How a Brazilian F1 pioneer lifted Lotus after Rindt's tragic loss

The trailblazer for Brazilians who dreamed of racing in Formula 1, Emerson Fittipaldi dared not only to reach the top of the sport but conquered the world on two occasions with Lotus and McLaren. He paved the way for Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna to emulate his success as multiple title-winning countrymen amid a wave of Brazilian racing stars.

Aged 25 in 1972, Fittipaldi held the mantle of the youngest F1 world champion for 33 years, moving his great friend and rival Jackie Stewart to state: “Emerson arrived in F1 like a rocketship.” He claimed 14 grand prix victories and 35 podiums over his decade in F1. Fittipaldi then took on the challenge of IndyCar racing in America, twice capturing its greatest race – the Indianapolis 500 – and winning another title.

These days he’s supporting the career of his 16-year-old son Emerson Jr (aka: ‘Little Emmo’) who is climbing the junior single-seater ladder in Europe. GP Racing catches up with ‘Big Emmo’ in Miami, the day after celebrating his 77th birthday…

GP Racing: Emerson, as the original Brazilian F1 world champion, coming to Europe to set the path followed by Piquet and Senna, how do you feel about creating this trend?

Emerson Fittipaldi: I feel very, very proud to have been the first one. After me, and before Nelson and Ayrton, was my brother Wilson and Carlos Pace. I called us ‘The Three Musketeers!’ Then there was an amazing number of Brazilian drivers across 50 years, that was fantastic. Until now, when we’re missing them from F1.

GPR: You started racing 50cc bikes, even hydroplane boats, before you started karting…

EF: You could only go karting in Brazil from 17. I started racing bikes at 14. I was loaned an Italian bike, a four-stroke 50cc, by Adu Celso, who was the first Brazilian to race in the 500cc World Championship. He was a very good friend of mine from childhood.

Photo by: Eric Gilbert

Fittipaldi was in fine form when he met GP Racing in Miami to reflect 50 years on from his second world title

GPR: And you were Wilson’s kart mechanic?

EF: And Carlos Pace’s also! I kept them immaculate. So that meant when I was old enough, because he was Wilson’s age, Carlos lent me his own kart for a rookie race. We were total enthusiasts.

GPR: You came to Britain to seek success and your fortune in racing in February 1969, how did that feel when you arrived at a cold, foggy Gatwick Airport?

EF: I’d only ever been outside Brazil to visit Uruguay once, and when I saw between the clouds some green fields, I said to myself, “This is the land of Graham Hill, Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart” – it was a dream to come to England to race.

"I suggested adding front wing, but Jochen said, 'No, just put more power down mid-corner, break away the back end of the car, just drive it harder.' And he was 100% correct. I immediately went faster" Emerson Fittipaldi

There was an Anglo-Brazilian called Gerry Cunningham, who was the fibreglass supplier for the cars built by me and Wilson. He had raced at Snetterton with Jim Russell in Formula Ford. He was waiting for me in his Mini Cooper to drive me to a guest house in Wimbledon, owned by a Mr and Mrs Bates, where I would stay. The old lady was so good to me, treated me like a son, and she’d always offer me tea and biscuits as she knew I was feeling very cold as a Brazilian in England in February!

GPR: You’d only been in Britain for a few months, yet you were winning F3 races. Is it true that both Colin Chapman and Frank Williams offered you F1 drives almost straight away?

EF: Yes. I first met Frank Williams very early on, with Gerry. I took my pictures from Brazil and Frank had no clue there was a racing scene there. After I won the F3 championship, Frank called me and he flew to Norwich for lunch, where he asked me to drive as team-mate to Piers Courage in F1. Then Colin called me around the same time!

I said to both: “I’m not ready for Formula 1, I need at least half a season in F2.” I was scared to tell Colin, but he was very nice about it and said, “OK, after six months of F2 it will be the British GP and you can race F1 there.”

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Fittipaldi rapidly made an impression on his arrival in Britain to race Formula 3, and was soon courted both by Colin Chapman and Frank Williams

GPR: True to his word, you made your F1 debut at Silverstone with Lotus. How did it feel to have Graham Hill and Jochen Rindt as team-mates?

