Pietro Fittipaldi Q&A

You’re set to drive the Haas VF-19 on Wednesday – the second day of Formula One testing at the Bahrain International Circuit. What are your expectations for the test?

“I can’t wait to get back in the car in Bahrain this week. Romain tests Tuesday, then I’m in the car on Wednesday. I’m sure the team is going to have a busy test plan, so I’m looking forward to it. As a driver the best part is always getting in the car. I’ve been in Bahrain since Thursday to follow the team over the race weekend. I’ve been listening in on the radio and sitting in on the debriefs to help me better understand the characteristics of the car, hearing the feedback from Romain (Grosjean) and Kevin (Magnussen).

You come from a family of racing drivers, most notably your grandfather Emerson Fittipaldi, a two-time Formula One World Champion. What influence have they had on your racing career so far?

“He (Emerson) has always tried to be around, passing his experience on to me, but he likes me to learn a lot of things on my own. He believes that you’ve got to learn from your own mistakes. After every session or test, he always calls me because he wants to stay updated.

“He was well-known for setting up a race car, so if I ever have any questions about how a car is feeling, he’s the person I go to. When I was racing in IndyCar last year, I had my first oval test. I’ve raced ovals before but in NASCAR late models, so it’s very different from open-wheel cars. He was trying to pass on his experience of how he remembered the track and it really helped me a lot.

“The year I was born, 1996, he retired from racing because he had a bad crash in Michigan. When I was growing up, my two uncles, Christian Fittipaldi and Max Papis, were both competing in races and series such as the Daytona 24 Hour and Champ Car and NASCAR. I’ve been going to those kinds of races since I was three or four years old and I loved it – staying up 24 hours just watching race cars. My younger brother won the Italian F4 Championship last year and is part of the Ferrari Drivers Academy so he’s doing really well too.”

You’ve competed in a number of different racing series, both open and closed-wheeled. Has competing in Formula One always been your main ambition?

“Yes, my dream was always to race in Formula One. After karting, the only opportunity I had initially was to race in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series. The budgets were lower there and we had sponsors that were in that market. When I started racing NASCAR I was doing really well, so it was actually a tough decision for me in 2013 to decide to come to Europe. I really wanted to give my Formula One dream a shot, so I moved to Europe when I was 16, lived by myself there for three or four years, which has brought me to where I am today.

“For the first two or three weeks of being in Europe, my dad came with me to help set me up there. I was living in a family friend’s house. I then lived with my team-mate, a Mexican driver who was 17 at the time. He had one year’s experience of living by himself, so it was good to live with him because he knew how to do stuff like cooking and the laundry. It was a bit overwhelming at first going there by myself, but you do get used to it and it makes you mature a lot quicker as well.”

How did the opportunity to become test driver for Rich Energy Haas F1 Team come about?

“I initially met Guenther Steiner in 2016 and he told me to go and win the World Series Formula V8 3.5 championship in 2017, and then we would speak. I won the championship and we spoke about possibly doing a test in July 2018, but I had my accident at Spa-Francorchamps in sports cars. We kept in touch, and once I was fully recovered, he said he would put me in the car for Abu Dhabi. I can’t thank him enough for the opportunity.”