Born in Miami, Fittipaldi carries the weight of one of motorsport's most celebrated dynasties. His grandfather Emerson Fittipaldi won the Formula One World Championship in 1972 and 1974 and remains a legend of the sport. Pietro is the older brother of fellow racing driver Enzo Fittipaldi. His father is Christian Fittipaldi, who also raced in Formula One during the 1990s, making Pietro part of a three-generation racing family.
Fittipaldi began racing in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series, winning the track championship at Hickory Motor Speedway in 2011 and scoring a race win in 2012. He moved to Europe in 2013 to pursue open-wheel racing, debuting in the BRDC Formula 4 Championship and Protyre Formula Renault Championship. In 2014 he won the Protyre Formula Renault title, clinching it with one race to spare.
He contested the 2015 FIA Formula 3 European Championship with Fortec Motorsports, finishing sixteenth in the standings. He also won the 2015–16 MRF Challenge Formula 2000 Championship with four wins from fourteen rounds. Returning to the World Series Formula V8 3.5 in 2017, this time with Lotus, Fittipaldi dominated the championship, winning six races and claiming the title by 44 points over his closest rival Matevos Isaakyan.
Fittipaldi was first linked to Formula One in October 2014 when Ferrari invited him to test with the Ferrari Driver Academy. He tested a Formula One car for the first time in November 2018 at Yas Marina with Haas, and joined the team as its official test driver for 2019, participating in pre-season tests in Barcelona and the Bahrain Young Driver Test.
On 30 November 2020 it was announced that Fittipaldi would replace Romain Grosjean at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix. Grosjean had suffered severe burns to his hands and ankles in a fiery accident at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Fittipaldi started from last on the grid and finished seventeenth, the last of the classified runners, but completed a challenging debut in difficult circumstances. He stood in again for Grosjean at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, qualifying nineteenth and finishing nineteenth after a slow pit stop.
As a Haas reserve driver from 2019 onward, Fittipaldi drove the team's car in free practice sessions at the 2022 Mexico City and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix and participated in young driver tests. He was considered for the race seat left vacant when Nikita Mazepin's contract was terminated in early 2022 but the team ultimately chose Kevin Magnussen. Fittipaldi continued in the reserve role through 2024, sharing duties with Oliver Bearman. In October 2025 he was announced as a development driver for the incoming Cadillac Formula One team.
A serious accident at the 2018 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps—where a wheel entered the cockpit after a steering failure and broke both of his legs—interrupted a promising sportscar programme. Despite initial projections of a year's recovery, Fittipaldi returned to racing approximately two and a half months later.
He competed in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters in 2019 with Audi Sport Team WRT, scoring a best result of fifth at Misano and finishing fifteenth in the standings. From 2021 onward, Fittipaldi built a substantial career in endurance racing. He drove in the European Le Mans Series and, in 2023, competed full-time in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Jota Sport alongside David Heinemeier Hansson and Oliver Rasmussen. That season he won the LMP2 class at the 6 Hours of Monza.
Fittipaldi joined the IMSA SportsCar Championship full-time in the LMP2 class for Pratt Miller Motorsports in 2025 while simultaneously competing in the European Le Mans Series for Vector Sport.
Fittipaldi made his IndyCar debut in 2018 driving for Dale Coyne Racing in six part-time appearances, achieving his first top-ten finish at Portland. He returned to IndyCar in 2021, sharing a car with Romain Grosjean for oval events and qualifying as the fastest rookie for the Indianapolis 500 that year. In October 2023 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing signed him for the full 2024 IndyCar season, where he finished thirteenth at the opening round in St. Petersburg.
Pietro Fittipaldi represents the continuation of the most storied dynasty in Formula One history. His path—spanning multiple continents, categories, and disciplines—reflects the breadth of modern motorsport as much as a famous name. The combination of Formula One reserve duties, IndyCar experience, and sustained endurance racing excellence marks him as one of the more versatile members of the Fittipaldi lineage, even if a full-time Formula One seat has remained elusive.