Pietro Fittipaldi, the newly crowned champion of the Protyre Formula Renault Championship, has let slip to thecheckeredflag.co.uk that he is looking to Europe for 2015. The Brazilian/American dominated this year BARC Renault championship with ten wins to claim the title with the televised finale still to go.
His final meeting of the season, the TOCA supporting Silverstone round, proved harder than the rest of the year. Contact in the first race of the weekend, with his MGR Motorsport team mate Matteo Ferrer, put him on the back foot. Still, the smiling Grandson of Emerson Fittipaldi found the time to speak to Team TCF about his championship winning year.
“It’s fantastic to win the championship. It’s been a great year and I’m delighted with taking ten wins in a great championship.
“The team have worked so hard, we prepared hard in the off-season and the results have shown that. Me and my team-mates have all pushed each other forwards and got better as the year has gone on.
“There’s been a lot of sacrifice from me and my family for me to be here in the UK chasing the dream. So to reward everyone is fantastic.
“It was down to a lot of hard work from myself and the team, which gave us a lot of pace in the races. We only got three poles this year, so it was down to being consistent and fast in the races. Consistency wins championships.
Fittipaldi also mentioned that he was looking to the European arms of Formula Renault for his next step on the road to Formula 1. With an ambition to follow his grandfather into the top level of single seater racing, Fittipaldi will focus his career on this side of the Atlantic for the foreseeable future.
Pietro didn’t confirm whether he would contest a full season in the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps championship, the Formula Renault NEC variant of Formula Renault 2.0 or move to Eurocup. A partial season in the NEC series this year with Bardon based MGR would suggest that he is looking to the Northern European Championship as his next step.
No team announcement has been made though MGR have already attempted a full year in NEC without success so Fittipaldi may stick with the team he knows.