The remarkable career turnaround of an ever-improving F2 talent

At the end of 2020, Enzo Fittipaldi thought his days of racing in Europe were over. Having lost his biggest sponsor amid the ongoing shockwave of the COVID pandemic, the Brazilian parted ways with the Ferrari Driver Academy and signed up to drive on the third rung of the Road to Indy ladder - Indy Pro 2000 - for 2021, his hopes of a second FIA Formula 3 season in tatters.

But today, nearing the end of his first full season in FIA Formula 2 with Charouz Racing System, he's on an even keel in the standings with drivers touted as future Formula 1 prospects and ahead of several who have managed F1 mileage in Friday practice sessions this year. It's been quite the turnaround for the grandson of two-time F1 world champion Emerson, who finished only 15th in the standings in his first F3 campaign with HWA Racelab alongside team-mates Jake Hughes and Jack Doohan.

The bulk of his 27 points had come from finishing fifth and fourth in the final round at Mugello, as he failed to record a podium finish or a win. Having finished runner-up to Frederik Vesti in the 2019 Formula Regional Championship, Fittipaldi says the move to F3 was a “big learning curve”, and he struggled to adapt.

“At the beginning of this season, we were a bit lost with the warm up procedure, with getting the tyres in the window for qualifying,” the 21-year-old tells Autosport. “We were struggling a lot with quali pace until the last couple of rounds where I was fighting for the win in Monza [until a puncture picked up in a brush with Lirim Zendeli while leading forced him to pit]. I finished top five in both races in the final round and qualified in the top three, when we finally got everything sorted, but it was too late.

“It was a difficult season for me, but it was a season that I learned a lot about the tyres and being in a team that we were struggling to find the right balance and getting the tyres in the window. And then Jake being a very experienced driver, he always would find a way to get the tyres to work with his experience, so I think me and Jack would kind of lean into his experience and try and learn from him, which helped a lot.

“It was a difficult season, 2020. Towards the end of the season, we were really fast, but not much else.”

Having turned to Stateside for his next move – one Fittipaldi says would have been a “step back in my career” – he was handed a reprieve in the form of a free second chance at F3. After just one round, he received a phone call from Antonin Charouz and team principal Bob Vavrik. Fittipaldi “didn’t think twice” and jumped at the chance, despite the Czech team not being a frontrunner in the series.

Fittipaldi led on his first weekend back in F3 in Barcelona last year, then took a podium in Hungary that launched him into F2

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

That return proved pivotal in Fittipaldi’s career. On his comeback in Barcelona, he was battling David Schumacher for the lead in race two before being forced to retire following a collision. Later in the year he finished second – the best result in the team’s history – at the Hungaroring which set him on course for a graduation to F2.

“Obviously, I wasn't expecting to come back to Europe that quickly,” Fittipaldi admits. “I really thought Europe for me after 2020 and beginning of 2021 [was finished]. I thought that was another change in my career was the United States, and then to have that opportunity to go back to Europe and race in F3 was an amazing opportunity.

“In the first race weekend, we were already fighting for the win, and then I got a top five finish at the Red Bull Ring and I got the best result at that moment in the team's history, which was P2 in Budapest. That result for me was really what got me that opportunity to make the move to Formula 2 mid-season in Monza. So it was a crazy year for me, but in a good way.”

"This whole season, every race week, I've been getting stronger and stronger. It's just keeping my head cool, keeping my head down and just keep taking in as much information every race weekend as possible" Enzo Fittipaldi

Fittipaldi made his F2 debut at Monza and qualified just 0.7s off pole in 13th, despite having never previously driven machinery with carbon brakes. He had been fighting for the podium in his maiden feature race until a drivethrough penalty, and confusion around whether or not it had been served, dropped him to 11th – still a respectable result for a rookie.

He struggled the following round at Sochi, but was “getting adapted to the car” by the time Jeddah rolled around and took his first series points with a seventh-place finish in race two. Then came the horrific startline collision that forced him to sit out the Abu Dhabi finale.

An unsighted Fittipaldi ploughed into Theo Pourchaire's stalled car and was left with a fractured right heel after being taken to hospital, as well as suffering cuts and bruises. The crash took some time to recover from, and Fittipaldi concedes he was still struggling the effects for the opening two rounds of his first full season of F2 this year.

Taking a best finish of 10th from Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Fittipaldi says the one-month break between the second and third rounds played into his hands and meant he was feeling “basically 100%” by the time Imola rolled around. From 15th on the grid, he charged through the field to score his first podium in second.

