Emerson Fittipaldi | |||||||
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.JPG) Fittipaldi in 2020 | |||||||
| Born | (1946-12-12)12 December 1946 (age 78) São Paulo, Brazil | ||||||
| Spouses | |||||||
| Children | 7, includingEmerson Jr. | ||||||
| Relatives |
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| Formula One World Championship career | |||||||
| Nationality |  Brazilian | ||||||
| Active years | 1970–1980 | ||||||
| Teams | Lotus,McLaren,Fittipaldi | ||||||
| Entries | 149 (144 starts) | ||||||
| Championships | 2 (1972,1974) | ||||||
| Wins | 14 | ||||||
| Podiums | 35 | ||||||
| Careerpoints | 281 | ||||||
| Pole positions | 6 | ||||||
| Fastest laps | 6 | ||||||
| First entry | 1970 British Grand Prix | ||||||
| First win | 1970 United States Grand Prix | ||||||
| Last win | 1975 British Grand Prix | ||||||
| Last entry | 1980 United States Grand Prix | ||||||
| Champ Car career | |||||||
| 195 races run over 13 years | |||||||
| Best finish | 1st(1989) | ||||||
| First race | 1984Long Beach Grand Prix(Long Beach) | ||||||
| Last race | 1996Michigan 500(Michigan) | ||||||
| First win | 1985Michigan 500(Michigan) | ||||||
| Last win | 1995Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix(Nazareth) | ||||||
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| Signature | |||||||
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Emerson Fittipaldi (Brazilian Portuguese:[ˈɛmeʁsõfitʃiˈpawdʒi]; born 12 December 1946) is a Brazilian formerracing driver andmotorsport executive, who competed inFormula One from1970 to1980. Fittipaldi won twoFormula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he won in1972 and1974 withLotus andMcLaren, respectively; he won 14Grands Prix across 11 seasons. InAmerican open-wheel racing, Fittipaldi won theIndyCar World Series in1989 withPatrick, and is atwo-time winner of theIndianapolis 500.
Moving up fromFormula Two, Fittipaldi made his race debut forTeam Lotus as a third driver at the1970 British Grand Prix. AfterJochen Rindt was killed at the1970 Italian Grand Prix, the Brazilian became Lotus's lead driver in only his fifth Grand Prix. He enjoyed considerable success with Lotus, winning theWorld Drivers' Championship in1972 at the age of 25. At the time, he was the youngest ever F1 world champion, and he held the record for 33 years. He later moved toMcLaren for1974, winning the title once again, and helping McLaren win their firstConstructors' Championship. He surprised the paddock by moving to his brother'sFittipaldi Automotive team prior to the1976 season, being replaced byJames Hunt. Success eluded him during his final years in Formula One, with the Fittipaldi cars not competitive enough to fight for victories. Fittipaldi took two more podium finishes, before retiring in1980.
Following his Formula One career, Fittipaldi moved to the AmericanCART series, achieving numerous successes, including the1989 CART title and two wins at theIndianapolis 500 in1989 and1993. Since his retirement fromIndy Car racing in1996, Fittipaldi races only occasionally. In 2008, he became one of only three people in history to have a Corvette production car named in his honor. At age 67, he entered the2014 6 Hours of São Paulo.
Emerson Fittipaldi was born on 12 December 1946 inSão Paulo,Brazil.[1] He is the younger son of Italian-Brazilian motorsports journalist and radio commentator Wilson Fittipaldi Sr[2] and his wife Józefa "Juzy" Wojciechowska, an immigrant fromSaint Petersburg, Russia, ofPolish andRussian descent.[citation needed]
He was named after American author and philosopherRalph Waldo Emerson. Both of his parents had raced production cars shortly afterWorld War II, and his father was responsible for the firstMil Milhas race in 1956, in São Paulo, having been inspired by the 1949ItalianMille Miglia. Emerson, along with his brother Wilson, became motorsports enthusiasts as young children.[3]
At age 14, Fittipaldi was racingmotorcycles, and at 16,hydroplanes. While racing one day, his brotherWilson blew over at 70 mph (110 km/h) and landed upside down. Wilson was uninjured in the accident, but it prompted both Fittipaldi brothers to stop competing in boat racing and focus solely on racing land vehicles.[4] In 1967, Fittipaldi won the 6 Hours of Interlagos in aVolkswagen Karmann Ghia at the age of 20, and a year later the 12 Hours of Porto Alegre.
