Pietro Fittipaldi is one of the many IndyCar free agents who are yet to confirm where their future lies beyond 2024.
The Brazilian is a rare example of a driver with experience at the highest level in both Europe and North America – joining the likes of Romain Grosjean and Marcus Ericsson.
Unfortunately, Grosjean joins him in having failed to sign with an IndyCar outfit for 2025 yet, but there are still a few seats up for grabs.
The teams that they competed for this year (Rahal Letterman Lanigan and Juncos Hollinger) both still have seats up for grabs, so the chances of a return still exist.
Pietro Fittipaldi calls family name a ‘great honour’
Fittipaldi’s grandfather is a two-time Formula 1 world champion and retired the year that he was born in 1996.
The name that he forged in motorsport carries great substance even to this day and has helped Pietro and his brother Enzo to enjoy good careers so far.
Speaking to Nos Portugueses, he mentioned how it was something special to him to be able to have the Fittipaldi surname.
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“Pressure is natural, right? It comes with everything you do at a high level, pressure comes. So for me, I see pressure as a privilege. If I have more pressure, it’s because I’m competing at the highest level.
“Still, it’s a great honour for me to be able to carry the Fittipaldi name and on the tracks, my brother Enzo is also racing in Formula 2.
“He’s doing very well winning races. We are very proud to have this name, a family that understands a lot about motorsport.”
Will Fittipaldi find a way back onto the grid?
Finding a way back onto the IndyCar grid is going to be an inevitably difficult task for Pietro, whose #30 car is the last of three seats to be decided at RLL.
He failed to finish higher than 13th and ended up 19th in the drivers’ standings after the final race of the season in Nashville.
It wasn’t a great reflection of his true abilities which led him to a Formula 1 seat with Haas for two races in 2020, as a replacement for the injured Grosjean.
Teams with seats left appear to be chasing funding more than talent, with the high cost of IndyCar’s hybrid system creating a few more headaches.
It may mean that Fittipaldi is left to sit on the sidelines for a year before returning, with just five open cockpits remaining.