Christian Fittipaldi (born 18 January 1971) is a Brazilian former racing driver who has competed in various forms of motorsport including Formula One, Champ Car and NASCAR. Named after the less known Brazilian driver Christian Heins (killed at the 1963 24 Hours of Le Mans), he was a highly rated young racing driver in the early 1990s.
He participated in 43 Formula One Grands Prix for Minardi and Footwork between 1992 and 1994.
He is the son of former Grand Prix driver and team owner Wilson Fittipaldi, and the nephew of two-time Formula One Champion and Indianapolis 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
He was second in Brazilian Formula Ford in 1988, followed the next year with third in South American Formula 3 and then in 1990 he took the title in Formula 3 Sudamericana.
He then came to Britain to race in the 1990 F3 championship, racing alongside Mika Hakkinen in the West Surrey Racing team, and he finished fourth in the standings, taking a win at Donington on the way.
In 1991, he moved up to Formula 3000 with Pacific Racing, and after taking victories at Jerez and Nogaro, plus seven podiums from the ten races with the Reynard, he won the championship, beating Alessandro Zanardi into second place. During the year he also competed in the Macau Grand Prix (F3) and finished third with Theodore Racing.
Then came a jump up to Formula 1 with Minardi, with early race finishes including eleventh in Spain, eighth in Monaco and thirteenth in Canada though his season was interrupted when he sustained back injuries in a practice crash at Magny Cours. This put him out of action for a while but after returning he would take his first Championship point with a sixth place in Japan.
Continuing with Minardi in 1993, he started with fourth in South Africa, seventh at Donington and fifth at Monaco and would eventually take five points in the Championship, but had to stand down from the season’s two final races. He moved on to the Footwork team for 1994 and started well with a superb drive to fourth place in Monaco, and later had another fourth at Hockenheim. In parallel to his F1 racing, he also competed in sports cars and won the 24 Hours of Spa in 1993 and 1994’s Brazilian 1000 Miles race.
At the end of the year he moved to America to compete in Indy Car for 1995 with Walker Racing. Although his first season was obviously a learning one, he achieved a fifth in his first race at Miami, then took second place in the Indianapolis 500 (earning him the Rookie of the Year award) and seventh at Milwaukee. 1996 saw him at Newman Haas (his first of seven seasons with them) alongside Michael Andretti and he was impressive in the wet at Detroit and Portland, finishing second and third. There was also a third place in Vancouver plus a couple of fifth and sixth places at Miami, Rio, Surfers Paradise and Milwaukee. Things were looking positive for the following year but two races into the season he sustained a badly broken leg at Surfers Paradise and missed six races. However, on his return at Portland he drove well to take fourth and there would also be a sixth place finish at Cleveland and fourth at Road America. 1998 would be a disappointing year for him and the team with his best results being fourth at the season opener in Miami plus third places at Road America and Surfers Paradise. But the following year saw him as a championship contender, with consistent finishes in the top ten in the first seven races, plus his first CART victory at Road America. However, in testing he broke his leg again and was forced to miss five races, which ruined his title chances. There would be one further victory in 2000 at Fontana, plus he took numerous top three finishes during his final seasons with the team, at Portland and Mid-Ohio in 2000, Portland in 2001 and a strong final year at Monterrey, Laguna Seca, Toronto, Mid-Ohio and Miami.
After leaving CART, Christian made several appearances in NASCAR’s Winston Cup and Busch series for Andy Petree Racing and Petty Enterprises, plus in the ARCA Re/Max series in 2003 with the Petty team. 2004 saw victory in the 24 Hours of Daytona (with Andy Pilgrim, Forest Barber and Terry Borcheller) in a Doran-Pontiac, followed by a number of Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series rounds with Bell Motorsports.
He was also a regular competitor in the annual 500 Mile Kart event in Brazil and with his team was champion six times, in 1998, 2000, 2003, 2011, 2014 and 2015. He competed for Team Brazil in the A1 Series in 2005, had three seasons (2005/2006 and 2010) in Brazilian Stock Car racing plus drove in four races in 2008’s ALMS with Andretti Green Racing. During this period he contested Le Mans three times, racing ACEMCO Motorsport’s Saleen S7-R in 2006 (with J.Mowlem & T.Borcheller) then an Aston Martin DBR9 with Team Modena in the following two years (with A.Garcia & J.Menten then T.Borcheller & J.Menten).
In sports prototypes races, driving for Action Express Racing and Mustang Sampling he won the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen (2013, 2016 and 2017), the 24 Hours of Daytona (2014), the 12 Hours of Sebring (2015) plus took 2014 and 2015’s IMSA SportsCar Championships.
Before the 2018 IMSA season, he became Sporting Director for Action Express Racing and started off the year with victory at the 24 Hours of Daytona and rounded off the season with fourth in the final race, the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. Afterwards he announced he would retire from top-level racing after 2019’s Daytona 24 Hours and was given a standing ovation from his Action Express Racing teammates and crew members, team sponsors, IMSA executives and media members.