The pair moved to racingFormula Vees, and built up a company with their parents. In his second season in single-seaters, Fittipaldi won the Brazilian Formula Vee title at age 21. He left for Europe in 1969, with the ambition to convince team owners of his talent in three months. After some podiums and his first victories inFormula Ford, Fittipaldi was first trained and then subsequently engaged by the Jim Russell Driving SchoolFormula Three team. He won nine F3 races on the Jim RussellLotus 59 in the MCD Lombard Championship to become the1969 champion.[5]
For1970, Fittipaldi moved up to F2 by joining the Lotus semi-works Team Bardahl campaigningLotus 59B. With six finishes in the points and four on the podium, he ended the eight-race season in third place behindClay Regazzoni andDerek Bell. While this result was very impressive for the newcomer to the series, the spotlight was on Fittipaldi that year because of his activities in Formula One instead.
Based on the success of theCosworth DFV engine andLotus 49/49B cars in 1968,Team Lotus was enjoying the reputation as one of the top F1 teams with the inflow of sponsorship money, andColin Chapman used the third seat on the team for championship races as the testing ground for younger drivers. This was in contrast to the team's tradition to use non-championship F1 events for the purpose.
The third seat was given toAlex Soler-Roig in early 1970, and then to Fittipaldi starting with theBritish GP in July, withJochen Rindt andJohn Miles as the regular seat holders. Fittipaldi scored a fourth place as the No. 3 driver at the nextGerman GP where the No. 1 Jochen Rindt won, and the No. 2 John Miles retired.
Team Lotus plans for the season drastically changed when Jochen Rindt was killed atMonza in September and became the only driver to win the championship posthumously. John Miles also left the team, and Fittipaldi was promoted to be the Lotus No. 1 driver on his fifth F1 race at theUnited States GP withReine Wisell andPete Lovely as the teammates. Fittipaldi proved up to the task and won this first post-Rindt race for Lotus.
In his first full year as Lotus's lead driver in 1971, Fittipaldi finished sixth in the Drivers' Championship as the team further developed the previous season'sLotus 72. Armed with what was arguably the greatest Formula one design of all time, the Lotus 72D, Fittipaldi proved dominant in 1972 as he won five of 11 races and claimed the F1 Drivers' Championship.
At 25, he was then theyoungest champion in F1 history. It appeared he might do it again in 1973. After three wins in four attempts with the 72D, he began to struggle in the new 72E that was unveiled mid-year. It resulted in the reverse of the previous year, with Stewart beating Fittipaldi for the Drivers' Championship.
Fittipaldi left Lotus to sign with the promisingMcLaren team. Driving the highly efficientMcLaren M23, he had three victories in 1974, reached the podium four other times, and beat outClay Regazzoni in a close battle for his second championship. The following season, he notched two more victories and four other podiums, but was second to a dominantNiki Lauda.