He now sits sixth in the standings as one of the highest-placed rookies, equal on 126 points with Alpine F1 junior Doohan (Virtuosi) and Prema Racing veteran Jehan Daruvala, having amassed a further five podium finishes. He's only nine points behind third-placed Logan Sargeant, who is set to step up to F1 with Williams next year. Key to his success, Fittipaldi says, has been “continuously improving”.

Fittipaldi's 2021 campaign was curtailed by a scary start crash in Jeddah when he was unable to avoid Pourchaire's stalled car

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“I never stopped improving - you know, sometimes you get to a point where you get stuck and you make a step back,” he says. “But this whole season, every race week, I've been getting stronger and stronger.

“It's just keeping my head cool, keeping my head down and just keep taking in as much information every race weekend as possible, and just improving my driving. This year, I've learned so much about the tyres, tyre management, qualifying, that I'm in a really good position right now.

“I'm always there fighting for the podiums now in the feature race. I did P2 in qualifying in Spa, fighting for the top 10 in quali. So yeah, this year has just been a big learning curve for me, but I've done a really strong season so far.”

Fittipaldi has yet to take his first win, but believes he could do so in Abu Dhabi when F2 reconvenes after a two-month break in a fortnight's time.

“It is a championship where a lot of drivers make a lot of mistakes,” he says. “And I know that if I'm always there fighting for the points, always in the mix for the top eight and just finishing every race, keeping it clean, having a good race pace, I knew that that no matter where you start in the feature race in F2, you can start 20th or you can start first, you can always come home with a top three, because the feature races are really crazy.

“If you just have a good race pace, that's the most important thing and have a good strategy and just keep it clean. Making smart decisions has been the key this year, and we've just had a really strong pace this season, we've been really fast.”

An important source of support and guidance for Fittipaldi has been older brother Pietro, who serves as the Haas F1 team's reserve driver and made his F1 debut for the team at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix in place of an injured Romain Grosjean. Though Pietro’s career has taken a different path – he went from F3 to the Formula V8 3.5 Series before spells in IndyCar, DTM and the European Le Mans Series, among others – Enzo says his brother has been a huge help when it comes to racing.

“We work together, me and my brother, we're a team,” he says. “He helps me a lot in my career, and my father [Carlos] as well. He’s always there by my side when we go to make a decision, and he's always there to help and give me tips because he has a lot more experience than me.

Enzo Fittipaldi, pictured with Champ Car race-winner uncle Max Papis and Haas F1 reserve brother Pietro, comes from a family steeped in racing history

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“So I'm always listening to what he has to say and always taking his advice. He's always there by my side, doing whatever he can to help in my career. We have a really good relationship, so we're very open about anything and about racing. We speak about everything, we work really well together. And it's very good to have a very good relationship with my brother.”

Of course, Enzo’s grandfather Emerson also has a wealth of knowledge to tap into. Although the youngest of the dynasty says his two-time Indianapolis 500-winning grandfather “hasn’t played a big part in his career,” he has absorbed any input: “You always can learn something from a two-time Formula 1 world champion, so whatever advice he would tell me, I would always listen, anything about racing.”

Asked what the best piece of advice given to him by his grandfather was, Enzo says: “There's a lot, you know - a lot about racing, about overtaking. I think one of the coolest ones that he's given me, and it’s something that I've held on until today, is the part of visualisation, like visualising your lap.

Though Fittipaldi says the family name “doesn’t add any pressure, if not, it only adds a good pressure”, he's keen to forge his own path beyond his grandfather’s legacy

“Before you jump in the car and going to qualifying, visualise a fast lap, that perfect lap, visualise what you have to do in the corners to improve the corners you're weak on. And I do that before every qualifying, I sit down for 10 minutes and I visualise a lap around the track, I'm going to be doing qualifying at and I do what my engineer tells me I have to do to improve in that corner.

“I do it before I actually do the qualifying. So when I do qualifying, I have already done the lap outside of the car and I already know it for me, it's a lot more clear and I arrive a lot more prepared for qualifying. That helps me a lot.”

Though Fittipaldi says the family name “doesn’t add any pressure, if not, it only adds a good pressure”, he's keen to forge his own path beyond his grandfather’s legacy.

“I'm here to make my name, and my goal is to make a name for myself,” he says.

With a solid full maiden campaign under his belt, the young Brazilian is hopeful of another F2 season in 2023, although at which team is yet to be confirmed. Should he maintain his upward trajectory and continue his rate of improvement, then he could well deliver on his hopes of making his own way beyond that famous surname and completing what would be a remarkable turnaround.

Fittipaldi's quietly strong year has put him in a strong position in the standings

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images