Christian
Fittipaldi

Christian Fittipaldi was born in São Paulo on 18 January 1971 into the Brazilian racing family of that name. His father Wilson also raced in Formula One, and his uncle Emerson was a two-time World Champion. Fittipaldi finished second in Brazilian Formula Ford in 1988 and third in South American Formula 3 in 1989. In 1990 he won the South American Formula 3 title and came fourth in British Formula 3. In 1991 he won the Formula 3000 championship ahead of Alessandro Zanardi, with two wins and seven podium finishes in ten races.

He made his Formula One debut in 1992 with Minardi. He stayed with Minardi in 1993 and finished thirteenth in the World Championship, his best placing in Formula One. In 1994 he drove for Footwork, took two fourth places and ended the year fifteenth. In total he was entered in 43 Grands Prix and started 40 of them. He took no wins, podiums or pole positions. After the 1994 season he turned to racing in the United States.

In CART, Fittipaldi finished second in the 1995 Indianapolis 500, which brought him the race's Rookie of the Year honour. He took his first CART win at Road America in 1999 and won two races in all. He was fifth in the standings in both 1996 and 2002 but never won the championship. Fittipaldi also raced in NASCAR, making his Winston Cup debut at Phoenix and starting the Daytona 500 in 2003. In the summer of 2003 he took over the Petty Enterprises car numbered 43, and later drove the number 44.

Alongside his Formula One career, Fittipaldi won the 24 Hours of Spa in 1993 and the Brazilian 1000 Miles in 1994. He later won, among other events, the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2004, 2014 and 2018, the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2015, and the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen in 2013, 2016 and 2017. With Action Express Racing he won the IMSA SportsCar Championship in 2014 and 2015.

Source: Wikipedia, “Christian Fittipaldi”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.