However, at the height of his F1 success, Fittipaldi shocked everyone by leaving McLaren to race for older brotherWilson Fittipaldi'sCopersucar-sponsoredFittipaldi Automotive team.[citation needed]
He remained with the team for five seasons but only managed a best finish of second. Fittipaldi decided to retire from racing at the end of 1980. He has since said that his last two years in Formula One were very unhappy: "I was too involved in the problems of trying to make the team work, and I neglected my marriage and my personal life",[6] although at the time he cited the deaths of many of his colleagues as his reason.[7] He was only 33, but had been racing in Formula One for a decade. He had failed to finish seven of the last ten races that year and had several times been outpaced by his Finnish teammateKeke Rosberg (a future champion himself). He moved into the management of the team[8] alongside his brother. The team struggled on for another two years with minimal sponsorship, going into receivership at the end of 1982.[9]
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After leaving F1 in 1980, Fittipaldi took time out from major racing for four years. In 1984, the 37-year-old Fittipaldi made his debut in the AmericanCART series. He spent his first season acclimatising to IndyCars, driving for two teams before joiningPatrick Racing as a replacement forChip Ganassi, who had been seriously injured in the 1984Michigan 500. The 1985 Michigan 500 marked Fittipaldi's first victory in CART. Fittipaldi stayed five years with Patrick Racing, recording six victories and solid finishes in the overall standings.[10]
In 1989 Fittipaldi had five wins, finished in the top five in every race he completed, and was the CART champion. Among his wins was a dominant performance in the1989 Indianapolis 500 where he led 158 of 200 laps and won by two laps, but only after a dramatic duel withAl Unser Jr. in the closing laps of the race. Unser ran down Fittipaldi after a late-race restart and passed him for the lead on lap 196. Three laps later, Fittipaldi used lapped traffic to his advantage to pull alongside Unser on the backstretch. Neither driver would give way, and the two cars touched wheels as they went through turn three side by side. Unser's car spun out of control to hit the outside wall, while Fittipaldi was able to maintain sufficient control to keep his car moving straight. In spite of the altercation, Unser applauded Fittipaldi from the infield as Fittipaldi passed by on the final lap.[11]
Roger Penske hired Fittipaldi for hisracing team in 1990 and he continued to be among the top drivers in CART, winning at least one race with Penske for six straight years. But for bad luck he might have won three consecutive Indianapolis 500s, suffering blistered tires in 1990 and a gearbox failure in 1991, both while leading. In1993 he added a second Indianapolis 500 victory by taking the lead from reigning Formula One World ChampionNigel Mansell on lap 185 and holding it for the remainder.[12]
The race saw him break Indianapolis victory lane tradition when he drank a celebratory bottle of orange juice before the traditional bottle of milk. He was only the second driver to not drink milk at Indianapolis since the tradition was founded in 1936 (and firmly established in 1956). Fittipaldi owned several orange groves in his native Brazil, and wanted to promote the citrus industry. Fan reaction was negative to the break in tradition despite the fact that Fittipaldi did drink milk shortly after.[13] As a result of drinking the juice, Fittipaldi forfeited $5,000 from the winner's purse and publicly apologized to the American Dairy Association.[14]
Fan reaction to the milk snub was highly negative, and he was booed a week later atMilwaukee, a center of the American dairy industry. In the years that followed, many fans continued to hold the action against him. In interviews since, Fittipaldi explained his action, and apologised for the wave of negativity that followed. Fittipaldi returned to Indianapolis to drive theChevrolet CorvettePace Car for the2008 Indianapolis 500. Despite the passage of 15 years, he was again booed and heckled by some fans during the parade laps.[15]
In May 1994, Fittipaldi skipped a practice session for theIndianapolis 500 after his close friendAyrton Senna, also a native of Brazil and a former Formula One champion,died in a crash. Fittipaldi was one of the pallbearers during Senna's funeral, alongsideJackie Stewart,Alain Prost and several other F1 world champions. Fittipaldi nearly won his third 500 but clipped the turn 4 wall with 15 laps to go while he was holding a nearly full lap lead over teammate Unser Jr.[16]
Approaching 50, Fittipaldi was still driving inCART in 1996 when an injury atMichigan International Speedway ended his career. Fittipaldi did not return to the series as a driver after the injury. Fittipaldi finished his CART career with 22 wins. In 2003 he made a return to CART as a team owner.[17]
Fittipaldi was the acting team principal for the BrazilianA1 GP entry.[18] In 2005 Fittipaldi made a surprise return to competitive racing in theGrand Prix Masters event held atKyalami inSouth Africa, finishing second behind fellow F1 driverNigel Mansell.[19]
In 2008, Emerson and his brother Wilson entered theBrazilian GT3 Championship, driving aPorsche 997 GT3 for the WB Motorsports team.[20] In 2011, he started embracing social media and became aChairman of Motorsport.com.[21] In 2013 he began writing a regular monthly blog column on the official website ofMcLaren.
