Christian Fittipaldi

Christian Fittipaldi (born January 18, 1971 in São Paulo, Brazil) is a Brazilian 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 "Bino" Heinz (killed at Le Mans in 1963), he was a highly rated young racing driver in the early 1990s, and participated in 43 Formula One Grand Prix for Minardi and Footwork between 1992 and 1994.
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Fittipaldi was fifth in the CART series in 1996 and 2002, earning two wins and a second place in the 1995 Indianapolis 500. He has also had success racing sports prototypes, winning the 24 Hours of Daytona of 2004 and 2014, the 2013 6 Hours of Watkins Glen, and a seventh place in the 2013 Rolex Sports Car Series season.

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.

Early years
Fittipaldi was second in the Brazilian Formula Ford in 1988. After finishing third in the South American Formula 3 in 1989, in 1990 he won the title in the Formula 3 Sudamericana and the fourth place in the British Formula 3.

In 1991, the Brazilian was installed in Europe to compete in the Formula 3000, where he captured two wins and seven podiums in ten races to obtain the championship against Alessandro Zanardi. Later, he was third in the Macau Grand Prix of Formula 3.

Formula One
The jump to Formula 1 gave it  with Minardi, one of the most modest of the grid in the 1993 season. That year he managed to score a total of five points in the drivers' championship, but the team decided to do without it when there were two races to dispute. The following season he competed in the Footwork team and earned two fourth places, adding to a total of six points in the championship. At the end of this season Fittipaldi decided to try his luck in the competitions of the United States.

CART
Competing mainly in CART, Fittipaldi was a slow starter, noted for his consistency rather than his outright pace, although by the time he won his first CART event at Road America in 1999, he was a championship contender due to his consistent finishing, among which was a second place in the 1995 Indianapolis 500, which earned him Rookie of the Year honors in the race. However, just as Fittipaldi's American career looked to be taking off, he incurred the first of the two broken legs he suffered while racing in CART at the Surfer's Paradise race in 1997. Although he was able to return both times and win further races, he never regained a consistent form, and never won a CART championship.

NASCAR
With his Champcar career on hold, Fittipaldi shifted his focus to NASCAR. He made 3 appearances in the Busch Series during 2001 and 2002. Although he wasn't impressive in those races, he caught the eye of Richard Petty, and he was signed to Petty Enterprises near the end of 2002 and made his Winston Cup debut at Phoenix. In 2003, Christian made his first 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, Fittipaldi became the driver of the illustrious 43 car after John Andretti, cousin of Christian's former CART teammate Michael Andretti, was let go. Christian struggled and was reassigned shortly after the start of autumn, but remained with the team, driving the 44 car.

Sports cars racing
In parallel to his activity in Formula 1, was winner of the 1993 24 Hours of Spa and 1994 Brazilian 1000 Miles.

Fittipaldi debuted at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2003 with the Bell team, resulting sixth with a Doran-Chevrolet of the class Daytona Prototype. It was one of the pilots that won the 2004 24 Hours of Daytona, in this case with a Doran-Pontiac. Then participated in four other rounds from the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series with Bell, earning seventh in Virginia.

The Brazilian contested the first two races of the 2006 Grand-Am series with Bell, earning a sixth place at Homestead. Then ran six rounds with Riley-Pontiac of The Racer's Group, earning a victory in Phoenix, a second place in the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen and third in the 200 Miles at Watkins Glen.

In 2006, Fittipaldi disputed fully the Grand-Am series with the team of Eddie Cheever Jr. Obtained a second place and a sixth, to be located in the 23rd position in the drivers' championship of DP class. That same year, he participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a Saleen S7, where he finished in sixth place in the GT1 class, a total of eleven participants.

Continuing with Cheever, Fittipaldi achieved a fourth, seventh and eighth in 2007 and resulting 20th in the overall table of the DP class of the Grand Am series. Also, it came tenth in the GT1 class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, at the wheel of an Aston Martin DB9 of team Modena alongside Antonio Garcia, an amateur.

Fittipaldi disputed the first four rounds of the 2008 American Le Mans Series with Andretti Green. Piloting an Acura LMP2 with Bryan Herta, earned a fourth place, a fifth, a sixth and a seventh. Then again disputed the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Aston Martin DB9 of Modena, reaching delayed in the 30th overall position. He then ran in the final five rounds of the Grand-Am series with a Coyote-Pontiac of Cheever's team, earning a second place and a sixth.

The driver was invited to run the 2011 24 Hours of Daytona with a Porsche-Riley of Action Express Racing, resulting third overall with Max Papis and João Barbosa among others. In 2012 he participated again in this race with Action Express, in this case at the wheel of a Chevrolet Corvette DP, with which finished fifth.

The Brazilian became in regular driver of Action Express for the 2013 Rolex Sports Car Series season. He achieved two wins at Mid-Ohio and the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen, two seconds places, a fourth and a fifth, mostly with Barbosa. Thus, he was seventh in the drivers' championship in the Daytona Prototypes class.

He won the Rolex 24 at Daytona in 2014 in the Action Express Corvette DP with João Barbosa and Sebastien Bourdais.

Complete International Formula 3000 results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula One results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

American Open-Wheel
(key)

Complete A1 Grand Prix results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Stock Car Brasil results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

NASCAR
(key) ( Bold - Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics - Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led. )

Helmet
Christian Fittipaldi's helmet was yellow with a circle of green raindrops on the top, similar to Wilson Fittipaldi's helmet, but with inverted colors. In F-Indy he changed the yellow and green with red and grey respectively.