Breaking news
Indian Open Wheel
Fittipaldi says winning MRF Challenge title a "good boost"
Pietro Fittipaldi says winning the MRF Challenge title is a good boost ahead of his debut Formula 3.5 V8 season.
Darshan Chokhani
Edited: Feb 10, 2016, 9:03 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The Brazilian came into the India-based international winter series after a patchy European F3 season in which he finished 16th overall in his rookie year.
The 19-year-old then took the MRF Challenge title, taking four race wins, nine podiums and racking up 244 points, 45 clear of second-placed Tatiana Calderon.
"It was good that after all the hard work I was able to win a championship," Fittipaldi told Motorsport.com.
"I won four races and then it was good to finish off the championship with two wins in the four races in Chennai. It's a good boost for my coming World Series season.
"I was confident going in the championship. We had a good weekend in Abu Dhabi, I won a race over there, so I was confident that we can win - but you can never be too confident.
"There are other competitors there as well, so you have to finish all the races, which is important to win a championship," he added.
"My mentality is always to go for the win and that's what I was trying to do every weekend."
With a lot of unknowns coming into the MRF Challenge, Fittipaldi said the practice session in Abu Dhabi was crucial to understanding the Formula 2000 cars.
"There was limited practice in the first weekend, we only had two 40-minute practice sessions and so, the first thing we do as a driver is to get in the car, make sure the seat position, the belt position, everything's perfect and study the track as much as possible.
"Even if you have to get videos from F1 onboards, we try to adapt to the car as much as possible, to get everything in," he continued.
"Basically, I was trying to learn as much as possible in the practice sessions in Abu Dhabi, so I could go and deliver in qualifying which matters."
MRF Challenge a great championship
When asked about the series, the Brazilian put it as the best winter championship for drivers to prepare for their competitive season.
"I think it is a really good championship, I mean it races on great F1 circuits like Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and old school tracks like Chennai, so I rate the championship really highly," he said.
"There's two big winter championships, MRF and TRS [Toyota Racing Series] and I think the MRF wins."
Fittipaldi named his maiden pole of the championship as his most memorable moment of the season.
"Getting the pole position in Chennai was pretty cool because I was first at one point and then I saw my lap board on the next lap and I went back to second.
"They put my fastest lap time on my pit board which said, that it was the same time that the quickest guy did and I was like this must be really close.
"I had a minute left in qualifying, so I pushed the last lap, I did the same exact time again but just a little bit quicker and I was able to get pole position, so I was really happy about it."
Overall, the Brazilian was happy to drive against a competitive field comprised of both experienced and young drivers.
"The field was competitive with experienced drivers - you always want to have competition and it was really good," he said.
"After the championship, we all became good friends because it was four weekends, going to new countries that none of us really knew. So, it was a good experience for all of us."
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Taupo TRS: Norris wins Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy
Next article Bathurst 12 Hour: Bentley back in front with three hours to go
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Darshan Chokhani
Mahindra hurt by 'bad grid position' in Qatar Moto3
Moto3
Moto3
Losail
Mahindra hurt by 'bad grid position' in Qatar Moto3
Kornfeil puts Peugeot in Top 3 on final Moto3 test day
Moto3
Moto3
Jerez March testing
Kornfeil puts Peugeot in Top 3 on final Moto3 test day
Dalla Porta takes charge for Mahindra on Day 2 in Moto3 test
Moto3
Moto3
Jerez March testing
Dalla Porta takes charge for Mahindra on Day 2 in Moto3 test
More from
Pietro Fittipaldi
Pietro Fittipaldi is fueled by 5-Hour Energy and lots of carbs
Sponsored
Sponsored
Indianapolis 500
Pietro Fittipaldi is fueled by 5-Hour Energy and lots of carbs
Rahal encouraged despite limited running in Indy 500 Open Test
IndyCar
IndyCar
Indianapolis 500 Open test
Rahal encouraged despite limited running in Indy 500 Open Test
Sato returning to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing for Indy 500
IndyCar
IndyCar
Indianapolis 500
Sato returning to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing for Indy 500
Latest news
The new records set by Toyota's Hypercar trio with WEC 2026 title
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
24 min
The new records set by Toyota's Hypercar trio with WEC 2026 title
Max Verstappen explains why he’s so good in the rain in Brazil
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
1 h
Max Verstappen explains why he’s so good in the rain in Brazil
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Formula 1
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Maverick Vinales to undergo extensive medical checks: “If I have something broken, I'll stop”
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
2 h
Maverick Vinales to undergo extensive medical checks: “If I have something broken, I'll stop”
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe