A Ferrari academy graduate who won the 2018 Italian F4 title, took Formula 2 victories in 2023 and 2024, and moved into American open-wheel racing with HMD Motorsports.
Enzo Fittipaldi is a dual-national driver whose 2018 Italian F4 title was followed by runner-up honours in the 2019 Formula Regional European Championship and two Formula 2 race wins. He signed with HMD Motorsports for the 2026 Indy NXT season.
Enzo Fittipaldi is a Brazilian and American racing driver whose career has moved from Italian Formula 4 to Formula 2 and now American open-wheel racing. He won the 2018 Italian F4 title, took two Formula 2 victories and joined Indy NXT with HMD Motorsports, having also raced sportscars since 2025.
Where did Fittipaldi's racing career begin?
Fittipaldi was born on 18 July 2001 in Miami, Florida, and holds both Brazilian and American racing credentials. His grandfather is two-time Formula 1 champion Emerson Fittipaldi. His early karting results were modest, with a sixth place in the Micro Max category at the 2009 USA Rotax Grand Nationals.
The East Coast Karting Championship title came in 2014. In 2016 he moved into car racing with the Ginetta Junior Championship and Douglas Motorsport, where he finished eighteenth in the standings despite missing the final three rounds.
Two Formula 2 wins from a driver who had to rebuild his form twice, first after a 2021 accident and then after a 2022 surgery.
How did Fittipaldi rise through the Formula 4 ranks?
In 2017 he switched to open-wheel cars with Prema Powerteam in Italian F4. No podiums came that year, though four fifth places helped him finish ninth. He also raced as a guest driver in the ADAC Formula 4 Championship.
In 2018 he stayed with Prema and won the opening race at Adria, then added a second win later that weekend. He lost the championship lead midway through the season, but he won all three races at Misano to take it back. A double victory at Mugello clinched the Italian title at the final race.
In the ADAC series that year, he won once, at the second Hockenheimring round, and finished third in the standings behind the dominant Lirim Zendeli. He added eight further podiums during the season.
How strong was Fittipaldi's 2019 Formula Regional season?
The 2019 season brought the first Formula Regional European Championship, which he contested for Prema Powerteam. He was on the podium in every race of the opening three rounds, and he inherited his first win in the category when Olli Caldwell was disqualified after the second race of the season.
A later win at Imola came alongside more podiums, although his pace faded as the year progressed. He finished runner-up to teammate Frederik Vesti, with two victories and thirteen podiums overall. Prema also won the teams' championship that year, and Fittipaldi contributed to that result.
How did Fittipaldi's FIA Formula 3 career develop?
For 2020 he moved to HWA Racelab in FIA Formula 3, alongside Jake Hughes and Jack Doohan. He started the season from 29th on the grid at the Red Bull Ring but scored his first Formula 3 points with ninth in the second race. He finished the season fifteenth in the standings.
He tested for Prema on the second day of the post-season session in 2019. He finished his rookie campaign fifteenth, behind the more experienced Hughes but comfortably ahead of rookie team-mate Doohan.
Several strong recovery drives stood out. At Mugello he took fifth on the grid, moved up to fourth after another driver's penalty, and then placed fifth and fourth across the two races. He also gained fourteen places in one race at Spa-Francorchamps to finish twelfth after starting 26th.
In 2021 he moved to Charouz Racing System, partnering Reshad de Gerus and Logan Sargeant. He earned reverse-grid pole for race two in Barcelona after a twelfth-place finish in race one. At the Hungaroring race two gave him second and a first Formula 3 podium, even though Matteo Nannini had passed him for the lead by lap four.
He was replaced by American driver Hunter Yeany after the Hungaroring round. He still finished seventeenth in the championship with 25 points from a partial season.
In February 2021 he had also been announced for the Indy Pro 2000 Championship with RP Motorsport. He quit the series after round one and never came back; by June he had said openly that he was done with it.
When did Fittipaldi reach Formula 2?
Fittipaldi made his Formula 2 debut in September 2021 with Charouz Racing System, replacing David Beckmann, who left the team because of financial difficulties. He partnered Guilherme Samaia for the rest of the season. His first points came with seventh in the Jeddah sprint race.
His debut season ended early. Contact at the start of the Jeddah feature with Theo Pourchaire put him in hospital, and a fractured heel and cut above his eye ruled him out of Abu Dhabi. Despite only three rounds he still ended twentieth, with two points.
How did the 2022 Formula 2 season go?
Charouz retained Fittipaldi for 2022, partnering Cem Bolukbasi. His first F2 podium came at Imola, with second in the feature after late passes on Logan Sargeant and Ralph Boschung. He followed it with a run of increasingly consistent results, including fourth and fifth in Monaco.
