Feature
LIGHTS TO FLAG: Emerson Fittipaldi on F1 title glory with Lotus and McLaren, representing his family’s team and Stateside success
Share
Emerson Fittipaldi belongs to an elite club of multiple F1 World Champions, having won the sport’s biggest prize with the now iconic Lotus and McLaren teams in the 1970s. But he packed plenty more into his career around that, from a demanding stint racing for the family team to a fruitful phase in the American CART series. In our latest Lights to Flag feature, the legendary Brazilian shares some of the highs and lows from a remarkable journey…
From bikes to boats to karts
Fittipaldi was born and raised in the sprawling city of Sao Paulo in December 1946, getting early exposure to the adrenaline-filled world of racing through the captivating words written and spoken by his father Wilson – an established motorsport journalist and commentator.
Soon eager to hit the racetrack himself but well below the strict karting minimum age limit implemented across the country, Fittipaldi started his career on a motorcycle at 14 before taking to the water a couple of years later in hydroplane motorboat competitions.
While serious injuries were avoided, a scary crash involving his brother and fellow hydroplane competitor Wilson Jr. prompted the pair to concentrate their efforts on land rather than sea racing going forward – funded by a car accessory business they had formed together.
“I always wanted to race cars,” begins Fittipaldi. “But because of my age, I started motorcycle and hydroplane racing first. Then, when I was 17, at the minimum age, I started karting, and then, when I was 18, I started in cars. That’s how my dreams began.
Fittipaldi and the eye-catching sideburns that would follow him on his motorsport journey
“I had been a great fan for many, many years of Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme, Jack Brabham… To me, watching in Brazil, they were like the masters of F1! These drivers were all in my generation and were icons for me.”
An ambitious European adventure
The Fittipaldi brothers continued their slick entrepreneurial partnership as the years rolled by: Emerson charging to the Brazilian karting title in one of their own designs, and then winning the national Formula Vee championship in one of their Volkswagen-powered creations.
By the late-1960s, Fittipaldi was ready to make the move to Europe and throw himself into the English club racing scene that he had heard so much about from afar – setting himself a three-month target to catch the attention of team owners and decision makers.
Travelling alone and only able to speak a few words of English, Fittipaldi did his talking on the track by winning seven out of 11 races en route to the 1969 British F3 title as part of the Jim Russell Racing Driver School set-up.
He had passed the first test in style and was soon receiving calls from F1 team bosses Frank Williams and Colin Chapman with golden opportunities.
“After we won the British F3 championship, Frank and Colin invited me to drive an F1 car for the first time,” says Fittipaldi, with the former running his own operation and the latter heading up Lotus. “Someone asking me to drive an F1 car? It was my dream to be a Grand Prix driver… When I went to Colin’s office, my legs were shaking!
Someone asking me to drive an F1 car? It was my dream to be a Grand Prix driver… When I went to Colin’s office, my legs were shaking!
Emerson Fittipaldi
“I accepted Colin’s invitation, which was to do a few months of F2 before going to F1. I didn’t have enough experience to jump [straight] into the F1 car. It was less than a year, only like eight months, nine months, from F3 to F1 – no way… So, I made my first F1 start at the British Grand Prix in 1970 with the old Lotus 49.”
From dreams to nightmares
Fittipaldi had only a few European F2 appearances to his name before that F1 promotion at Brands Hatch, where the youngster slotted into the Lotus ranks under regular drivers John Miles and Jochen Rindt – the latter leading the championship.
Tragically, the trio would spend very little time together as team mates in the top echelon, with Rindt passing away from injuries sustained in a violent practice crash during Fittipaldi’s fourth weekend as an F1 driver at the Italian Grand Prix.
It added to recent heartbreak for Lotus and team boss Chapman who, just a month apart in 1968, lost the aforementioned Clark to an F2 crash at a rain-soaked Hockenheim and Mike Spence to an accident while practicing for the Indianapolis 500.
Fittipaldi recalls that he “kept asking Colin about Jim Clark” after arriving at Lotus, “but he didn’t like to talk about him, because they were very close” – and Rindt’s untimely passing was another shockwave for all involved in the squad.
A LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF: Emerson Fittipaldi
“Well, Monza was a tragedy,” sighs Fittipaldi, as the emotions of that day return. “Jochen had always helped me in F2 and then in F1, and I was very close to him, so that time was horrible. It was a big shock to me and my family, as I was just coming into F1.”
With team mate Miles so upset about the situation that he walked away from F1, Fittipaldi continues: “I was expecting Colin to put someone in with experience, but he called me and said I should be the number one driver. I said, ‘Colin, I don’t have the experience’. He said, ‘We’ll support you; the whole team will be behind you’. Colin was very good to me. He was my mentor, and I learned a lot from him.”
READ MORE: ‘He could perform miracles’ – Alonso’s debut F1 season remembered by those who were there
Fittipaldi establishes himself
Having understandably skipped the next round in Canada, Fittipaldi returned at New York’s Watkins Glen and scored an emotional maiden Grand Prix win, describing it as “a blessing from God” and one that gave the Lotus crew a much-needed boost – as well as ensuring the 1970 title posthumously went to Rindt.
Fittipaldi’s efforts through the following 1971 campaign were impacted by his own road accident in France, which left him and then wife Maria Helena nursing injuries, while Lotus encountered significant problems brought on by a move from grooved to slick tyres.
Both driver and team would bounce back in style in 1972, though, when the Lotus 72D – featuring new suspension and a host of other adjustments to cope with increased loads and forces related to that slick rubber – emerged as the class of the field.
1 / 2
“We had a non-championship race at Brands Hatch at the end of the year,” remembers Fittipaldi, pointing to the moment Lotus’ fortunes changed with the latest iteration of the 72 machine – on a weekend that sadly claimed another life when Swiss racer Jo Siffert crashed.
“It was the first time we made the Lotus work on slicks. In 1970, there was not so much grip, but when we put slicks on for 1971, the whole suspension was moving – we had to make a new suspension. So, we knew we now had a very good car for 1972.”
The breakthrough F1 title
Indeed, during a previous appearance on F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast, Fittipaldi described the 1972-specification Lotus 72 as the best machine he ever drove through his racing career – which spanned F1, sportscars, American open-wheel racing and more.
“I was really driving the car at what I call 110%,” he explained. “It was a car at the time where I talked to him, and he talked to me. I just looked at the car and he understood what I wanted, and when I sat down in the car it was part of my body.” The rest, as they say, is history.
With three pole positions, five wins and eight podiums from 12 Grands Prix, Fittipaldi beat hero turned Tyrrell rival Stewart to the title and, in the process, became F1’s youngest World Champion at just 25 – a record that would stand for more than 30 years.
1 / 2
“We had a very good team of people,” points out Fittipaldi, who had also secured Brazil’s inaugural F1 title. “Colin, my team mate David Walker, our team manager Peter Warr… To win the World Championship, everything has to come together, and it did.”
Fittipaldi stayed at Lotus for 1973, enjoying a strong start to the season as reigning champion – which included taking victory on home soil in Brazil for the first time – but then being challenged for supremacy by new team mate Ronnie Peterson.
While that internal battle developed, Stewart made his move and ultimately reclaimed the crown he had lost to Fittipaldi the year before, albeit in further tragic circumstances when promising team mate François Cevert died in a horrific accident at the season finale.
Leaving Lotus for McLaren
Then, over the winter, Fittipaldi received an offer that would change the course of his career. “Not many people know this story, but at the end of 1973, Philip Morris asked me to drive for them,” he says of the multinational tobacco company that rivalled Lotus’ own cigarette sponsor – the black and gold-themed John Player Special.
“I lived in Switzerland where the company had their headquarters and I was flying with the PR people back to Lausanne on Lake Geneva. They wanted me to drive for them, but to pick the team, to go to England and choose… It was a big responsibility!
1 / 2
“I talked to Bernie Ecclestone, as his Brabham car was very good, a Gordon Murray design, then I went to Ken Tyrrell, as Jackie had just won the championship in another very good car, and then I went to McLaren, who had never won the championship.
