One of the first foreign names to establish a continued successful presence in the IndyCar Series, beyond the Indianapolis 500, was Emerson Fittipaldi. After three years retired from top competition, the two-time world champion (1972 and 1974) began a second stage in the United States in 1984, competing in the American division for 13 years with great fortune. His only title in 1989 It was the first obtained by a foreign driver since the distant conquest of Gaston Chevrolet in 1920, and Fittipaldi was the first outsider in history to win the Indy 500 twice, in 1989 and 1993.
His last name was still present in the contest by the hand of his nephew Christian fittipaldi, who competed between 1995 and 2002 after passing through Formula 1, and his grandson Pietro Fittipaldi, with nine careers behind him in 2018 and 2021. Currently, while another of his grandsons (Enzo) seeks to carve out a career in Europe, Emerson dedicates herself body and soul to the sixth of her seven children, Emerson Fittipaldi Jr, who started his single-seater career this year with a runner-up in the Danish Formula 4 Championship, the only one that allowed his son to compete before he was 15 years old. His future plans could well be a career in the United States, something that father and son enjoy for the moment as spectators.
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In statements made to the IndyCar official website as part of the Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations (which also includes non-Spanish-speaking Latin Americans), Fittipaldi has been very satisfied with the current course of the championship, in a year in which his compatriot Hélio Castroneves became the fourth driver in history to win the Indy 500 four times: “It was incredible, without a doubt. I was talking to Zak (Brown), and I told him that what IndyCar is doing is fantastic, much more exciting to watch than any other form of competition. It’s better than Formula 1».
Although your temporary residence in Denmark, travel restrictions and necessary precautions have prevented you from attending an event in person for the past two years, Fittipaldi speaks regularly with Brown, great instigator of McLaren’s adventure in American competition through Arrow McLaren SP. This team has competed for the last two years as an advertising and technology partnership with Sam Schmidt’s team, until McLaren Racing agreed this August to purchase 75% of the line-up.
“Sometimes the races are too late for us to see them, but my son goes crazy watching them, he loves it», Assures Fittipaldi, who regretted the bad fortune that prevented Pato O’Ward from contesting the title to Alex Palou beyond the first round in Long Beach. And it is that, beyond its connection with McLaren, Fittipaldi is also a very beloved personality in Mexico, a country that it considers practically its second home. In 2015 he was appointed ambassador of the Mexican F1 Grand Prix, and in 2017 a circuit inaugurated in Yucatán was named as the Emerson Fittipaldi International Autodrome.