver has just one career Verizon IndyCar Series start.
Wickens … Kaiser … Leist … and Fittipaldi.
Rookie Pietro Fittipaldi is carrying the mantle for Brazil’s first family of racing into a new generation in May at Indianapolis. Fittipaldi, 21, is driving a Dale Coyne Racing entry in the INDYCAR Grand Prix on Saturday, May 12 and the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil on Sunday, May 27.
The bloodlines are numerous at Indy for Fittipaldi. He is the grandson of two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and two-time Formula 1 World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi and the nephew of 1995 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year Christian Fittipaldi and Indy 500 veteran Max Papis.
“I don’t think there’s any pressure carrying the Fittipaldi name,” Pietro Fittipaldi said. “I’m more excited and honored to be carrying that name at the Indy 500 and at the Indy road course. I love racing, and this is what I want to do. I put more pressure on myself to do well than anyone else.
“Just to have a family that understands racing and supports me, that’s extremely important. I’m excited and honored to be racing at Indianapolis.”
Fittipaldi, from Miami, comes to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Month of May with an impressive, varied racing resume.
He won the Formula V8 3.5 championship in 2017 for Lotus, with six victories, 10 podium finishes and 10 pole positions. That success came a year after he won the MRF Racing Challenge, with four victories, two poles and nine podium finishes.
Fittipaldi also won the Protyre Formula Renault championship in 2014, with 10 wins in 15 races, and also has open-wheel experience in European Formula 3 and Formula 4. But unlike many of his peers, Fittipaldi also drove in NASCAR oval competition as a teenager, winning a NASCAR Whelen late model track championship and Rookie of the Year honors in 2011 at fabled Hickory Speedway in North Carolina. He also won a race in 2012 in the NASCAR Whelen Late Model series and also raced in Denny Hamlin’s Short Track Showdown at Richmond International Raceway.
Despite that experience, Fittipaldi knows the Verizon IndyCar Series poses a steep challenge, with the powerful new car and some of the toughest driver and team competition in the world. He has one oval start, earlier this month at Phoenix, that ended early due to a crash.
Fittipaldi also understands that racing on a 1-mile oval during a conventional IndyCar race weekend at Phoenix doesn’t provide an accurate sneak preview of the ebb and flow of the Month of May, with days of pounding out practice laps before the crucible of qualifying and then the week-long buildup to Race Day. It’s unlike anything Fittipaldi has experienced, and he’s relying on grandfather Emerson and uncles Christian and Max for guidance.
“They say to take it step by step,” Pietro Fittipaldi said. “Ovals are a completely different style of racing than road courses. Less forgiving. If you make a mistake, you’re in the wall. That’s the most important part. You have to take it step by step.
“It’s important to qualify well for the race, but as they all said, it’s a very long race and anything can happen. It plays down to lot of strategy, as well, traffic management. It’s going to be fun and very competitive racing with world-class drivers and teams.”
This won’t be Fittipaldi’s first time to IMS during May. He has attended the race to watch uncle Max compete. But Fittipaldi is excited about the experience of fulfilling a lifetime dream of driving in the race, not just watching it.
“As a rookie, of course you want to soak everything in; it’s an amazing experience,” Fittipaldi said. “But at the end of the day, I’m there to drive, there to deliver results for my team, for my sponsors. I’m going to give it my all at the race. Of course, I’m going to be amazed at the event. But once I get into the car, there’s just one focus and one goal.”
That goal is simple – to put his face on the Borg-Warner Trophy, perhaps not far from his grandfather’s, and become the first grandfather-grandson tandem to win “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”
“It’s been 25 years since my grandfather won his last Indy 500,” Fittipaldi said. “So who knows? Anything can happen, and I’m going to give it my all at Indy.
“I’m a rookie, and I’ll have to learn a lot. But I have one goal, and that’s to win the Indy 500.”