How Chapman's wonder wedge won Fittipaldi's heart

Double world champion Emerson Fittipaldi is a man inextricably linked with the Lotus 72. He took his first world championship grand prix win in a 72, on just his fourth start, scored his first title in the car in 1972, and won nine of his 14 victories in Colin Chapman's wedge-shaped wonder.

Fifty years on from the first time he drove a 72, Fittipaldi doesn't hold back when it comes to lavishing praise on both the car's poise and Chapman's ingenuity. Remember too that he won his second title in McLaren's iconic M23.

"The Lotus 72 is the best car I ever drove in my career, an incredible machine," says the 73-year-old. "It was the most consistent car at any track in the world. I talked to the car, and the car talked back to me. We were like friends.

"Colin was an amazing engineer. He was a genius and was very advanced with his thinking. He was a graduate of aeronautical design, and it means he was bringing the most advanced technology to motorsport. He was extremely detailed, everything had to be as light and as aerodynamic as possible - and that's typical in the aircraft industry."

After a trio of 1970 outings in a 49C, which included a fine fourth place in the German Grand Prix, young gun Fittipaldi was entrusted with a 72 for the first time at the fateful Italian Grand Prix at Monza. To cherish the triumphs that lay ahead, you first must appreciate the tragedy of Jochen Rindt's demise - and the likely reason behind it.

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"The Lotus 72 was very advanced in terms of unsprung weight," explains Fittipaldi. "Imagine a disc-brake caliper, how much weight is moving up and down. Colin designed the inboard brakes, front and rear, but it created its own problems, like too much heat inside the car.

"The driveshafts [including those for the front brakes] were different materials, needing different heat treatments, and exactly this problem happened in Monza, my fourth grand prix, and it was the car I was going to drive. I'd crashed Jochen's new car on the Friday [Chapman had entrusted it to Fittipaldi to bed it in], and then Jochen had to drive my car on Saturday, and that's the one that broke.

"We suspect the brake shaft failed when he was braking for Parabolica, so he only had brakes on three wheels. He went sideways and under the barrier, and that was his fatal crash."

"1971 was a difficult year, because we had the new Firestone slicks, and because of the extra grip everything was moving. The suspension was very fragile for the grip we had" Emerson Fittipaldi

It wasn't just the braking system that was revolutionary on the 72. Its aerodynamic shape pushed more boundaries, with its huge rear wing mounted way behind the car for maximum efficiency. Water radiators were no longer nose-mounted, but split in two and mounted amidships.

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Fittipaldi recalls: "The torsion-bar suspension was very complicated - everything was new, to Colin, to everybody! It took a long time to get the suspension frequency correct, to work the right angle of leverage for the torsion bars. But it was a work of art!"

At the age of just 24, Fittipaldi was promoted to Team Lotus leader for 1971. Although he'd found his feet quickly in F1 - scoring a fortuitous victory in the 72 at Watkins Glen (above) - the following season was character-building to say the least...

"1971 was a difficult year, because we had the new Firestone slicks, and because of the extra grip everything was moving, and it was only in the low-grip tracks like Monaco [where the D-specification of the car was introduced] that the car was OK. The suspension was very fragile for the grip we had.

"It took us nearly the full season to make a reinforced frame and suspension. Maurice Philippe, the senior designer, redesigned the whole suspension, front and rear. This made a big difference, then it was fantastic again, so much fun to drive.

"The consistency returned. Then, the car felt like it was back in 1970, when it was on the grooved tyres. The first race I remember the car started to work really well was the [non-championship] October Brands Hatch race that Jo Siffert was killed in."

Another diversion in 1971 was the ongoing development of the Lotus 56B turbine car, which Fittipaldi raced twice in non-championship events at Brands and Silverstone, a Formula 5000 race at a chicane-less Hockenheim where "it was extremely fast!", and also that year's Italian GP, which he finished eighth.

"There was a lot of focus on the turbine car, Colin was 100% sure that it would become much faster than the regular car in one or two years," says Fittipaldi. "It certainly took some of the focus away that season."