EF: My dream since I was a young boy was to start a grand prix. There was a very special day at Silverstone, when Jochen was leading the championship, and we had a test. Colin asked Jochen to do some laps in the 49, just to see that the car was good to drive. Then I went out and I felt the car was understeering, so I came in and, while Colin crouched down next to my cockpit, Jochen was also listening.

I suggested adding front wing, but Jochen said, “No, just put more power down mid-corner, break away the back end of the car, just drive it harder.” And he was 100% correct. I immediately went faster.

GPR: When Jochen was killed in qualifying at Monza, it must have been such a terrible time for everyone…

EF: It was the first time I felt the reality of Formula 1. The bad side. The risk we had. To me, to my family, it was a big shock. It was a very tough time. But you had to survive back then. You just had to switch off and think, “It won’t happen to me.”

GPR: Is it true Rindt wanted you to drive in the Formula 2 team he was forming with Bernie Ecclestone for 1971?

EF: Yes, we’d had breakfast that morning and discussed it, for Roy Winkelmann’s team and Bernie. Jochen said, “Can you replace me next year?” and we shook hands on it. No need for talk about contracts or money, I said, “Sure Jochen, I’d be happy to do it.” I always wanted to continue with F2 because I needed more running.

GPR: After Lotus skipped Canada, the next race was Watkins Glen – and you took your first grand prix victory in only your fourth F1 start…

EF: I waited a week after Monza, but there was no call from Colin. I assumed he was going to get an experienced driver to replace Jochen, because John Miles was so upset that he left the team. Then Colin called me and said, “Emerson, you be the number one driver from now on.” I said, “But I have no experience,” and he replied, “You’re going to have full support from the team, don’t worry.”

Photo by: David Phipps

Fittipaldi remarkably won his first grand prix at only his fourth attempt at Watkins Glen in 1970

He had a lot of confidence in me but, my God, I felt tremendous pressure going into Watkins Glen with only three grands prix experience. It was very cold there at that time of the year and, after qualifying, I had a very high temperature. Colin, who was always extremely good to me, called a doctor, who came to my room at the Glen Motor Inn and he gave me an injection.

Then I woke up on race day and I still had the temperature! Colin was very worried but, as soon as I sat in the car for the warm-up, I felt good after a few laps.

GPR: How did your victory impact everyone at the team?

EF: Coming from a tragedy like Monza, everybody in the team was feeling Jochen’s death, but this just seemed to lift everyone’s confidence about the next year. I certainly knew I could do well.

GPR: Together, you and Colin then developed the Lotus 72 into a world beater…

EF: The car was fantastic, consistent and Colin was a genius. He had intuition about how to set up a car. We’d often go to dinner and he’d ask, “Emerson, how is the car?” We’d go corner by corner and, typical Colin, he’d do this [Emmo puts two fingers to his temple] and you could see he was thinking.

"Everybody in the team was feeling Jochen’s death, but this just seemed to lift everyone’s confidence about the next year. I certainly knew I could do well" Emerson Fittipaldi

You’d go back the next day, and the car was always much faster. He was so advanced in everything, he was ahead of his time. He was my mentor for Formula 1.

PLUS: The troubled story of F1's greatest racing car

GPR: Monza 1972 was when your world championship dream was realised, but it was quite a stressful time before the race when the transporter crashed on the drive to Italy.

EF: Peter Warr [team manager] called me at the hotel. “Emerson, you speak a little Italian, can you come to the Autostrada? We have a problem.” The driver of the transporter fell asleep and the truck crashed and I saw my Lotus 72 in the grass with its parts just everywhere.

Photo by: David Phipps

Fittipaldi became the youngest world champion in F1 history at Monza in 1972, but the build-up to the race was anything but straightforward

Then before the race, Eddie Dennis, the chief mechanic, came to my motorhome and said, “We have a big problem, the fuel tank is leaking and we don’t know if we have enough time to pump it out and put in a new one.” The mechanics were amazing at Lotus but think how I felt about this – after what had happened with the transporter crash! But everything went in my favour in the race and I was world champion, thank God.

