The Unstoppable Desire to Joyfully Achieve
Love every challenge and execute with precision under pressure
Enzo Fittipaldi is the grandson of 2-time Formula 1 Champion and 2-time Indy 500 Winner Emerson Fittipaldi from Brazil. His brother Pietro is the test and reserve driver for Formula 1 Team Haas and the official pilot for the IndyCar Team Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan, who has driven LMP2 cars in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Their family includes father Carlos (Gugu), mother Juliana and their sister Valentina, an actress.
From Day One: “I Want to Win the Championship!”
When I met Enzo, we were celebrating Pietro’s conquest of the World Championship. It was a wonderful lunch in December 2017 with their parents and our friend Caio Campos, who had introduced us. I watched Enzo, sitting besides me, stay quiet and enjoy the moment. I noticed he had ordered something different from everyone else (we were at a steakhouse).
After an hour or so, I asked him: “So, Enzo, what do you want? What’s your big dream?” He didn’t pause, he just told me point blank: “I want to win the Championship!” Everyone was taken aback by his assertiveness and there were smiles all around the table. I realized that Enzo had an unstoppable desire boiling inside him and that he was anxious to let it free. One could not ignore the pressure of the name Fittipaldi and not having a Championship, but Enzo impressed me as wanting to be fully himself.
A few weeks later, I was asked to start working with Enzo to help him achieve his moonshot. At the time, he trained year round at the Ferrari Development Academy in Maranello, Italy, where the factory is located. Only a few young drivers from around the world are selected each year to join the elite program. They are supported by a capable team of trainers and have access to the most sophisticated technical equipment, such as racing simulators, to refine their skills. Enzo fulfills his high school commitments online with the help of a tutor. All medical testing is done regularly and the organization reports to the parents regularly.
Enzo’s training and racing calendar for Formula 4 was packed, with only a few rare breaks on weekends and in the summer. He would be racing both the Italian and German Championships, representing 41 races in total. The training planning had to be precise, with clear objectives and milestones.
We met on a weekly basis online, analyzing each detail of his racing experience to discover where he could have advantages. We also discussed how to get along better with his Ferrari teammates and his Prema Team engineer.
Enzo learned how to access his Ideal Performance State on demand and under pressure, and we refined every element that might contribute to it. Racing F4 at over 200 kph requires focus to react in milliseconds, so visual intelligence (focus, fast recognition, pattern recognition and decision making) comes into play.
His thinking became both tactical and strategic, which helped calm down his anxiety when he was challenged during the race and reduced the number of mistakes. Sleep patterns, diet, planning for personal time, recovery, variety and intense fun were also fundamental components of his performance plan.
The results started to appear, first in irregular patterns, and from the summer break onward in consistent, remarkable victories. At the same time, his rivals became more aggressive, but only one was the real contender to the title, both in the F4 Italian and German Championships. Two times he was hit by other drivers who intended to pressure Enzo into making mistakes.
In one occasion, he kept his hands on the steering as he hit a wall and the impact broke his right hand. He said nothing, taped it tight and kept racing, letting it heal on its own rather than being forced to take time off. Again, I was impressed by his determination to succeed.
Enzo finished third in the F4 German Championships, where the Prema Team had trouble getting the right settings for the car. By the time the last race of the Italian Championships arrived in Mugello, Enzo was ranked second with a small difference in points to bridge. His position was being challenged by one of his young Prema teammates who had made great improvements.
I created a music video in which I edited the best scenes of his racing career and all his pole positions and victories till that point (the soundtrack was enormously powerful and emotional). I asked Enzo to watch the video every day for two weeks.
We huddled through several sessions a month to identify all relevant factors that could lead to the win. Most importantly, he had to qualify in pole position to create distance with his two fastest rivals. There was a chance it could rain, so we also considered that Enzo loves the rain and that he’s always demonstrated an advantage. He delivered and qualified in pole position twice in a masterful way.
On the first race, his main rival (Lorandi, the only Italian contender) hit him and took him out in the early laps. Not only that: for the second time in the year, the impact of the steering against his right hand injured him and, as before, rather than being forced to withdraw he taped it and moved on. Thanks to poetic justice, Lorandi could not finish the race as in the last lap he had to quit due to serious damage. The Championship remained at a standstill, as neither Enzo nor Lorandi got points. Yet, Enzo’s teammate Caldwell, ranked 3rd, got closer to both.
In the second race, under the rain, Enzo took off from pole position but Lorandi used his speed to catch up and, in an incredibly dramatic finish, Enzo won by one third of a second in a photo finish. Initially, there was doubt about the ending, but the officials confirmed Enzo’s triumph by 0.28” - a massive relief. His extraordinary effort was rewarded the next day on the third race, in heavy rain, where Enzo used again his pole position to remain at the top after a series of accidents which forced the organizers to end the race with the safety car at the front.
It was an incredibly tense ending as so many things could have gone wrong in an inundated track. I screamed and cried like I haven’t done it in a long time, probably since I celebrated one of my own victories as a tennis player four decades ago.
The Sweet Taste of Victory - and a Flood of Emotions
Enzo has grown as a race car driver and as a young man. He’s certainly matured and he feels the difference. He recognizes he has learned to love the pressure and find joy in competing under the most varied circumstances, always pumping himself up from positive emotion. He has a sense of humility and a personal code of conduct. He sees himself as a lifelong learner, choosing to start his next season as a blank slate, to be a sponge for all the new concepts he’ll have to assimilate.
As his coach, I could not have asked for more: pressure is a privilege and only Champions understand what it means to enjoy it. He’s the Formula 4 Italian Champion, a prestigious title that means a lot for those on the path to Formula One.