Distractions were dropped for 1972, and Fittipaldi fairly romped to his maiden world championship, winning five of the 12 rounds. At the age of 25, he became the sport's youngest champion.

"We had a very good chief mechanic, Eddie Dennis, who made the car very reliable and we were focused 100% on winning the championship," he recalls proudly. "Everybody was so motivated, we could all see the potential to win after what happened in 1971. The car was driving fantastically well, and I think that helped the motivation in the team to ensure it was reliable. It was always difficult to find a forgiving car that was fast, but that's what made it so fun to drive at every track!"

Fittipaldi is keen to pay tribute to Chapman's role in his title glory: "Colin had the intuition to talk to a driver to set up the car, because we had no analytics or electronic information like now. People don't realise that Colin was very affected by losing his drivers, because he'd lost Jim Clark - one of my heroes - and then Jochen, who was a great friend and helped very much at the start of my career. Jochen was a hero of mine as well.

"People say that Colin took a lot of risks. Yes, the cars were very fragile, but as a human being he was very sensitive and always tried the best for the drivers - he was very emotional for an English guy! I used to stay at his farm in Norwich; he was my mentor for four years. I learned so much from Colin; he was a fantastic engineer.

"After I won the championship in 1972, Colin came to me and said, 'Emerson, I don't want to get too close to you because I'm afraid to lose you as well.' We had a very special relationship, but it was very tough when he told me this; it was reality."

Fittipaldi's title defence in 1973 started well, with victories in Argentina and Brazil followed by a podium in South Africa, another win in Spain despite a late-race slow puncture, and further podiums in Belgium and Monaco.

"When I sat in the car each time, it asked me what I wanted. And I already knew what it wanted" Emerson Fittipaldi

But rival Jackie Stewart was almost mirroring him for consistency in his Tyrrell, and enjoyed three wins of his own over those opening six races. Fittipaldi also had a new intra-team threat with 'SuperSwede' Ronnie Peterson alongside him, and he fell into a mid-season trough in terms of results.

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"I didn't get points again until August," he rues. "The race retirements just happened, like in France with Jody Scheckter's McLaren, they had a very low rear wing, and I was chasing him and chasing him, and just I couldn't get past, so I waved Ronnie past, and he couldn't pass him either!

"So Ronnie waved me back past, and coming to the last corner I tried on the inside [as they came up to lap a backmarker], but I locked up, and Jody closed the door too late and we crashed. I could have won that race, but it really hurt my championship, and that was Ronnie's first win."

But the real crunch came in the Italian GP, where Peterson would win again in very different circumstances...

"I still had a mathematical chance at Monza, and we made an agreement before the race that, if I still had a mathematical chance to beat Jackie, Colin would give a signal on the pitboard with 15 laps to go to change positions. And Colin never gave the sign.

"I finished right on Ronnie's gearbox and my title bid was over. After the race I went to the motorhome, and I said, 'Colin, why you never gave the sign?' He never answered, he just bounced the head, and I was very disappointed. He didn't do the agreement we had. It was time to leave."

It was a bombshell move at the time, but Fittipaldi's switch to McLaren produced a second drivers' title and no regrets in hindsight: "I think I moved at the right time. In 1974 they [Lotus] lost a lot of performance, and McLaren was an incredible team to join.

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"But the 72 was a fantastic car to drive. It was an iconic car with the black and gold. We knew how to set up the car; we knew how to extract the maximum.

"Until I had the huge crash at Zandvoort in 1973, I raced the same chassis, number five, for four years - although we had different suspension and different aerodynamics.

"When I sat in the car each time, it asked me what I wanted. And I already knew what it wanted."

Emerson Fittipaldi's memories of the Lotus 72, recently voted by Autosport as the greatest competition car of all time, appear as part of a special package of features to mark its 50th anniversary in this week's Autosport magazine.

Gary Watkins tells the story of its troubled rise to stardom and digs into the innovative tech that made it the first modern F1 car, while Matt Kew hears from Classic Team Lotus boss Clive Chapman about the restoration of Fittipaldi's famed chassis 72/5.

Chapman, the son of legendary Lotus designer Colin, also writes a column for the issue, which is available in retailers for £3.99 from Thursday 8 October.