Home > Christian Fittipaldi

Fittipaldi graduated to Formula One following a Formula 3000 championship winning season in 1991. Opportunities to test and impress were limited at Minardi, though, and despite a number of points scoring positions early in 1993, Christian fell out with the team management and was dropped with two GPs to go. He had one final crack at F1 in 1994 driving for the Footwork team, scoring two 4th places. Disillusioned with GP racing, however, Fittipaldi moved to America to race where he has been ever since.

Competing mainly in Champcars, Fittipaldi was a slow starter, noted for his consistency rather than his outright pace, although by the time he won his first Champcar event at Road America in 1998, he was a championship contender due to his consistent finishing. However, just as Fittipaldi's American career looked to be taking off, he incurred the first of the two broken legs he suffered whilst racing Champcars. Although he was able to return both times and win further races, he never regained the consistent form that makes Champcar champions.

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 PettyRichard Petty (born July 2, 1937) is a renowned former NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver and is now a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series owner. He won the NASCAR Winston Cup Championship 7 times; Dale Earnhardt was the only other driver to accomplish this feat., and he was signed to Petty Enterprises near the end of '02 and made his Winston Cup debut at PhoenixThis article is about the Arizonan city. For the mythical creature see Phoenix, and for other uses see Phoenix (disambiguation). Phoenix is the capital, largest city, and largest metropolitan area of the state of Arizona, United States. As of the 2000 cen. In 20032003 is a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar), and also: The International Year of Freshwater The European Disability Year Summary Perhaps the defining global event of the year 2003 was the Invasion of Iraq launched by the U, Christian made his first Daytona 500The Daytona 500 is a 200-lap, 500 mile, NASCAR race held annually at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. In stock car racing, it is the most important race of the year. Not only is Daytona NASCAR's biggest race, it is also the ci 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 was let go. Christian struggled and was reassigned shortly after the start of autumn, but remains with the team, driving the 44 car, and, in time, expects to run a full Cup season for Richard.

Fittipaldi co-drove the winning car during the 24 Hours of DaytonaThe 24 Hours of Daytona is an automotive endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Styled after the even more famous 24 hour race in Le Mans, France, the purpose of the event is to determine which team of th in 20042004 is a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 2004 calendar), and has also been designated the: International Year of Rice International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition Elections are to be held in 73 co.