Cadillac F1 has made many announcements after confirming Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as its two main drivers for their first F1 season. Northern Ireland’s Charlie Eastwood has been named as 1 of 3 simulator drivers for Cadillac’s new F1 team. But this is their biggest!
Pietro Fittipaldi Signs With Cadillac F1!
The Brazilian, who is part of one of the most iconic racing families in history, has had an interesting career before joining Cadillac. The Brazilian started out winning a championship in a form of racing most people never knew he attempted. He earned a NASCAR Whelen All-American Series title in 2011. But after 2012, he decided that stock car racing wasn’t his thing anymore and decided to follow in his granddad’s footsteps and attempt an open-wheel career, where he also found junior success.
He won three different open-wheel titles, like the World Series Formula V8 3.5 titles, before his career took a very unique turn. After such junior success, normally drivers try to go full-time in a major series like WEC or F1, but he instead chose to keep his options open. He became a test driver for Jaguar Racing in Formula E while also doing six races in IndyCar for Dale Coyne and a race in Super Formula. In 2019, he would get his 1st taste of F1 when he became Haas’s test driver.
He was also still Jaguar’s test driver in Formula E and had a seven-race campaign in DTM with Audi at the same time. This is a pattern that’s constant throughout the Brazilian’s career. He rarely commits to one series and instead tries a little bit of everything. Like Stock Car Brazil in 2021 and 2022, and sports car and endurance racing in 2023. Very fitting considering his family is well known for being in and winning in many different motorsports. From F1 to IndyCar to even NASCAR!
More Of Fittipaldi’s Career
Fittipaldi did get his first taste of proper F1 in 2020 after Grosjean’s tragic crash in Bahrain, which means he was only doing the final two races of the year. He finished 17th in his debut at Bahrain, with what was at the time a pretty bad Haas team. Until he signed with Cadillac, he was Haas’s reserve driver. That was a title he held for six straight seasons.
In 2025, did five European Le Mans series In 2025, he did five races for the Vector Sport team and six IMSA races for the Pratt Miller team, but now comes the second major career shift in as many years. Now being a reserve driver for Cadillac America’s other and newest F1 team.
Why Did Cadillac Sign the Brazilian?
After all, Cadillac made its ambition clear by signing Bottas and Perez. They are two drivers with race wins who spent a long time on championship teams and know very well how they all think and execute. While Bottas and Perez direct them to where they want to go in the future, Pietro represents where Cadillac is now.
He knows what pitfalls to avoid and what the right steps are to take as a midpack team trying to move up the grid. Cadillac won’t have its own engines till 2029 or later. So they’ll most likely be midpack till then, so while at the start stage, it’s about maximizing results to earn points as consistently as possible. Rather than going for wins, which is an environment the Brazilian is very familiar with.
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