GPR: You only suffered a handful of crashes in F1, but Zandvoort in 1973 was a bad one…

EF: It was horrible, I was stuck in the car and I couldn’t get out. The front wheel broke, I turned and hit the wall. My feet were stuck between the pedals and I had a fuel leak. I could hear the fuel pump was still going – click, click, click – and I couldn’t turn it off. The marshals in Holland were amateurs – I was sitting in fuel but they moved away, even though I was begging them to get me out of the car. They disappeared.

Then Graham Hill stopped to help one lap later. And Jo Ramirez, who was in the Tyrrell pit, saw I was still stuck in the car, so he ran over with a toolbox. It was Jo and Graham who cut the front of the car. The fuel pump was still on! They took a huge risk if there was a spark… I was so grateful to them. They risked their lives to save mine.

PLUS: How a champion turned "rubbish bin" came back to life

GPR: After winning a world championship and nine grands prix, why did you feel let down by Chapman so much that you walked out at the end of 1973?

EF: We agreed before Monza that if Ronnie [Peterson] is leading and I’m second, we’d exchange places. I still had a small chance that I could win the title again. With 15 laps to go, with third place far behind us, when we’d planned to put out the board to exchange, we got no signal. So, I had to attack Ronnie, I got right on his gearbox, but I couldn’t overtake him.

I was very upset with Colin afterwards, and I decided not to continue. I stayed good friends with him and had huge respect always.

GPR: What was the catalyst for your McLaren move for 1974? Why not Tyrrell or Brabham?

EF: I lived in Switzerland and was always flying with the Philip Morris people, their HQ was in Lausanne. Patrick Duffeler was the PR and marketing guy, and he asked, “Emerson, would you like to drive for Marlboro?” They had BRM then, which wasn’t doing well, but he said, “You choose the team.”

Photo by: David Phipps

The Zandvoort 1973 crash when Fittipaldi was trapped inside his Lotus 72 is an unpleasant memory

I travelled to England and first I went to see Bernie at Brabham, because Gordon Murray was a fantastic designer. Then I went to see Ken Tyrrell, because Jackie had just retired, and it was another very good option. Then I went to McLaren, I knew Teddy Mayer. There was also Alastair Caldwell and Phil Kerr, who were from Bruce’s time.

I felt so good with McLaren. Young people, very hard working and ambitious. And so it happened. I liked the M23, Gordon Coppuck was a very good designer.

GPR: Which was better, the Lotus 72 or McLaren M23?

EF: The Lotus 72. But McLaren had the better organisation. The M23 was very fast and stable in fast corners but sometimes we had problems on very bumpy tracks with the frequency of the suspension, the damping and spring combinations. But it was a solid car.

GPR: The 1974 title decider was between you and Ferrari’s Clay Regazzoni, how difficult was he to race against that day at Watkins Glen in a winner-takes-all scenario?

"I was going to talk to Clay, because he was crazy. A good friend but exactly the opposite from Jackie, Niki and Carlos – everyone drove hard but we knew we could kill the other guy by having a crash. But I decided I was happy to win the championship, so I never talked to him about it" Emerson Fittipaldi

EF: I never felt so much pressure before a race [he winces at the memory] – even compared to Monza ’72 or the Indy 500s. I knew it was between me and Clay, equal on points going into the last race. Honestly, I only slept for three hours – the only time in my life when I couldn’t sleep properly before a race.

The car wasn’t running well, we had a problem damping the car and it was a bumpy track. But Clay had similar issues with his Ferrari, and we started side by side. Our mechanics couldn’t look at the Ferrari mechanics; they couldn’t look to us. Tremendous pressure in the air on the starting grid.

Teddy and Alastair were very good on strategy. We knew the Ferrari was very quick on the straight, so on full tanks in the morning warm-up we practiced with a very low rear wing. We thought if I can pass Clay on the first lap, the car on full tanks and minimal wing would pull away. But I had to pass him first!

Photo by: Motorsport Images

The high-pressure 1974 finale at Watkins Glen is the only race that Fittipaldi recalls having trouble sleeping the night before

GPR: Regazzoni had the reputation of being the hardest driver out there…

EF: Clay was always squeezing people, doing stupid things. He was ahead of me into Turn 1, we went up the hill and I was on his gearbox because we had minimum drag, so my McLaren was fast. On the long straight I saw Clay’s head looking from side to side in his mirrors.

