Pietro Fittipaldi chose to return to IndyCar six years after making his debut in the championship and joined Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
The Brazilian has steadily improved over the season after such a long time away from the series and racing on most of the circuits for the first time.
Fittipaldi has yet to break into the top 10 but has consistently finished races this season with a best finish of 12th place during the $1 Million Challenge at The Thermal Club.
The RLL driver was caught up in the championship battle at Portland after making contact with title contender Scott Dixon but has been involved in few incidents throughout the rest of the year.
He said that he had to make a tough decision before returning to IndyCar after a competitive season in the World Endurance Championship last year.
Fittipaldi told the IndyCar YouTube channel that he had been persistently calling IndyCar team owners about a potential opportunity in the series.
Pietro Fittipaldi has ‘been wanting’ to race in IndyCar for a long time despite a successful stint in WEC
Fittipaldi has been racing in WEC for the past couple of seasons in LMP2 and had the opportunity to join the Hypercar class in the series.
This would have allowed him to become a professional driver in the Porsche factory sportscar programme and battle for wins in WEC.
Fittipaldi turned down the very appealing offer of a drive in WEC as he wanted to return to IndyCar as it is the championship he had been pushing to compete in for a number of years.
He has a lot of experience in single-seaters after winning the World Series Formula V8 3.5 in 2017 and competing in two F1 races in 2020.
The Brazilian spoke of the decision he made ahead of the 2024 season: “It’s tough because I had such a good year with Jota, and then that natural step to go into the Porsche hypercar programme.
“It was a deal that it would solidify me as a professional racing driver and stuff. But when I had the shot to race an IndyCar, it’s something that I’ve been wanting and chasing for such a long time that I got to go for it.”
IndyCar is a very competitive championship with 27 cars on the grid and more drivers trying to get a seat on in the field.
Fittipaldi explained that there were not a lot of chances to race in IndyCar after making his debut in 2018 while he competed in sportscars.
He added: “For those years after, there weren’t opportunities in IndyCar, and I was doing endurance racing. That’s what I was doing the past two, three years.
“I had a very successful year last year in WEC with Team Jota. I had the opportunity to go and race Hypercar this following season with Team Jota. But this opportunity, I’ve always been calling the team owners an IndyCar every year.”
Pietro Fittipaldi is facing competition to keep his IndyCar seat
The Brazilian drove well on his return to IndyCar and adapted to many tracks he hadn’t driven on before this year.
He is also just over the threshold to be considered a rookie, so he doesn’t benefit from the extra set of tyres in practice and isn’t confirmed on next year’s grid.
Juri Vips is also in the frame for an IndyCar drive at Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and competed at Portland for the team, finishing his first car race of the year in 19th place.
As the 2024 season draws to a close with just one race left at Nashville Superspeedway there are still multiple seats up for grabs on the grid.