'Fittipaldi was very close to a Red Bull seat in Formula One'
F1 News
- Jeroen Immink
Enzo Fittipaldi - grandson of two-time F1 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi - was very close to a permanent seat in Formula 1 last year. His advisor Pedro Boesel makes this claim. According to him, the Brazilian almost signed with Red Bull Racing's sister team.
Fittipaldi drove his second Formula 2 season in 2023 while becoming a junior driver at Red Bull. The 23-year-old driver impressed by taking several podium finishes and at Spa-Francorchamps he even secured his first victory. This sparked interest from Formula 1 teams. Boesel indicates that Red Bull were interested.
'We were close to a deal with AlphaTauri'
"Last year, Enzo had a meeting with the top of Red Bull. He was called to this meeting and there they said they had chosen him to drive for AlphaTauri at Red Bull this year and test the F1 car," Boesel reveals to the Brazilian branch of Motorsport.com. Fittipaldi's advisor specifically states that his driver was then allowed to do a private test at Silverstone.
Subsequently, Fittipaldi's story at Red Bull took a bizarre turn. The advisor indicated that after some poor results in the closing stages of the season, Fittipaldi, along with other Red Bull juniors, was sent away from the Austrian racing team. "They sent the second, third, fourth and fifth out of the academy and kept the last one, which was Isack Hadjar. Nobody understands it, but it is what it is," Boesel concluded.
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