I slipstreamed him and he was in the middle of the track. I went to his right side and he immediately pushed me against the grass and, just before the edge of the track, I turned my car against him. I decided we were both going to crash unless he gave way. My wheel was nearly hitting him, my front wheel against his cockpit, and he got scared because I didn’t back off and he moved away. I surprised him.

After the race, I was going to talk to Clay, because he was crazy. A good friend but exactly the opposite from Jackie, Niki and Carlos – everyone drove hard but we knew we could kill the other guy by having a crash. But I decided I was happy to win the championship, so I never talked to him about it.

GPR: Did you ever come close to driving for Ferrari?

EF: Twice. It nearly happened. First time, I met Enzo for lunch in 1971 and when I said I would re-sign for another year with Colin, he said, “You come to Ferrari for sure, any driver has the dream to drive for Ferrari.” And I did want to drive for Ferrari. But he said, “You have to drive the sportscar, as well as Formula 1.” And I wanted to focus on F1.

I refused because he wanted me to drive both. Then he said, “I’ll pay you double what Colin Chapman pays.” But it wasn’t a question of money. It was difficult to say no to Ferrari because I always had that dream.

The second time was when Niki had the crash in 1976. I was in the hospital, my personal doctor was helping in Niki’s room. Niki was on the edge of dying, they were keeping him alive with blood transfusions.

Photo by: Sutton Images

Fittipaldi joined his brother Wilson's Copersucar team for 1976, but it wasn't a successful period in his career

I knew it was 50/50 that he’d survive and, at the hospital, [team manager] Daniele Audetto told me to come to the telephone. It was Mr Ferrari: “Emerson, can you replace Niki?” I said, “Sorry Commendatore, I cannot talk of this now.”

But Niki made the miracle. I was there at Monza, when he made the first test afterwards, his skin was so red and blistered… I don’t know how he did that. Niki just had fantastic mental powers, incredible.

GPR: You left McLaren at the end of ’75 to join your brother Wilson’s Brazilian team, Copersucar-Fittipaldi. Did you then feel jealous of James Hunt winning the world championship in 1976 in the McLaren you would have been driving?

EF: I was in one way, but I was happy for James because he was such a good guy. He always joked, “Emerson, you gave me such a good car!” We had a very good relationship.

"I could see Nigel’s gloves in the cockpit, correcting the front wheels. I said on the radio, 'He’s going to crash, he’s going to crash!' But he never crashed. Incredible talent" Emerson Fittipaldi

We always knew the dream of a Brazilian team with my brother was going to be tough, and it was very difficult, but many people didn’t know our background in building Formula Vees and prototype sportscars in the mid-’60s.

GPR: How did your Indy 500 wins compare with your Formula 1 success?

EF: The age that I won Indianapolis, I think that was incredible [Emerson was 42 in 1989 and 46 in ’93]. I was dicing with some of the children of drivers I’d raced against [in F1], like Jacques Villeneuve and Michael Andretti, they were so much fun to race… Indy was very special to me, so much history and tradition. But I have to say my most important achievement was my first F1 world championship.

GPR: You missed Nigel Mansell in your F1 career, but then raced against him in IndyCar – how was that?

EF: I’ve never told this story but when Nigel joined Indy in 1993, I called Ayrton and asked “How is Nigel?” because we never raced against each other. Ayrton said, “Nigel’s crazy and has incredible car control.” So this was in the back of my mind.

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Fittipaldi enjoyed encountering Mansell in Indycar racing

We got to Indianapolis, we started side by side, and I was running right behind him for 200 miles, nearly half of the race. Every corner, even Turn 3, Nigel made the back end of the car move. At that speed! I could see Nigel’s gloves in the cockpit, correcting the front wheels. I said on the radio, “He’s going to crash, he’s going to crash!” But he never crashed. Incredible talent.

GPR: What else did Ayrton tell you about Nigel?

EF: Ayrton told me the story in person about Monaco in 1992, when Nigel couldn’t pass him at the end of the race. He said Nigel was slumped in his car after the race, like he was dead. Then they went to the podium and when the three guys opened the champagne, Ayrton sprayed his towards Nigel, and he started running away – only then he remembered he was supposed to be tired! Such a character, I really like him.

Photo by: Eric Gilbert

Fittipaldi is now helping to support the career of his 16-year-old son Emerson Jr