Many famous names have been associated with winning with an Abarth badge over the decades, but last weekend the legendary Fittipaldi surname became associated with the Scorpion as former two times F1 world champion Emerson’s 16-year-old grandson Enzo took a double win in Italian F4.
Emerson Fittipaldi is one of the greatest legends of motorsport, the Brazilian maestro claiming two F1 titles in 1972 and 1974, with Lotus and McLaren respectively, his first title coming at the age of just 25 years old making him the youngest champion in a record that went on to stand for more than three decades.
After his grand prix career ended he enjoyed further success in CART racing, winning the American open wheeler title in 1989. He also won the Indianapolis 500 in both 1989 and 1993, the latter, at 47 years of age, making him the oldest ever winner of the famous five hundred mile race.
Although Emerson had little connection with Italian racecars during his glittering career, two years ago he announced and presented a brand-new supercar project, dubbed the “Fittipaldi EF7”, which is due to reach production this year. Destined to be track-use only machine and built to a run of just 39 units, which represents the number of F1 and CART races combined that he won during his career, the ‘shark’ styled EF7 has been designed and engineered in Turin by Pininfarina.
Following in the family footsteps now comes Enzo, the grandson of Emerson and the younger brother of 21-year-old Pietro Fittipaldi, also a racing driver who drove to the title in a NASCAR feeder series before going to Europe and winning the Formula Renault championship and is now in IndyCar.
Last year Enzo graduated to the Abarth-powered Italian Formula 4 with the crack Prema Powerteam squad having started racing in Europe in 2016 with a Ginetta before being invited to join the Ferrari Driver Academy, just as his brother Pietro had been two years before, at the end of that season. His first year in Italian F4 netted a fastest lap at the round held at the Adria International Raceway but no podiums came his way.
That learning experience looks to have paid off handsomely as he made a flying start to his second season in Italian F4 which kicked off last weekend at the Adria circuit.
Starting from pole position in Race 1, Enzo finished ahead of the Italian youngster Leonardo Lorandi, who then won the second round. In the thirdand final race of the weekend, Enzo once again finished ahead of Lorandi.
Now, the young Brazilian sits at the top of the overall Drivers’ championship classification, with an advantage of 4 points over the Italian driver. They have 65- and 61-points respectively.
That triple podium in Italy came after a strong showing by Enzo the previous weekend, this time at the Oschersleben circuit in Germany, where he contested the opening round of the ADAC F4 Championship, which is also powered by Abarth and uses the same chassis. The Brazilian, who was born in Miami, finished fourth in Race 1, third in Race 2 and second in Race 3 to set himself up for the trip to Adria a few days later.
The Italian F4 championship is proving to be quite a showcase for young drivers to demonstrate their talents. In Adria for the opening triple header round of the year there were thirty drivers from seventeen different nations on the grid. The series runs to a ‘one make’ format utilising a Tatuus-built single-seater that's powered by an Abarth specification version of FCA's 160 HP T-Jet engine and in this guise the championship has just kicked off its fifth season.
Photos: Italian & German F4 Championships powered by Abarth
