Fittipaldi's prophetic title that justified his McLaren switch

It's the 1974 Dutch Grand Prix, and there's an odd sight at Zandvoort: Emerson Fittipaldi has a divining rod in his hands, given to him by Clive Hulme - a renowned mystic, Victoria Cross recipient and father to Emerson's McLaren team-mate Denny. As it twitches and turns to point towards him, Emmo laughs out loud, and Clive declares: "You're going to be world champion!"

With Fittipaldi beaten into third place that day in June by a Ferrari 1-2, it looked like Hulme Sr's prediction was wide of the mark. But Fittipaldi knew what he needed - Goodyear's stiffer and wider tyres were holding his McLaren M23 back - and designer Gordon Coppuck knew how to fix it.

"On the bumpy tracks we didn't have a good suspension geometry for the rear," says Fittipaldi. "Then Gordon designed a new suspension for Brands Hatch. And that's when the car started working really well everywhere.

"The McLaren was a much more basic car [than the Lotus 72 Fittipaldi had driven previously]. Wishbone suspension with torsion bars, no inboard brakes at the front - what I'd call a very conventional car. But McLaren worked a lot with the wheelbase; we had three different wheelbases, depending on the track. That's why McLaren was very good at adapting to different circuits."

Although it was four years on from Bruce McLaren's death, the team retained its Kiwi core of excellence: "Most of the guys were from New Zealand, Alastair Caldwell was a very good team manager. And then there was Teddy Mayer, the American lawyer, who was very well organised, and a very good friend of Bruce. I really liked the potential during the first test beginning in December [1973] at Paul Ricard. The M23 was already very fast; I mean out of the box, the car was good to drive - easy! Compared to Lotus, the team was more organised logistically."

"I passed him by the end of the straight, I was half a car ahead, but he moved again - and I thought we were going to both collide" Emerson Fittipaldi

With the McLaren now handling as well as the edgier Lotus that had powered him to his first world title in 1972, Fittipaldi made up ground rapidly in the closing grands prix of 1974. He surged from fourth to first in just two races - thanks to a second place in Italy and a win in Canada - and would enter the United States GP finale at Watkins Glen tied on 52 points with Ferrari's Clay Regazzoni. After both suffered poor qualifying sessions, they'd start eighth and ninth on the grid. Cue the worst night's sleep Fittipaldi has ever had at a race weekend...

"It was the only time, in all the races I've experienced in my life, that I only slept four hours," he admits. "Because I was thinking, 'Tomorrow, myself or Clay will be world champion.' And because the car was not handling well, we started far back. It was tremendous pressure mounting for me - more than the Indianapolis 500, more than any Brazilian Grand Prix."

Ticking over in Fittipaldi's mind that night was his gameplan for the title showdown's opening lap. Factor in, too, Fittipaldi's wariness of his title rival...

"Clay was a great friend, I enjoyed time with him outside of the cockpit," says Fittipaldi. "But he was very dangerous in the car. Always.

"I was thinking to myself: 'For the race we will drop the rear wing off to have more speed on the straight and if I pass Clay there, then I can go away.' So that was my target - to get past on the first straight.

"We started the race, into Turn 1, Turn 2 and into the fast Esses, and as we came to the straight Clay was just ahead. I saw him look to the mirror. I was coming with more speed on his inside, and he started going to the right, to the right... And he put me on the grass. When he put me on the grass, I thought there's only one thing I can do now to beat his Ferrari. I turned the steering wheel to the left, against him, and he never thought that I would make that move.

"I passed him by the end of the straight, I was half a car ahead, but he moved again - and I thought we were going to both collide [Emerson's hands signify an explosion]."

Somehow, they survived this bruising encounter. And, despite the best efforts of Regazzoni's Ferrari team-mate Niki Lauda to hold up title contenders Fittipaldi and Tyrrell's Jody Scheckter, it was all for nothing.

Regazzoni suffered a defective damper, which ruined his car's handling, and he finished four laps down after making multiple pitstops. With Scheckter also hitting trouble with a fuel-feed issue, Fittipaldi wrapped up his second world championship with a measured fourth-place finish. But that opening lap skirmish still rankles today...

