Christian Fittipaldi has always had a lot to live up too. He is, after all, the nephew of champ car legend Emerson Fittipaldi. He has also spent the past five seasons as the teammate of former CART champion Michael Andretti.
Now that Andretti has left Newman/Haas and fellow Brazilian (and friend) Cristiano da Matta has joined the team, Fittipaldi is facing an even grater challenge. He is the veteran, the driver who is expected to guide the team to success.
Ask Fittipaldi about his new role, however, and he will tell you it is really no big deal.
"It doesn't really change a lot," he explains. "I have some experience with the team and I think that's going to be really good. But at the same time, I want to try and get the chance to work as close as possible, because above all, that’s the way the series is really competitive."
2000 is certainly a year that Fittipaldi would not like to repeat. Despite a season ending victory at the California 500 (and the one million-dollar bonus check) Fittipaldi’s season was rather lackluster.
He finished with 96 championship points, good enough for 12th in the final standings. The stat that sticks out, however are his seven DNF’s. The mechanical bug seemed to plague the team, especially mid season, as he failed to finish in three straight races (Cleveland, Toronto, and Michigan).
Then he missed a race (Chicago) because of a hard crash in Friday practice. Fittipaldi, who was had a history of potentially serious injuries, suffered a grade 1 concussion following the incident.
"I remember being slightly aware that I was in a racecar, then I thought I was away from the racetrack and then back," Fittipaldi said. "I didn't like it at all. Compared to the other times I was unconscious, this was totally different since I could hear and see certain things but wasn't sure if I was dreaming. I have no idea what happened. The car just swung around and I was just a passenger."
When it came time for Mid-Ohio two weeks later Fittipaldi was ready to roll. He qualified fifth and finished third in the Penske dominated race. As Fittipaldi would describe it later, "Was this a victory in the sense of being the first to take the checkered flag? No, but there was no way to match the red cars so we won the race of the rest."
The success was short lived however as the Brazilian failed to finish at Elkhart Lake the next week, a race where he was the defending champion. He followed this performance with a fourth in Vancouver, 10th at Laguna Seca, 12th at Gateway and a 6th in Houston. He hoped his luck would shift in Australia but Jimmy Vasser hit him from behind in a controversial incident that saw Vasser continue (minus a right front wing) to a podium finish while Fittipaldi failed to finish.
So, after all the mechanical failures and accidents, it was a surprise to some when Fittipaldi ran strong at the final race in California. For the driver, however, it was the opposite.
"We were quietly confident we would run up front there, but you never know with 500-mile races," Fittipaldi said. "We knew it was our last chance to win a race this season and we were giving it everything we had to be in the running at the end"
Fittipaldi’s victory was the second of his six-year champ car career. It was also especially sweet after he failed to finish at the first 500 mile race of the season in Michigan, a race where he ran with the leaders until a crash that could have been more dangerous than it turned out to be.
The Fontana weekend also saw him re-sign with Newman/Haas Racing, where he is now concentrating on next year.
So what’s the strategy for the new team veteran?
"I want to try to work as close as possible until race time, until like five minutes before the start of the race," he said. "And then when the flag drops, you go out after your own bread out there.
"I think with the way the setup of the team is right now (with the addition of da Matta), it is going to be a lot better. And I think this was something that we were missing a little bit in the team, and I think that is going to be huge for next year."
Huge, and potentially dangerous to the other members of the CART paddock.