Afterwards, he would race in Formula 3 in Europe and Asia. Another opportunity for Breakthrough… and new levels of wisdom to inspire others to grow.
The key lesson I learned working with Enzo is that desire is ten times more powerful than duty to get things done. Once he persuaded himself that he would not give away the advantage he had collected over eight months of racing, he summoned his full focus, aligned his insights on how to get into his Ideal Performance State, consolidated them into rituals and delivered a dramatic final race to become a Champion.
In Pietro’s case, sequential rituals and precision deliver the Ideal Performance State. For Enzo, he needs to connect with the feeling through his heart rate, breathing, tactile attention and visualization. He needs to “feel” desire and then his arousal level is optimal to win. Training is planning but it is also deepening understanding through valuable insights. We train in service of the desire that pulls us to go beyond personal best.
Grit is a Predictor of Success
On December 5, 2021, Enzo encountered the worse situation in Formula 2 racing: a sitting duck on the starting grid. The P3 car (Theo Pourchaire) had stalled and Enzo crashed into him, unable to swerve or break. The videos from the accident are terrifying. Both pilots were conscious and were airlifted to a Jeddah hospital.
Both seemed OK at first, but Enzo’s ankle was broken and he had a massive concussion that lead to brain bleeding and required immediate surgery. His brother Pietro was besides him on the track, as this happened before the Formula 1 race. He stayed with him through the ordeal at the hospital, sleepless and glued to his phone while their father frantically called on his Saudi contacts to find where he could get the best possible care.
After surgery, Enzo and I stayed in touch from the hospital, during his flight back home and after his return to Charlotte, where he received extensive neurological attention and had surgery on his foot. "Carlos, the impact was so hard that the G-forces sensor in my car stopped registering them. It was off the charts," he told me during one of our talks. And he could not wait to get back to driving a car.
Five months later, Enzo was driving again in Monaco with Team Charouz and on November 12, 2022, he was selected to join the Red Bull Team Academy, under the supervision of the legendary Dr. Helmut Marko, who's closely tied to World Champion Max Verstappen's career.
Since then, he's driven for Teams Carlin and Van Amersfoort, winning several races and sharpening his trademark passing skills, for which he's known as "The Little Shark" by his fans. He remains focused on improving his Qualification times with consistency, so he can enjoy better starts and display the full range of his talent.
What you can learn from Enzo’s pathway to Breakthorugh and apply:
Commit to Your Vision: for both Enzo and Pietro, there’s no doubt about what their True North is. They both want to get to become Formula One drivers, like their grandfather Emerson. Their commitment involves creating a firewall behind them, as if there’s no option but to keep moving forward. Failure means only failing forward, failing better, ensuring that every experience becomes a learning opportunity to refine their Breakthrough strategy.
How can you ensure your commitment to your vision?
Work from Your Strengths: Enzo’s year was plagued by obstacles, negativity from others and the stigma that his prestigious last name determines his destiny. From day one, we recognized (as with Pietro) that we would be working with sub-optimal situations and transforming them into extraordinary solutions. By focusing on his strengths, Enzo overcame substantial challenges, overwhelming his weak areas with his determination to succeed.
How are you going to become a phenomenal solutions designer? What strengths are going to take you through the fire?
Grit is Stronger than Talent: Enzo is a talented and resourceful driver, a great reader of people, opponents and situations. He’s eager to connect with others in a genuine fashion and follows a disciplined regimen. Enzo understood that the strength of his character and his grit were his best tools to excel in a rudely competitive environment. In June of 2018, he took me by surprise when he concluded that all of our work together was “to find out who I really am, to figure out my real identity.” I congratulated on his epiphany and committed myself to supporting his quest.
How does your struggle to solve challenges manifest your identity? How do you become better by competing for what you want?
Find the Joy in Every Challenge: The confident competitor understands that challenges are stimulants for personal and professional growth. Enzo arrived to the conclusion that “being in the moment” and “in the zone” represent an opportunity not only to solve the puzzle but also to become a better solutions designer. Rather than feeling bogged down by the intense opposition he faced, he shifted his focus to a growth mindset: whatever came his way was good for him, it made him tougher.
How are you interpreting the challenges you face? How many approaches do you use to shift your mindset into high, positive emotion?
Execute when it matters: It would have been easier and more comfortable for Enzo to declare himself runner-up in the Italian Championship when the pressure was mounting. However, he knew that complacency was not an option: only winners get a seat at the table and enter conversations for top teams and large sponsors. He decided that he would do whatever was required to win, starting with putting together exceptionally good qualifying laps to ensure a pole position. And he did it: the results came because he invested everything he had learned about mental toughness from day one. It all came to a point: standing at the P1 step at the podium.
What must you do to create the framework that allows you to execute flawlessly under pressure? What would be “the win” for you?
My Final Note: Granted, both Enzo and Pietro are rare individuals living at the limit, betting on themselves and measuring risk differently than most people. For us with more sedate and even sedentary lives, the useful perspective we can share with them is to consider how much we learn as we move through our planned achievements, how much fulfillment we enjoy, how significant our results become for us and those around us, and if somehow we are building a legacy, an inspiring path for others to follow.
UPDATE: At this time, Enzo is racing in the European Le Mans category in LMP2 cars, as well as his brother Pietro. They race for different teams and continue their stellar path as professional drivers. I’m a proud coach of two resonant, inspiring Champions.
[First published in my LinkedIn newsletter “The Glass is Full and a Half” on August 5, 2024]
More Suggestions: