INTERVIEW: Fittipaldi picks up (late) the family torch on the speedway

There is calm confidence in Pietro Fittipaldi.

Rightly so, having qualified 13th for his Indianapolis 500 debut and bringing his family name back into the historic race for the first time since 1995 when second cousin Christian Fittipaldi finished second. But the 24-year-old, Miami-born Brazilian strolls down the petrol alley at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as if he’d been here before.

Well actually he did.

He made his IndyCar debut in Phoenix with Dale Coyne Racing in 2018 and was prepared for a run in the Indianapolis 500 before it all went wrong about two weeks earlier. The grandson of two-time Formula 1 champion and two-time Indy 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi qualified with DragonSpeed ​​for an endurance world championship race in Spa-Francorchamps when a mechanical defect at Eau Rouge led to a collision with the outer barrier. He broke both of his legs and suffered compound fractures that derailed his 500 aspirations.

“When I had my accident it was crazy because after the surgery they said it would take me more than a year to get back to physical activity and other things,” Fittipaldi told RACER. “I was thinking about Indy, but I was thinking about my career in general. I said, “Man, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” but I couldn’t accept it in my head. I told my family. My Uncle Max (Papis) also helped me and said, “Let’s fly you to Indianapolis and work on rehab there.”

“After that, I stayed here in the motorhome for the month of May and did rehab in the medical center and worked at PitFit. Dr. (Terry) Trammell helped me a lot. After the month of May, I lived with my mother at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a month and a half. “

On July 29, about two and a half months after his accident, Fittipaldi was back behind the wheel of a racing car. Admittedly not 100 percent, he returned for the final five rounds of the season, finishing eleventh at Gateway before finishing top ninth of his career at Portland.

“Then I wanted to continue driving full-time in IndyCar, but that didn’t happen,” said Fittipaldi.

Instead, he looked at opportunities to compete in the DTM and the Formula Asia championship, and became a test and reserve driver for the Haas F1 team. Fast forward this track and the experience also includes two Formula 1 starts to replace the injured Romian Grosjean, with whom he shares Dale Coyne Racing No. 51 with Rick Ware Racing Honda at IndyCar this season.

Fittipaldi moved to Romain Grosjean in two GPs for Haas F1 last year. Coates / Motorsport Images

“I drove in Formula 1, but I always had in the back of my mind to come back and drive the 500,” said Fittipaldi, who will stay with Haas as a test and reserve driver for 2021, opportunities come and go and sometimes come them out of nowhere. I had already spoken to Dale and then the opportunity actually came quite late. I mean, in late January, early February. Dale called me and said, “You want to do the ovals?” I said, “Yeah, sure.” I’m really happy to be back here and racing, other than being in a RV doing rehab because it was very painful.

“We were competitive in qualifying. I study every day because you can learn a lot. There are people who come in and have 10 starts here, 15 starts, it’s crazy! So step by step. The team did a great job, my engineer Olivier (Boisson) and all of my engineers. Even Dale who walked me through the qualifying process where I can improve and now focus on the race, what I can do there, what we can do better. It was just amazing. “

It’s remarkable where Fittipaldi fits right into the landscape of motorsport. Not only was he forced to overcome injuries and adapt in the blink of an eye as he stepped in and out of various championships, but there was an extended period of time when he didn’t even get a chance to drive due to the pandemic.

“Last year I was supposed to be racing in the Super Formula and because of the pandemic I couldn’t,” he said. “I wasn’t in the car for nine months and hadn’t driven a Formula 1 car in a year when I got the opportunity to drive in Bahrain. I was there and it was super high pressure. My first Formula 1 race right in FP1. No shakedown before, nothing; nine months without driving, one year without a car. Most of what I’ve driven without a car in my entire career would have been a maximum of three months, and because of COVID and everything, it was nine months without driving and straight into the biggest weekend of my life, and then we played very well . “

Fittipaldi achieved a respectable 17th place on his Formula 1 debut, stayed relatively close and finished the race just four seconds behind his teammate Kevin Magnussen. His second race in the season finale in Abu Dhabi brought with it engine problems that forced him to make several pit stops on the way to 19th place. Even so, he found some positive results.

“We had some problems with the engine there, where we had to make a few extra pit stops, but we were able to overtake Kevin and put pressure on the Williams guys,” he said. “I was able to perform even with crazy pressure and was not as prepared as I would have liked for my first Formula 1 race.”

After being thrown deep in F1, Fittipaldi is ready to face the occasion for his Indy 500 debut. Abbott / Motorsport Images

This experience is an important reason why Fittipaldi remains unfazed by the magnitude of the May 30th moment.

“It’s a very high pressure situation in the 500,” he said. “Qualifying was super high pressure, but in my head I thought, ‘I’ve done it before, so stay cool and just do everything I can and do it under my control and do the best. Don’t worry about the things that I can’t control ‘”

At the end of the day, Fittipaldi is a racing driver. He has ridden almost everything that has four wheels. From junior formula to Formula 1 to IndyCar, he even won a late model championship at the Hickory Motor Speedway in 2011 before winning the Fall Brawl – the signature event – the following year. Even so, he still realizes the importance of returning his family’s name to the Brickyard.

“It’s very important,” he said. “It’s an honor to be here and to be back with the name Fittipaldi, the Fittipaldi family going back in the 500. It’s a huge honor for me to have that name, to have the name on the side of the car, and it’s just amazing.

“People ask, ‘Is there any additional pressure? ‘But there really aren’t any, because here I do what I love. There is no one who puts more pressure on me than myself because this is where I want to be in competition. I want to be good here. I don’t just race because I like driving cars. That’s because I like to win and be competitive so the pressure comes from within. But just having family history here and being able to move on is really great. “

When Fittipaldi steps into the biggest spectacle in racing this Sunday, there isn’t much thought to be given to where he wants to finish. Instead, he stays calm, cool, and collected with thoughts of getting the job done and letting the result speak for itself.

“Hit all my grades, do everything under my control,” said Fittipaldi. “That is the start of the race, the restart, entering the pits, leaving the pits, getting out of the lap and so on, in order to be able to run well in traffic. That is my focus, all that is under my control is to be able to do anything. Where we end up in the end depends on how good we did, how competitive the car was. So for me it means doing whatever is under my control.

“Of course I would be overjoyed to get a win. If you get in the top three it’s great. But obviously a victory here, everyone remembers the victory; As second or third, it almost hurts a little more. But if we can get in the top 10 that would be great. I’m not focused on the results. It’s more like I know we can be competitive. So focus on whatever is under my control. Execution only. Make sure we’re on it from the green flag. “