“I knew Alastair Caldwell well, the McLaren team manager, from racing against them. They were [full of] very young people who were very motivated. Then, when I went back to Switzerland, Philip Morris asked me, ‘You’ve chosen the team that’s never won?’ I said, ‘We’re going to win!’”
Making more F1 history
And so, in 1974, Fittipaldi formed half of the Marlboro Team Texaco line-up – the name incorporating one of his new partner’s brands and the American oil company – alongside another icon and World Champion driver in Hulme.
Amid all the doubts, he delivered on his bold promise at the first time of asking by coming out on top in a thrilling, season-long battle with Ferrari’s Clay Regazzoni – the pair entering the Watkins Glen finale level on points and Fittipaldi finishing the race ahead.
It not only meant Fittipaldi was a two-time title winner in his mid-20s, but also marked the very first drivers’ and constructors’ championships in McLaren’s history.
Top 10: Moments of Emerson Fittipaldi Brilliance
“To win the Brazilian Grand Prix again at the beginning of the year was great,” Fittipaldi smiles, referencing the narrative around his switch of outfits. “There was a lot of pressure on me in Brazil… People were saying, ‘He’s left Lotus, where he won the championship, now he’s gone to a team that’s never won…’ But I had a fantastic feeling there.”
He added to Beyond The Grid: “I was so motivated to be part of the history, to be part of that new era. For me, it was a challenge. It was my decision to go to McLaren. When I won, I was twice happy, because I did the right decision – it justified my decision. Everybody at McLaren was very, very happy, because it was their first championship.”
The Fittipaldi family team up
After finishing second to the other Ferrari of Niki Lauda in 1975, Fittipaldi raised more eyebrows in the F1 paddock by swapping McLaren and their front-running machinery for a seat at the family team he had established alongside his brother Wilson – helped by sponsorship from Brazilian sugar and alcohol company Copersucar.
“It was my dream to have a team,” says Fittipaldi, who started as a consultant before inheriting driving duties from Wilson. “My brother was always involved in building go-karts and cars – we built everything [together] in Brazil. At the end of 1975, Wilson said he was going to retire [from racing in F1]. I said, ‘Why don’t I join the team as a big challenge?’”
1 / 2
Despite his best efforts, Fittipaldi’s dream of taking the family name to the top step of the podium – and emulating Jack Brabham’s achievement of winning the world title in a car of his own – did not materialise over five more challenging seasons at the wheel.
But almost half a decade on from those struggles and the criticism received in the Brazilian media, Fittipaldi remains proud for two key reasons – a standout result during the early stages of the 1978 campaign and the fact that his team gave a chance to a fresh-faced designer who would become the most successful in F1 history…
“It changed my life,” he says of the rollercoaster ride. “It was four, five years of struggling, but we were working hard, and to me it was [still] fantastic. When I look back now and see that we finished second at the Brazilian Grand Prix, in a Brazilian car, with a Brazilian driver, with a Brazilian team…
“Also, one of our last Fittipaldi cars was actually Adrian Newey’s first job in F1. Harvey Postlethwaite was the chief engineer and Adrian was the junior [aerodynamicist]! It was a very good car, made for myself and Keke Rosberg, but then we didn’t have any more sponsorship from Brazil.”
A second career Stateside
Fittipaldi spent almost four years on the sidelines after that taxing period, stepping back into racing cars in the mid-1980s when he sampled another Newey design – the March-Chevrolet 83G ‘Spirit of Miami’ GT challenger – and tackled the American CART series.
When I look back now and see that we finished second at the Brazilian Grand Prix, in a Brazilian car, with a Brazilian driver, with a Brazilian team…
Emerson Fittipaldi
A handful of races into the 1984 season, Fittipaldi settled at oilman turned sponsor Pat Patrick’s team, initially arriving in place of the injured Chip Ganassi but soon establishing himself as a star of the championship with frequent podiums and wins.