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Fittipaldi is the younger brother of formerFormula One driver and team ownerWilson Fittipaldi. He is the uncle ofInternational Formula 3000 andIMSA championChristian Fittipaldi. He was married to Maria Helena from 1970 to 1982. They had three children. He was married a second time, to Teresa, in the mid-1980s. They have two children.[23]
In early December 2012, Fittipaldi married economist Rossana Fanucchi in São Paulo after a partnership of eleven years. They have a son,Emerson Jr., born in 2007, and daughter Vittoria, born in early 2012.[24] Emerson Jr. competed in the2021 F4 Danish Championship, finishing third overall.[25]
His daughter Tatiana married racing driverMax Papis. They have two children, Marco Papis and Matteo Papis; Emerson's grandsons.[26][27]
His daughter Juliana had two sons and a daughter with Carlos da Cruz,Pietro,Enzo and Valentina Fittipaldi.[28][29] Pietro and Enzo are also racing drivers, with Enzo being announced as a member of theRed Bull Junior Team in November 2022.[30] Pietro made his Formula 1 debut at the2020 Sakhir Grand Prix driving for theHaas F1 Team.[31] For 2024, he was signed to run a full IndyCar schedule withRahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
In September 1997, while recovering from injuries in a crash atMichigan International Speedway a year earlier, Fittipaldi was flying his private plane across his orange tree farm in the state ofSão Paulo. The plane lost power and plunged 90 metres (300 ft) to the ground, leaving him with serious back injuries. Though Fittipaldi had converted to Christianity the year prior, his beliefs were reinforced after the crash. Fittipaldi is a Protestant in the Presbyterian tradition.[32]
Fittipaldi was a friend ofthe Beatles guitaristGeorge Harrison and was with him shortly before Harrison died in November 2001.[33]
In 2016, Fittipaldi established Fittipaldi Motors and, along withPininfarina andHWA AG, created his first sports car project, theFittipaldi EF7, though the car never entered production.[34]
In August 2022, Fittipaldi announced his candidacy for theItalian Senate, representing the South Americanoverseas constituency, running as a member of theBrothers of Italy political party,[35] being eventually defeated by Italo-ArgentineMario Borghese a month later in the2022 Italian parliamentary elections.[36]
(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position, races initalics indicate fastest lap)
(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position)(Races initalics indicate fastest lap)
(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position)
| Year | Team | 1 | 2 | Rank | Points | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983-84 | GTS Racing | DQSF | INDY 32 | 37th | 5 | [41] |
(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position)
| Year | Chassis | Engine | Start | Finish | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | March | Cosworth | 23rd | 32nd | WIT |
| 1985 | March | Cosworth | 5th | 13th | Patrick |
| 1986 | March | Cosworth | 11th | 7th | Patrick |
| 1987 | March | Chevrolet | 33rd | 16th | Patrick |
| 1988 | March | Chevrolet | 8th | 2nd | Patrick |
| 1989 | Penske | Chevrolet | 3rd | 1st | Patrick |
| 1990 | Penske | Chevrolet | 1st | 3rd | Penske |
| 1991 | Penske | Chevrolet | 15th | 11th | Penske |
| 1992 | Penske | Chevrolet | 11th | 24th | Penske |
| 1993 | Penske | Chevrolet | 9th | 1st | Penske |
| 1994 | Penske | Ilmor-Mercedes | 3rd | 17th | Penske |
| 1995 | Lola | Ilmor-Mercedes | Failed to Qualify | Penske | |
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 |  Ralph Sanchez Racing | Tony Garcia Mauricio DeNarvaez | March 85G-Buick | GTP | - | DNS | DNS | [55] |
(key) Races inbold indicate pole position, races initalics indicate fastest lap.
| Year | Team | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Team LG | Delta Motorsport GPM | Nicholson McLaren 3.5V8 | RSA 2 | ||||
| 2006 | Team LG | Delta Motorsport GPM | Nicholson McLaren 3.5V8 | QAT 12 | ITA C | GBR 8 | MAL C | RSA C |
Source:[37] | ||||||||
| Year | Entrant | Class | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Rank | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | AF Corse | LMGTE Am | Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 | Ferrari 4.5 L V8 | SIL | SPA | LMS | COA | FUJ | SHA | BHR | SÃO 6 | 23rd | 8 |
Source:[38] | ||||||||||||||
Fittipaldi family | |
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| First generation |
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| Second generation | |
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| Concerns | |
