Christian Fittipaldi

Fittipaldi is named after Christian Heins, a Brazilian racing driver killed in a wreck during the 1963 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Fittipaldi was born in São Paulo. He finished second in the Brazilian Formula Ford in 1988 and third in the South American Formula 3 in 1989. In 1990 he won the Formula 3 Sudamericana title and placed fourth in the British Formula Three Championship. In 1991 he moved to Formula 3000, winning two races and taking seven podiums in ten starts to claim the championship, beating Alessandro Zanardi. He also finished third at the Macau Grand Prix that year.

Fittipaldi entered Formula One in 1992 with Minardi, scoring a single championship point. He is the first Formula One driver to have been born in the 1970s. In 1993 he scored five points with Minardi before the team released him with two races remaining in the season. In 1994 he drove for Footwork, earning two fourth-place finishes and six points. After 1994 he moved to North American racing.

An academic paper published in 2016, using mathematical modelling to assess the relative influence of driver and machine, ranked Fittipaldi eleventh among all Formula One drivers of all time.

Fittipaldi competed primarily in CART, characterised as a consistent finisher rather than an outright pace setter. He finished second at the 1995 Indianapolis 500, earning Rookie of the Year honours. He won his first CART event at Road America in 1999. A leg fracture sustained at the Surfer's Paradise race in 1997 interrupted his career; he broke his leg a second time while racing in CART and returned from both injuries, ultimately winning two CART events. He finished fifth in the CART championship in both 1996 and 2002.

Fittipaldi made three appearances in the Busch Series during the 2001 and 2002 seasons. He made his Winston Cup debut at Phoenix in late 2002 after being signed by Petty Enterprises. In 2003 he made his only Daytona 500 start in a one-race deal with Andy Petree, then made a handful of appearances for Petty in ARCA. In the summer of 2003 he became the driver of the No. 43 car at Petty Enterprises after John Andretti was released. He was later reassigned and drove the No. 44 car for the remainder of his time with the team.

Fittipaldi's sports-car career ran in parallel with his single-seater years. He won the 1993 24 Hours of Spa and the 1994 Brazilian 1000 Miles. He debuted at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2003 with the Bell team, finishing sixth in the Daytona Prototype class in a Doran-Chevrolet. He won the 2004 24 Hours of Daytona with a Doran-Pontiac.

In 2006 he ran the first two rounds of the Grand-Am series with Bell, earning sixth at Homestead, then contested six further rounds with a Riley-Pontiac entered by The Racer's Group, winning at Phoenix and taking second in the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen. He also ran the entire 2006 Grand-Am season with Eddie Cheever's team, and that year participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Saleen S7, finishing sixth in the GT1 class among eleven GT1 entrants. In 2007 he continued with Cheever's team in Grand-Am and returned to Le Mans in an Aston Martin DB9 run by Modena alongside Antonio Garcia, finishing tenth in GT1.

In 2008 Fittipaldi contested the first four rounds of the American Le Mans Series with Andretti Green, co-driving an Acura LMP2 with Bryan Herta, and then ran five Grand-Am rounds for Cheever. He was invited to the 2011 24 Hours of Daytona by Action Express Racing, sharing a Porsche-Riley with Max Papis and João Barbosa among others and finishing third overall. In 2012 he returned to Daytona with Action Express in a Chevrolet Corvette DP, finishing fifth.

Fittipaldi became a regular Action Express driver for the 2013 Rolex Sports Car Series season, winning at Mid-Ohio and the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen and finishing seventh in the Daytona Prototype championship. He won the Rolex 24 at Daytona in 2014 in the Action Express Corvette DP with Barbosa and Sébastien Bourdais. Action Express also delivered him IMSA SportsCar Championship titles in 2014 and 2015. Further victories followed at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2015 and the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen in 2016 and 2017, along with a third 24 Hours of Daytona win in 2018.

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