"What I felt at McLaren was the motivation - and the M23 was a very fast car. It was a very small team compared to Tyrrell and Brabham, but it was very motivated" Emerson Fittipaldi

"After the race, I was going to complain to him, but what am I going to say?" asks Fittipaldi rhetorically. "I'm the world champion - thank God! But he was dangerous. Some of the younger guys were dangerous, sometimes, but I was always suspicious of Clay."

It could all have played out very differently, of course. Given free rein for his next choice of team at the end of 1973, Fittipaldi had considered Brabham and Tyrrell before settling on McLaren.

"Colin Chapman did everything for me to stay at Lotus," he says. "But I wanted to move. Philip Morris [Marlboro] came to me and said, 'You're going to choose the team.' So I went to Bernie [Ecclestone] at Brabham, Ken at Tyrrell, who was very good, and McLaren.

"It was a very difficult decision. I was defending vice-champion, second place to Jackie [Stewart in 1973], so there was a lot of expectation on my part. But what I felt at McLaren was the motivation - and the M23 was a very fast car. It was a very small team compared to Tyrrell and Brabham, but it was very motivated."

He'd stay with McLaren for 1975, scoring two more wins but losing out in the championship to Lauda and Ferrari: "We didn't improve as much as we should, and we lost the gap we had over the other teams."

In 1976, Fittipaldi left McLaren to drive for his brother Wilson's Copersucar-backed team, opening the door for James Hunt to join the team and win the title in the most dramatic circumstances. Does that rankle with him? Not a jot...

"James comes to me and says, 'Thanks for the car!' He was so happy - it was simply a different era, it was so much fun," says Fittipaldi.

"And James... he always came to my motorhome to piss or shit before races. I said, 'Hey, James, don't leave these odours in my motorhome!' That was true friendship. It was such a good time."

'Mike the Bike' and more '70s tomfoolery

McLaren ran a third M23 in 1974, a Yardley-sponsored car alongside the Marlboro-Texaco machines of Emerson Fittipaldi and Denny Hulme. Driving that until his career-ending German Grand Prix crash was Mike Hailwood, the nine-time world motorcycle champion and 14-time Isle of Man TT winner.

"I'm thinking, 'How is he going to get on with no sleep?' We start the race, and he's on my tail - the whole race!" Fittipaldi on Mike Hailwood

Hailwood switched to four wheels after being paid by Honda not to race bikes for any of its rivals. He finished third in the 1969 Le Mans 24 Hours with David Hobbs in a Ford GT40, and won the European Formula 2 title with Surtees in 1972. Awarded the George Medal for bravery, for pulling Clay Regazzoni out of his burning car in South Africa in 1973, Hailwood was renowned for getting wound up before a race. But he found a novel way of staying relaxed...

"Mike the Bike! He was a comedian," remembers Fittipaldi of Hailwood, who was killed in a road accident in 1981. "He was always fun. I remember at Zandvoort, leaving the hotel - the one that's five minutes from the circuit's gate - on raceday morning at eight o'clock. I was already dressed in my firesuit.

"As I'm walking out of the hotel's front door, Mike the Bike walks in, wearing T-shirt and jeans, looking at me with red eyes! I said, 'Mike, are you just coming back?' He says, 'Yes, I had such a great night in Amsterdam!'

"That day he started right beside me, [Fittipaldi started third, with Hailwood fourth] and I'm thinking, 'How is he going to get on with no sleep?' We start the race, and he's on my tail - the whole race! It was a big surprise for me that he did so well. I thought he'd be tired or have poor reflexes, but he was perfect!"

Hailwood would finish fourth that day, just a second behind Fittipaldi after 75 laps.

"There were many characters in those days," adds Fittipaldi. "I enjoyed the final years of Graham Hill (pictured above and below with Fittipaldi). He was also a very funny comedian and an extremely nice person. Jack Brabham was very quiet, but Graham was the opposite!

"When we were in Brazil for F2, Graham asked where we could see some girls, so I took him to a place that had some of the most beautiful girls in the world. And when he saw them, he looked at me and said, 'See you on Sunday afternoon!'"