His form peaked in Hungary, where he finished third in the sprint race and then second in the feature race behind Pourchaire. At Spa-Francorchamps he qualified second, but a track-limits penalty dropped him from fifth to tenth. At Monza, late-race timing helped him to fourth in the feature, later promoted to third after a disqualification. Before the summer break he was fourth overall with 100 points.
The year finished eighth overall on 126 points, with six podiums. Shortly after the season's testing, news emerged of brain surgery for a haemorrhage; the condition had nearly kept him out of round one.
What was Fittipaldi's breakthrough in 2023?
Rodin Carlin signed him in January 2023, alongside Red Bull junior Zane Maloney. The year opened with points in Bahrain and seventh in the Jeddah feature. Melbourne slowed him: a red flag at a bad moment dropped him to sixteenth on the grid, and a spin later wrecked his suspension in the feature.
He returned to form in Baku with second in the feature race, his first podium of the season. He was runner-up again in Barcelona after holding off Victor Martins. At Spa-Francorchamps he started fourth in the sprint, managed his tyres well and passed Richard Verschoor on the penultimate lap for the win. It was his first F2 victory and the team's first of the year.
He finished third in the Spa feature after post-race penalties for rivals, and he was runner-up in the Abu Dhabi sprint. The campaign finished seventh overall on 124 points, with one victory and five podiums. Looking back, he called it a good season that fell short of what he had hoped, blaming inconsistency and bad luck.
How did Fittipaldi's 2024 Formula 2 season end?
For 2024 he moved to Van Amersfoort Racing, partnering Rafael Villagomez for his third full Formula 2 campaign. He began in Bahrain with a first-lap elimination, but in Jeddah he qualified fourth and was promoted onto the sprint podium after a disqualification. In the feature race he took the lead after the pit stops and won by over eight seconds, his maiden feature win.
The rest of the year was more difficult. Poor qualifying left him in the midfield on several weekends. He recovered from fifteenth to fourth in the Red Bull Ring feature, and he qualified second in Hungary, where a late puncture denied him sprint points. A pit stop problem in Spa-Francorchamps removed a likely points finish.
Van Amersfoort Racing and Fittipaldi parted ways before the Qatar round, and John Bennett replaced him. He finished fifteenth in the championship with 61 points.
What is Fittipaldi racing now?
He tested for HMD Motorsports in Indy NXT at Indianapolis in October 2025. In 2026 he signed with the team for a full Indy NXT season. Earlier IndyCar running with Dale Coyne Racing and Arrow McLaren, he said, had given him early Firestone tyre know-how.
He also raced in sportscars. In 2025 he drove for CLX Motorsport in the European Le Mans Series, alongside Pipo Derani and Manuel Espirito Santo. In January 2026 he made his 24 Hours of Daytona debut with Pratt Miller Motorsports in LMP2.
The move was announced on 12 February 2025.
In 2024 he also disclosed a near miss: he had come close to driving for RB in Formula One that year.
How does Fittipaldi's record look season by season?
| Season | Series | Team | Main result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Italian F4 | Prema Powerteam | Ninth; four fifth-place finishes |
| 2018 | Italian F4 | Prema Powerteam | Champion; three wins at Misano |
| 2019 | Formula Regional European | Prema Powerteam | Runner-up; two wins, thirteen podiums |
| 2020 | FIA Formula 3 | HWA Racelab | Fifteenth; first points at the Red Bull Ring |
| 2021 | FIA Formula 3 | Charouz Racing System | Seventeenth; first F3 podium at the Hungaroring |
| 2021 | FIA Formula 2 | Charouz Racing System | Twentieth; two points |
| 2022 | FIA Formula 2 | Charouz Racing System | Eighth; 126 points; six podiums |
| 2023 | FIA Formula 2 | Rodin Carlin | Seventh; 124 points; one win at Spa-Francorchamps |
| 2024 | FIA Formula 2 | Van Amersfoort Racing | Fifteenth; 61 points; feature win at Jeddah |
| 2026 | Indy NXT | HMD Motorsports | Full-time season after signing |
What has Fittipaldi achieved so far?
His clearest achievements are the 2018 Italian F4 title, the 2019 Formula Regional runner-up place and two Formula 2 victories. Each win came from a different approach: a strategic overtake at Spa in 2023 and a dominant feature race at Jeddah in 2024.
His career has been marked by fast starts and difficult seasons. The consistent results of his Italian F4 and Formula Regional years were matched by setbacks in Formula 2, including the 2021 accident and the 2022 health issue. His move to Indy NXT in 2026 is his first full season in American open-wheel racing.
