Enzo Fittipaldi made a splash early in his third full F2 season by winning the feature race in Jeddah, but his campaign has derailed with just two points finishes since then.

By Martin Lloyd

Fittipaldi has struggled since he took third- and first-place finishes in Saudi Arabia. Four successive weekends yielded no points before he took fourth place in the feature race at Spielberg.

The Van Amersfoort driver started the race in 15th but made his way through to finish fifth on the road, which became fourth after Pepe Martí received a post-race penalty.

“It’s tough,” Fittipaldi told Feeder Series from the Silverstone paddock. “We came from Jeddah [as] easily one of the fastest cars on the grid and arrived to Australia completely off the pace. It’s been difficult to regain our ground. One race after the other, we just haven’t been able to find the pace.

“In Austria we found a good combination, and we were competitive in the first set in qualifying. We have something going here [in Silverstone].”

Despite qualifying 20th, he finished eighth in the feature race at Silverstone, a day after navigating his first race in wet conditions in the new F2 car.

Fittipaldi now sits tenth in the championship with 48 points – his lowest total after eight rounds across his three full seasons in the series. The 22-year-old said a stable run of results would be the key to further progression in the championship.

“It’s just doing the best you can with what you have. It’s hard sometimes to be consistent like some of the top teams are this year at every race weekend,” he said. “At Jeddah we were super fast, and it’s hard to continue that consistency, being in the correct window with the car and with driving. The hopes are to continue to progress, to continue to develop the VAR car and to continue to improve to the end of the year.

“Where I end up in the championship, I’m not sure. I don’t really look too much into that – just go race by race, try to get a few more wins and a few more podiums.”

Fittipaldi is not only racing for his championship position – he is also racing for his future. Having tested with IndyCar outfit Dale Coyne Racing last November and with Jaguar’s Formula E team in May at the series’ Berlin rookie test, Fittipaldi could have a range of options after the end of the season. But he said he remains focused on his F2 career for now.

“We will start thinking about this in August,” he said. “Formula E was a great challenge. I really enjoyed it, to work with Jaguar, such an amazing team. It’s always been a dream of mine to win the Indy 500, so that would be amazing to race in. Obviously Formula 1, but you have to be realistic.

“It’s very difficult to make it to F1 nowadays, but you’ve got to believe in yourself and keep doing the best you can and see where your results take you. We’ll see where we end up at the end of the year, but I do predict strong results until the end of the season.”

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency