Former Brazilian System One driver Wilson Fittipaldi Jr. suffered a cardiac arrest on Christmas Day, his spouse stated on Thursday.

Fittipaldi Jr., who’s the brother of two-time F1 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi, was celebrating his birthday — which additionally falls on Dec. 25 — on the time.

“Throughout dinner, he choked on a bit of meat and suffered an absence of oxygen adopted by cardiac arrest,” his spouse posted on his Instagram account.

“He was resuscitated and is now sedated and intubated, we’re ready for him to get up, he has a tough post-surgical historical past of returning post-sedative, someday at a time, let’s wait.”

Fittipaldi Jr.’s son, former CART, F1 and NASCAR driver Christian Fittipaldi, was with him in hospital.

Fittipaldi Jr., 80, participated in 38 F1 Grands Prix in the course of the Nineteen Seventies.

Alongside along with his brother, he arrange the primary and solely Brazilian F1 group in 1974, often called Fittipaldi-Copersucar, which competed from 1975-82.