Pietro Fittipaldi’s third IndyCar stint arrived far more under the radar and with much less fanfare than his first two. The grandson of an IndyCar legend hopes his time away has served him well.

Monday, the 27-year-old Brazilian-American was announced as Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s final piece of its three-car IndyCar program, Fittipaldi having landed a multi-year deal with RLL owners Bobby Rahal, Mike Lanigan and David Letterman to man their No. 30 Honda entry beginning in 2024. For his first full-time IndyCar campaign, Fittipaldi teams up with newly-minted race-winner Christian Lundgaard, fresh off an 8^th-place finish in points in 2023, as well as the team’s foundation, Graham Rahal, who Bobby Rahal confirmed Friday has reached an agreement with RLL on a contract extension that will lead to the 34-year-old’s 18^th season in major American open-wheel racing.

Waiting in the wings continues to be reserve driver Juri Vips, the much-maligned ex-Red Bull Junior driver who a month ago seemed the prime candidate to fill RLL’s vacancy in the No. 30 Honda. If opportunity presents itself, the elder Rahal told reporters Monday he and his team co-owners are targeting a fourth full-time entry to try and run down Chip Ganassi Racing’s five cars and the three-car programs at Andretti Autosport, Team Penske and Arrow McLaren that all have forged some sort of inter-team alliances within the paddock in recent months.

But first things first, Rahal said.

“We’ve got three strong drivers in these cars, but the first goal is to have them consistently running up-front,” the team co-owner said. “We have to do that before we do anything else.”

Rahal and company believe Fittipaldi fits that bill after a frantic last six years that has seen the 27-year-old compete in just about every high-level racing series in the world. Those, of course, came outside his full-time duties as Haas F1’s test and reserve driver in a role he’s manned since 2019. IndyCar, though, has long been the ultimate goal.

“We know (IndyCar) is an extremely competitive series. There’s a lot of drivers and limited rides available, and every year, it seems like the series get more and more competitive,” Fittipaldi said Monday. “I’ve always had this goal. I’ve known Bobby for some years and always kept in touch with him, and when the opportunity was there, we worked through it. To be able to race for him now and for this whole organization is an incredible opportunity.”

Though he’s spent the better part of the last decade racing across the globe, Fittipaldi first made a name for himself in the late-model world, winning the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series championship in 2011 with four wins at just 15 years old. That early oval experience, combined with growing up listening to the stories of his grandfather, Emerson Fittipaldi (1989 CART champ and two-time 500-winner) and his IndyCar race-winning cousin (Christian Fittipaldi) and uncle (Max Papis) made American open-wheel racing an obvious lure.

But as a 21-year-old fresh off a World Series Formula V8 3.5 title, the younger Fittipaldi only managed to land a part-time IndyCar ride with Dale Coyne Racing. Only one race into that part-time stint while also splitting time in WEC, Fittipaldi broke both his legs during a qualifying run at Spa, nixing what was supposed to be the young driver’s Indy 500 debut, while he rehabbed what doctors told him would likely be a year-long injury.

IndyCar silly season news: Graham Rahal, RLL reach agreement on contract extension

Fittipaldi was back in the cockpit of his Coyne machine racing at Mid-Ohio less than three months after his crash, having spent the bulk of that journey living in an RV parked inside IMS while he worked with Dr. Terry Trammel, then IndyCar’s medical director, on the driver’s rehab.

“I probably wasn’t ready, thinking about it now. I should’ve waited longer,” he admits now. “I was wearing this carbon fiber brace and couldn’t hit the brakes properly, and I was in a lot of pain – taking painkillers and stuff.” In that final five-race stint at Coyne, Fittipaldi notched a pair of top-11 finishes, including a career-best 9^th at Portland.

“I was braking at 70% of my capacity, but in the end, that got my the opportunity to do the test for Haas at the end of 2018,” he said. “So to be back here now and have the opportunity to race full-time, it’s something I’ve been working and waiting for for a long time.

“You can imagine how excited and motivated I am.”

But before Fittipaldi’s work can begin inside RLL’s new headquarters in Zionsville, he’ll leave in just over a day for the Mexico City Grand Prix, the second in a back-to-back-to-back stint of F1 weekends in North and South America. The season ends in late-November with a fierce doubleheader stretch in Las Vegas (Nov. 18) and Abu Dhabi (Nov. 26). In between, he also has his eight-hour WEC season finale in Bahrain Nov. 4. Only then will Fittipaldi be able to focus on his move to Indianapolis, a handful of test in IndyCar’s new hybrid powertrain and a general acclimation to a life that’s now firmly planted in one place for the time being.

Even still, Fittipaldi said he stills hopes to maintain a link to the F1 world, perhaps in some sort of occasional reserve driver role akin to the setup Alex Palou had lined up with McLaren – before his decision to return to Ganassi.

“Obviously, (Haas team principal) Guenther Steiner and (team owner) Gene Haas were always informed of what was going on and the possibility of IndyCar,” Fittipaldi said. “That’s something we’re still talking about for next year, if there could be a possibility of keeping an association with the team.

“We have such a long story together, so I don’t see a reason why I wouldn’t be able to continue, but obviously the priority and the focus is IndyCar racing.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyCar Silly Season: RLL signs Pietro Fittipaldi to drive No. 30 in 2024