In 1989, it all came together when he bagged the CART title and triumphed at the prestigious Indianapolis 500 via a dramatic late battle and clash with America’s Al Unser Jr. – incidentally becoming the first winner of the race to receive more than $1,000,000 in prize money.
READ MORE: From Fangio to Hamilton – Who are the oldest World Champions in the history of Formula 1?
He wrote another chapter of success with the powerhouse Penske team – run by eponymous owner Roger – through the 1990s, including another Indy 500 victory in 1993 (amid rookie Nigel Mansell’s best efforts to upset the establishment), and placed second in the championship on two more occasions.
“In America, I had to learn how to drive differently on oval tracks – the superspeedways and the short ovals,” he says, having spent the majority of his career racing on an F1 calendar made up of purpose-built, winding circuits and street venues.
“Again, I always had a very good team with me. When I won the first Indianapolis 500 in a private Penske, my engineer was Morris Nunn, who I raced against in F3. He was a great guy. For my second win, with Penske, my engineer was [former McLaren boss] Teddy Mayer. He was the best friend of Bruce McLaren, and then he was my engineer at Indianapolis!”
Fittipaldi’s move to the US-based CART series yielded a championship title and two Indianapolis 500 wins
“There is so much effort to get the car right for four corners only,” he made clear on Beyond The Grid. “500-mile races are long, long races. Three-and-a-half hours, focused [all the way through], a lot of speed, a lot of adrenaline… It looks boring on TV, but as a driver it was one of the most exciting experiences of my life to drive at Indianapolis.”
Fittipaldi was still racing as he approached his 50th birthday, only for a fiery, high-speed crash during the 1996 Marlboro 500 at Michigan International Speedway – which left him with a serious neck injury – to end his CART career there and then.
LIGHTS TO FLAG: Timo Glock on his last-minute F1 debut, Brazil 2008, and getting behind the mic
He recovered from that incident – and further injuries sustained in a private plane crash in 1997 – to return to motorsport as a team boss in CART and A1 Grand Prix, before springing another surprise when he got back behind the wheel at the 2005 Grand Prix Masters event for ex-F1 drivers in Kyalami (finishing a close second to Mansell).
The next generation
Since then, Fittipaldi has been involved in various business ventures, including several years at the helm of another family automotive company, Fittipaldi Motors – their EF7 sportscar design appearing in the Gran Turismo video game but not entering real-life production.
Now aged 78, he takes great pride in watching the latest members of the Fittipaldi family tear up racetracks around the world and build on an incredible legacy.
1 / 2
In addition to Emerson and his brother Wilson, nephew Christian appeared on the F1 grid for Minardi and Footwork in the 1990s, and his grandson Pietro made it three generations of Grand Prix drivers with a couple of substitute outings at Haas in late-2020.
While Wilson sadly passed away early last year, Christian is now a team manager in Brazil’s Stock Car Pro Series and Pietro has been racing in IndyCar and the IMSA SportsCar Championship. Fittipaldi’s other grandson, Enzo, has also climbed the ranks to F2 level.
But Emerson still occasionally finds time to roll back the years and hit the loud pedal himself – last year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, where he was reunited with his championship-winning M23 from 1974, serving as a prime example.
“To get together with McLaren again and be able to see and drive the car I won the championship in was amazing,” he says. “I had better grip from the tyres on my last run, so I started having fun, and I said to myself, ‘Be careful…’ It was a little too fast for my age, now that I’m a gentleman driver!”
To read more stories from the Lights to Flag archive, click here.
ENJOYING F1.COM? TELL US MORE
Whether you're loving the F1 website and app, or there are changes you'd like to see, we want to hear from you. Take our two-minute survey now...
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Video WATCH: See just how close Norris and Piastri’s Australian GP pole battle was with brand new F1 TV ‘Ghost Car’ feature
News FIA post-race press conference – Australia
News Hadjar, Doohan and Sainz all crash out after less than a lap as Australian Grand Prix gets off to dramatic start
News Wolff admits he forgot Hamilton was not a Mercedes driver during Australian Grand Prix
