For those watching on the outside, HMD Motorsports’ Enzo Fittipaldi’s clean sweep of the 2026 Mid-Ohio round in Indy NXT might look impressive enough, as the ultra-competitive feeder series for IndyCar has a grid stacked of talent.
But what that success doesn’t tell immediately is just how much pain the Brazilian went through before reaching this stage of his career.
Fittipaldi’s career took a serious turn after what was a dramatic accident at the 2021 F2 feature race at the Saudi Arabian GP, where the then 20-year-old Brazilian hit Theo Pourchaire’s stricken ART after the Frenchman had stalled off the line from third on the grid.
The young Brazilian suffered a fractured right heel, right foot, cuts on his head, brain haemorrage and even injuries to his left eyebrow following the incident.
Fittipaldi reveals how he felt following “tough” F2 accident
Speaking exclusively to Pit Debrief, he revealed just how tough the months after the crash had been, and how it changed his whole career’s trajectory, as he was on an upward trend that was suddenly halted by the injuries he sustained, and the uncertainty that came with it:
“When [I had] an accident like that, and when I’m in that moment of my career – it’s tough.
“Because, you know, there’s opportunities here, I was speaking with Dr. [Helmut] Marko, and then you have an accident like that, and you’re injured, and you’re like, ‘man, this is like the worst, this is a nightmare.'”
Recovery process “changes you as a person”
Apart from missing the final round of the F2 season that year, the injuries and the whole recovery process had a bigger impact that “changed” him as a person, as uncertainty about the future and the sheer pain of what he was going through hit home during pre-season for 2022:
“[I was] like, I can’t believe this is happening. And I was going to miss the last [F2] round. And it was at least two, three months of recovery.
“So luckily, the accident was at the end of the year, like in December, so it was right at the end of the season. I [only] missed Abu Dhabi.
“And I was going back home. I did the surgery on my right foot that I needed to do. And then the recovery process – mentally it changes you, when you go through all that pain and tough times.
“[You’re] at home, [and] all you’re thinking about is not knowing if you’re going to be able to get back out on track.
“It’s tough and it does change you as a person. It does make you tougher, stronger mentally, in my opinion, when you go through these tough moments. And thankfully, I recovered 100 percent.”
How Fittipaldi went back racing straight away despite “the worst pain”
Fittipaldi went straight back to racing at the very first round of the 2022 F2 season, less than three months after the crash in Jeddah, such was the determination to get back behind the wheel and continue what was a “pretty good” start in life at F2 up to that point.
The Brazilian admitted he still wasn’t “100 percent” at the Sakhir race, and revealed he somehow found a way to convince the FIA that he could race:
“For the first race in Bahrain, I still wasn’t 100 percent at Bahrain or the first race of 2022, I was not 100 percent. I couldn’t put any weight yet on my foot. I don’t know [how] I was able to, like, tell the FIA that, you know, “I’m fine’, this and that.
“Then I stood in front of them. I walked and I was holding in the pain. So I showed them, ‘look, you see, I’m fine’. The doctor cleared me in the U.S., and they’re like, ‘alright, we’ll let you race.’
“But actually, that my heel bone and the bones that I had fractured on my right foot were still not completely together yet. They were healing, but they weren’t fully 100 percent.
“So in Bahrain, there’s the turn one and there’s a very big bump before you get to turn one braking. And I remember there, man, it was the worst pain when I went through in free practice. I’d take like a lot of ibuprofen and then my heel would hit the floor, where the pedal is.
“And man, it was like the worst pain. I had to like come off and do a cool down that lap. And then that whole weekend going through that bump, I had to lift my foot up my heel so it wouldn’t hit on the on the carbon there.
“So it was a difficult weekend. I wasn’t 100 percent. So we had a pretty tough weekend.”
How he got back to the front in just under a month from his return
After a tough couple of rounds in Bahrain and Jeddah, Fittipaldi delivered an all-time drive at the feature race for the 2022 Emilia-Romagna GP, as he stormed through the pack in a wet-dry race at Imola to finish second after starting from 15th on the grid, in what was the first of six podium finishes he would achieve in the 2022 season:
“We went to Imola and that’s where I scored my first podium in the feature race. I finished second, starting from 15th. So yeah, it was.It was honestly a nice time.
“It was crazy. The recovery and then coming back and already on the [third] race scoring my first podium was very nice”
What followed was a pair of up and down seasons in F2, after a move to the Red Bull program for 2023 didn’t quite result in any F1 test or reserve roles for the Brazilian, who later revealed he was in talks for an AlphaTauri drive for the 2024 F1 season, that didn’t quite come off due to a lack of super licence points.
Why he has “no regrets” about not reaching F1
Fittipaldi was an established name in the F1 ladder for several season, and was touted as a future F1 star if he could perform at the highest level with Red Bull backing, as at the time there was a high rotation of seats at the AlphaTauri team.
He raced several drivers that are very familiar at the top of the current Formula 1 grid, such as championship leader Kimi Antonelli, Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar, Haas driver and Ferrari protégé Ollie Bearman and fellow Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto, who’s now at Audi.
When asked whether he regrets anything, knowing he could beat each of those drivers on his day, Fittipaldi was adamant that there are many factors that play into getting an F1 seat, and perhaps he just didn’t have some of those aligned at the right time for it to work out as intended:
“No, I don’t feel any regret,” he said. “I’m very happy, like for them, they deserve it. To reach F1, you need the results, you need to perform. And they performed enough to, to get their opportunity in F1.
“And that’s just the way it is. I know that to have performance and this and that, you also have to have the equipment with you.
“You have to be at the right team, at the right time. And that was their case, you know, they were there at the right time, [and] they’re obviously extremely talented drivers. And they deserve it and I’m super happy to watch them in F1 and they’re doing great.”
“I always dreamed about the 500” — Why Fittipaldi changed his path to pursue a career in Indy NXT
After moving on from F2, Fittipaldi spent a year in the European Le Mans Series, where he reached good results including a podium at Paul Ricard, the Brazilian moved to Indy NXT with HMD Motorsports for the 2026 season.
When asked about the move to racing in the U.S. and Indy NXT, Fittipaldi explained that his ideal scenario in racing wasn’t just about F1, and revealed he was always passionate about the legendary Indy 500, and IndyCar in general:
“My ultimate dream was never really like, ‘oh, [it’s] just Formula One’,” he said. “I always dreamed about the [Indy] 500. I always dreamed about IndyCar. That’s something that I’ve been super passionate about my whole career.
“And since Formula 4, since karting, I always said ‘IndyCar, Indy 500 is something I want to do’. And that’s one of my dreams one day. So I’m honestly happier where I am now than where I was two, three years ago. So no regret at all.
“It was actually an amazing time. And in my career, I enjoyed, you know, many moments, obviously, in racing, there’s tough moments as well.
“But it’s part of it. It’s a sport. You can’t win every race, especially in racing, you have a lot more difficult, not great results than good results.
“I’m super happy where I am right now. And, and just can’t wait for can’t wait to see what what the future holds for me.”
Fittipaldi now leads the 2026 Indy NXT championship by 17 points from his HMD team-mate Tymek Kucharczyk, scoring four wins so far, two of which came last weekend at Mid-Ohio, where he produced a clean sweep of the weekend.
