When Enzo took to car racing for the first time, the most valuable support and advice he got was from his elder brother, Pietro.
“He’s great – a great brother, amazing coach. He comes to all my races and helps me in all my races. He’s my biggest idol.”
Pietro, five years older than Enzo, currently races in Formula V8 3.5 for Fortec Motorsport. Last month, at Silverstone, he took his first rookie win.
Just before Pietro headed out of the garage for the race, Enzo and their mother, Juliane, clasped his hands. The moment, in a busy, noisy garage, summed up the strong support both drivers get from each other, and their family.
“Having my family support is great,” Enzo told me when I joined Fortec at Silverstone.
“I really like it,” Pietro said. “It sort of reminds me of the karting days because my parents used to always drive us to the karting weekends and everything.”
The Fittipaldis live in the United States. Both brothers were born there, but race under the Brazilian flag.
When Pietro came to race in Europe, his family weren’t able to come to his races as they had been but, with Enzo now also having made the move to England to race, coming to races is a lot easier.
When it was announced that Enzo would be racing in the Ginetta Junior championship, I spoke to the teenager, and asked what the best advice he had been given was.
At Silverstone, I asked Pietro what advice he had given to his brother. The answer was strangely familiar.
“Just: you have to be dedicated and determined. I told him that if this is what you want to do, you have to go fully out and do his best in everything.”
As an older sister who spends most of her time trying to dodge soft toy missiles, I was amazed at how close the two brothers are. When I told Juliane this, she was quick to assure me this wasn’t always the case. Like all brothers, they have their moments but at races it seems they’re inseparable.
Juggling both of her son’s racing careers, as well as supporting her daughter, Valentina, as she prepares to go to university, can’t be easy, especially when it comes to clashes.
“When I was here in England racing doing Europe, my brother was racing in go-karting in the US so she was with him, obviously,” Pietro said.
So far, there hasn’t been a clash of races, but that will change at the beginning of October, when Pietro will head to Monza whilst Enzo races in the season finale at Brands Hatch.
“I’m not sure what will happen,” Pietro said when I asked where his mother would be. “We’ll see who she likes more.”
One thing the family hasn’t really had to worry about is the pair competing against one another. The age difference means Pietro and Enzo were rarely in the same category in karting, and Enzo is still a few steps behind his brother in his career.
“I had one race with him,” Pietro told me. “It was like a club go-kart race. It wasn’t really important. I was leaving the category and he was just beginning it, we were able to have that one race together. And he actually crashed me in the start.”
Last weekend, Pietro joined Enzo in the assembly area ahead of the first Ginetta race of the weekend. Whilst the mechanics were busy making the final checks on the car, Enzo reached out for his brother, who took hold of his hand and gave him a few final words of advice before Enzo headed out for his own race.
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