The final throes of Brazil's fleetingly successful F1 team

I recently came across a photograph of the Fittipaldi F9, which transported me back to 1982 when I was working for the Brazilian-owned team - a period which doesn’t bring too many happy memories.

I had been working at McLaren in the late 1970s when Alastair Caldwell left the company to be team manager at Fittipaldi. He convinced me to follow him, as they needed to bolster the design team due to the departure of chief designer Ralph Bellamy for Ensign. The only other person on the design side there was the late Ricardo (Richard) Divila, a long-serving employee and compatriot of the Fittipaldi brothers Emerson and Wilson.

At this time, the company was located on the Slough Trading Estate, but I hadn’t been there very long when a merger took place between Fittipaldi and the Canadian Wolf team. Their factory, bigger than the unit on the Slough estate and with manufacturing capabilities to boot, was located on the outskirts of Reading. Many big names on their way up the motor racing ladder were already working there including Harvey Postlethwaite and Peter Warr, and race team members Roy Topp, Dennis Davis and Charlie Moody.

Richard and I duly joined the newly created team, but Alastair decided against it as Peter Warr was already in place as the team manager. I was designated senior draughtsman. The carrot dangled in front of me to keep me on board was my one and only company car, a brand new Opel Ascona. This was slightly better than my ageing Cortina!

Other drawing office personnel included Gary Thomas, an enthusiastic South African, who had worked with Harvey during the Wolf days.

The first year, 1980, was entertaining. Harvey was a joy to work under and was always coming up with interesting ideas. We started the year with the F7, a mish-mash of the previous F6 and the Wolf WR7. During the year, we were joined by a young aerodynamicist fresh out of Southampton University by the name of Adrian Newey, who collaborated with Harvey and the rest of us to produce the new F8 in time for the British Grand Prix.

Rosberg and Postlethwaite were strong assets for Fittipaldi, but their capabilities were best realised elsewhere

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Sadly, the results didn’t come easily, despite the calibre of drivers. Double world champion Emerson, in what was to be his last season, was joined by an up-and-coming Keke Rosberg who had driven for Wolf in 1979.

Each scored a third place within the first four rounds, Keke's coming in the first race of the season at Long Beach, but there were many mechanical failures and Keke failed to qualify three times - including at Monaco.

For 1981 Harvey was recruited by Ferrari so Gary Thomas took over the reins. Emerson, having retired from his driving role, brought in 1979 British Formula 3 champion Chico Serra to partner Keke. We began to realise that things were not rosy with the management, as there were frequent rows to be heard between Peter Warr and Emerson, plus Wilson on his occasional visits to the factory.

We were told by the buyers that certain suppliers had put a block on the Fittipaldi account due to non-payment of outstanding invoices, and alarm bells started to ring

Warr became disillusioned with the way the Fittipaldis wanted to run the team and headed back to Lotus halfway through the year. Emerson then took over the role of team manager at the races. Newey too realised that things were not so rosy and wisely followed a few others out of the door to work for March, linking up with Bellamy.

Wilson Fittipaldi was supposed to be the person searching for sponsorship deals back in Brazil. Having lost the support of Skol, we heard great stories of deals with petroleum company Avia. Supposedly, fuel coming from the Middle East would transit through Portugal on its way to Brazil, but I don’t think this ever actually happened.

The car, painted in white with red stripes, was even stickered up with Avia logos which were removed at the last minute. Team insiders always suspected that most of the money outlined for the team ended up going to Brazil to help the Mercedes dealership that Wilson had set up.

No points were scored, and seventh for Chico in the Long Beach season opener was his best result of a thoroughly disappointing year. Between them, Chico and Keke failed to qualify 13 times.

Seventh for Serra in Long Beach was the best result of a poor 1981

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The team was downsized to just one car for Chico in 1982. Keke went off to Williams, an arrangement that worked out rather well for him by culminating in his one and only world championship.

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The F8, uprated to F8D, was no more competitive at the beginning of the year, and poor Chico was one of five drivers who failed to pre-qualify in Monaco. He did however score a point for sixth in the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder overshadowed by Gilles Villeneuve's qualifying accident. It was the team's last in F1.

We were given the green light to design the F9, which was hurriedly put together with a view to making its debut for round 10 at Brands Hatch. We were even promised bonuses of £500 if we could have it ready in time for the British Grand Prix.

I had always thought that the front suspension on the Brabham, with a pull rod linked to the bottom of the shock absorber, looked like an efficient way to go and was certainly lighter than using a steel fabricated rocker. This also made the design of the top wishbone much simpler.

However, once we had designed the housing to take the steel crescents that the rollers, attached to the damper, would run in, the weight had increased again. The rear suspension also used a pull rod but was an easier installation, attached to the four posts under the Hewland gearbox casing.

At this stage of the proceedings, we were told by the buyers that certain suppliers had put a block on the Fittipaldi account due to non-payment of outstanding invoices, and alarm bells started to ring. When it came to the gearbox - a different one was required for the F9 due to the different fixings - we were informed that Hewland were one of the companies on the blocked list.

Desperation set in, but through a couple of helpful contacts, Williams agreed to buy us the gearbox, without letting on to Hewland. How this deal was achieved I hate to think, but it saved the day for us!

Fittipaldi's last point came with F8D at Zolder in 1982

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There were a couple of really fantastic fabricators (sheet metal workers) at Fittipaldi, one of whom was Pip Coleman. He worked miracles by forming certain shapes for the car so that we didn’t need to go down the fibreglass route, thereby keeping things in house.

We managed to get the car running and took it to Snetterton for a shakedown. It just happened to be an extremely hot day and quite soon we realised that we had a cooling problem. This was mainly down to the radiator installation, which had been assembled without any proper inlet ducts.

Further work was needed by the fabricators to fashion some proper ducting for the cooling system

I remember Chico not being particularly impressed with the feeling he was getting from the car. Further work was needed by the fabricators to fashion some proper ducting for the cooling system.

Ultimately the car didn’t make it for Brands Hatch and so made its debut at Paul Ricard for the French Grand Prix. Unfortunately, he didn't make the cut, also missing out at Dijon and Caesars Palace.

The F9 couldn't change the fortunes of the doomed team that subsequently disappeared at season's end. And I never did receive the £500!

Serra had a tough 1982 campaign in the single-car team, which folded at season's end

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