» Happy 41st birthday, Christian Fittipaldi!

Celebrating his 41st birthday today is Christian Fittipaldi, nephew of the multiple champion Emerson and son of Emerson’s F1 sibling, Wilson.

After placing fourth overall in the 1990 British F3 championship, Christian moved into Formula 3000 for 1991, beating Alessandro Zanardi to the championship crown when the Italian was called up to F1 late in the season.

The result was enough to see him signed by the Minardi team for the 1992 season, but his debut season suffered an interruption when a practice crash at Magny Course saw him forced onto the sidelines for a few races due to back injuries he sustained, where he was replaced by (of all ironies) Zanardi. But he returned once recuperated and bounced back with his first championship point at Japan, which was the team’s only points’ finish all season.

Staying on with the cash-strapped squad for 1993, he started brilliantly with an excellent fourth at South Africa – following it up with a fifth at Monaco, but his form waned along with the team’s finances, and he was stood down for the final two rounds so Jean-Marc Gounon to have a go and get his sponsors to fill Minardi’s coffers.

He joined Footwork for 1994 and again impressed with two fourth place (this time at Aida and Hockenheim), and he also ran well at Monaco again until his gearbox packed up. But the team’s form waned as the season wore on, and he struggled in the wake of the death of his compatriot and great friend, Senna.

Frustrated by his lack of progress and to the disappointment of many of the sport’s female fans, Fittipaldi walked away from F1 and headed to the Indy Car championship in 1995.

He finished second on debut at the Indianapolis 500. Noted more for his consistency than outright pace, Fittipaldi took two career wins (the first being in 1999), but also suffered separate leg-breaking accidents during his tenure in this series.

Fittipaldi left the CART championship (as it became known) at the end of 2002, and continues to race in a host of motorsport categories.

[Images via Carlos Ghys, DayLife, F1-Facts, Flickriver, LAT, Motorsport Retro, Motorsports Almanac, Sutton Images, Track Forum, XPB]