Fittipaldi makes most of his experience
Christian Fittiapldi has plenty left in the tank.
No, he’s not the 21-year-old breaking in with Minardi the way so many Formula One hopefuls did. He’s not the 25-year-old coming to America to race in CART, the 28-year-old winner at Road America or a 30-year-old dabbling in the foreign
world of stock cars with Richard Petty.
No, Fittipaldi is 46, a sportscar veteran, a student of the sport who enjoys the highs and suffers the lows as much as ever and wins more.
“I think the dynamics of the sport has changed a little bit since I started racing when I was 11,” said Fittiapaldi, a native of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
“If you keep up with it, you’re cool. There are some things you can’t attack the same way you used to years ago because the cars are different. The way they run the race is different.
“So if you’re evolving all the
time and approaching the sport in the right way … I don’t see it as a problem.
“There is a problem sometimes when a driver stops in time.”
Fittipaldi and his longtime Action Express teammate, 42-year-old Portuguese driver Joao Barbosa, haven’t stopped adapting or learning. Or winning.
The pair combined for the 2015 IMSA title and finished second to teammates Dane Cameron and Eric Curran last season.
This year they narrowly missed winning the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona when an aggressive move by Ricky Taylor sent their leading No. 5 Cadillac — with Felipe Albuquerque at the wheel — spinning with less than 7 minutes left.
Fittipaldi and Barbosa did win last month in Watkins Glen, N.Y.
They head to Elkhart Lake this weekend for the Continental Road Race Showcase (1:35 p.m. Sunday, FS1) looking to turn the tables on their teammates and match their success of three years ago.
This season has the perfect example of what Fittipaldi means when he speaks of learning and adapting.
In addition to General Motors changing from Corvette to Cadillac (not a big deal), the series moved from its former Daytona Prototype-spec car to Daytona Prototype International, a twist on the LM P2 in Europe.
The car carries more down force and is stiffer, more like the singleseaters he drove decades ago than last year’s IMSA prototype.
“When you drive the car for the second time and you encounter a new reaction, you say, ‘Wow, that’s pretty different,’ and then you backtrack your mind and say, ‘OK, where did I experience that before?’ ” Fittipaldi said.
Maybe the feeling is reminiscent of an Indy car nearly two decades ago. Or maybe something else. Point is, Fittipaldi and drivers like him have that base of knowledge on which to draw.
“You’re always learning, no matter how old you are,” Fittipaldi said.
“I’m always criticizing myself — in a good way — after ever race weekend. I collect the good stuff I did and analyze the bad stuff I did and try to improve on it and go on to the next weekend.
“If you don’t do it, the young guns are definitely going to eat you alive.”
Fittipaldi doesn’t feel particularly old. He was surprised to hear it had been 18 years since he beat then-teammate Michael Andretti at Road America for his breakthrough CART victory.
Paul Newman, a coowner of that team, was an active driver who was part of class-winning team at Daytona when he was 70, making 46 seem quite young.
Fittipaldi has no doubt he’ll stop before Newman did. Although he’s not sure when that might be, he does know how he’ll know.
“It’s very simple,” he said. “The day I lose and for whatever reason I lost, I don’t get upset, heartbroken, and the day I win and just shrug my shoulders and walk away and don’t feel excited, there’s no reason for me to be here.”