Max Papis

Massimiliano "Max" Papis (born 3 October 1969) is an Italian professional motorsport driver who has competed in several top-level motorsports events such as Le Mans 24 Hours, Formula One and Champ Car. He has three Champ Car victories. He is the son-in-law of Emerson Fittipaldi. Papis also currently drives in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series.

Personal life

Papis was born on 3 October 1969 in Como, Italy. He was raised in Italy and got an interest in car racing at a young age, winning several go-kart races and several rounds for racing clubs in Italy.

He is married to Tatiana Papis, daughter of the racing driver Emerson Fittipaldi, and has two children, cousins of Pietro Fittipaldi and Enzo Fittipaldi. His sons' godfathers are fellow Italian Alex Zanardi (Marco) and British Dario Franchitti (Matteo).

Papis is a member of the "brat pack", a group of CART drivers that were close friends off the track, that included Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan and the late Greg Moore.

Career

Formula One

After a spell as the Lotus team's test driver in , Papis replaced Gianni Morbidelli in the Footwork team for seven races in the middle of the 1995 Formula One season, as he brought valuable sponsorship to the cash-strapped outfit. Despite being a race-winner in Formula 3000, he often struggled with the unfamiliar car, and was occasionally outpaced by his much-maligned teammate, Taki Inoue. He also proved to be an unlucky driver, suffering a spectacular puncture and suspension failure on his début race at Silverstone due to clipping the pit lane wall after a tire change, being left on the grid at Hockenheim due to a transmission failure, and spinning on dust and oil kicked up by David Coulthard at the Ascari Chicane on the first lap of the Italian GP, causing a pile-up and a restart. However, he only missed out on a point in the restarted race when he was overtaken by Jean-Christophe Boullion's Sauber on the last lap. When Morbidelli returned, Papis was out of a drive and headed to America for 1996.

Champ Car

He moved to CART Champ Car racing in 1996 as a replacement for Jeff Krosnoff, who was killed in the previous race in Toronto. In 1999, he joined the more competitive Rahal team, almost winning the US 500 before running out of fuel, and finishing fifth in the series. He started the next year by winning the 2000 season-opener, but failed to finish in the championship Top 10. In 2001, he won twice and finished sixth overall, but was dropped by the team, mainly due to two collisions with teammate Kenny Bräck. In 2002, he competed with Sigma Autosport, scoring two third places finishes at Long Beach and Milwaukee, before the team folded due to financial problems. The Italian did a partial season with PK Racing in 2003, with a best result of fourth at Road America. Papis also raced in the 2002 and 2006 Indianapolis 500s for Cheever Racing, claiming a 14th-place finish in his second appearance. He mostly concentrated on sportscars since 2001, remarking that "Champ Car needs me more than I need it" as the series struggled to fill its grid for 2003 after many teams defected to the IRL.

IndyCar

Papis raced in the IRL early in his career. He has raced for Roger Penske, Andretti-Green Racing and Panther Racing from 2001 to 2009. Papis is a long-time friend of drivers Tony Kanaan and Alex Zanardi. In 2013 at the Indianapolis 500, Papis and Zanardi were present in the victory celebration when Kanaan won his first Indy 500.

In 2016, Papis was hired by the IndyCar Series as a race steward along with Arie Luyendyk and Dan Davis.

ASCAR

On 8 June 2003, Papis made his debut in the ASCAR Racing Series by joining Team HTML in the British Stock Car racing series. He made his debut in Round 3 of the championship driving the No.68 Pontiac