Early and personal life

Emerson Fittipaldi was born in São Paulo, Brazil. He is the younger son of prominent Italian-Brazilian motorsports journalist and radio commentator Wilson Fittipaldi Sr and his wife Józefa "Juzy" Wojciechowska, an immigrant from Saint Petersburg, Russia and of Polish and Russian descent. His grandfather Ivan Wojciechowski was an officer in the tsarist army. He was named after American author and philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Both his parents had raced production cars shortly after the Second World War and Wilson Sr was also responsible for the first Mil Milhas race in 1956, in São Paulo, having been inspired by the 1949 Italian Mille Miglia. Emerson became a motorsports enthusiast at an early age.

Emerson Fittipaldi is the younger brother of former Formula One driver and team owner Wilson Fittipaldi. He is the uncle of TUDOR United Sports Car Championship driver Christian Fittipaldi. He was married to Maria Helena from 1970 to 1982. They had three children together, Juliana, Jayson and Tatiana. He was married again, to Teresa, in the mid-1980s. They have one daughter, Joana, and a son, Luca. He has another son, Emerson, born in 2007, and daughter Vittoria, born early 2012, with economist Rossana Fanucchi, whom he married after a partnership of eleven years early December 2012 in São Paulo.

In his youth in Brazil, Emerson was known as 'Rato' - mouse, which contrasts with 'Tigrão' - big tiger - for his brother. By the end of his career he was most commonly known as 'Emmo' in the United States and the UK. In September 1997, Fittipaldi, while recovering from injuries in a crash at Michigan International Speedway a year earlier, was flying his private plane across his orange tree farm in São Paulo. The plane lost power and plunged 300 feet (91 m) to the ground. He suffered serious back injuries. He recovered, and became a born again Christian.

He was a friend of Beatles guitarist George Harrison and was with him shortly before Harrison died in November 2001.

Career history

When aged 14, Fittipaldi was racing motorcycles, and when aged 16, hydrofoils. While racing one day, his brother Wilson took off at 70 mph (110 km/h) and landed upside down. Afterwards, they both decided that although he had survived, they would no longer race hydrofoils and moved onto racing karts.

The pair moved to racing Formula Vees, and built up a company with their parents. In his second season in single-seaters, Fittipaldi won the Brazilian Formula Vee title at 21 years old. 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 in Formula Ford, Fittipaldi was first trained and then subsequently engaged by the Jim Russell Driving School Formula Three team. He won nine F3 races on the Jim Russell Lotus 59 in the MCD Lombard Championship to become the 1969 champion.

Formula Two

For 1970, Fittipaldi moved up to F2 by joining the Lotus semi-works Team Bardahl campaigning Lotus 59B. With six finishes in the points and four on the podium, he ended the 8 race season in the 3rd place behind Clay Regazzoni and Derek Bell. While this result was very impressive for the newcomer to the series, the spotlight of the year was drawn on Fittipaldi because of his activities in Formula One instead.

Formula One

Based on the success of Cosworth DFV and Lotus 49/49B in 1968, Team Lotus was enjoying the reputation as one of the top F1 teams with the inflow of sponsorship money, and Colin Chapman used the 3rd 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 to Alex Soler-Roig in the early 1970, and then to Fittipaldi starting with the British GP in July, with Jochen Rindt and John Miles as the regular seat holders. Fittipaldi scored a fourth place as the No.3 driver at the next German 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 at Monza 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 the United States GP with Reine Wisell and Pete 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' lead driver in 1971, Fittipaldi finished sixth in the drivers' championship as the team further developed the previous season's Lotus 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 easily won the F1 Drivers' Championship from Jackie Stewart by 16 points. At 25 he was then the youngest champion in F1 history. It appeared he might do it again in 1973. But after three wins from 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, Stewart beating Fittipaldi for the Drivers Championship by 16 points; though the combination of the 72D and E's points earnings were enough to gain Team Lotus the 1973 F1 Manufacturers Championship.

Fittipaldi left Lotus to sign with the promising McLaren team. Driving the highly efficient McLaren M23, he had three victories in 1974, reached the podium four other times, and beat out Clay 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 dominant Niki Lauda. However, at the height of his F1 success, Fittipaldi shocked everyone by leaving McLaren to race for older brother Wilson Fittipaldi's Copersucar-sponsored Fittipaldi Automotive team.

It was hardly a world-class organization and the double champion regularly struggled, failing to qualify in three races in his time there. Despite this, he remained with the team for five seasons but only managed a best finish of second. Emerson 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", although at the time he cited the deaths of many of his colleagues as his reason. 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 teammate Keke Rosberg (a future champion himself). He moved into the management of the team alongside his brother. The team struggled on for another two years with minimal sponsorship, going into receivership at the end of 1982.

CART

After leaving F1 in 1980, Fittipaldi took time out from major racing for four years, returning in 1984 in CART. The 38-year-old spent his first season acclimatising to IndyCars, driving for two teams before joining Patrick Racing as an injury replacement. He stayed five years with the team, recording six victories and solid finishes in the overall standings. In 1989 he had five wins and finished in the top five in every race he completed, giving him a CART championship. Among his wins was a dominant performance in the 1989 Indianapolis 500 where he led 158 of 200 laps and won by two laps, but only after a dramatic duel with Al Unser, Jr. in the closing laps of the race. With both drivers a commanding six laps ahead of third place Raul Boesel, 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 saluted Fittipaldi from the infield with a double thumbs-up sign as he brought his car through turns three and four on the subsequent caution-slowed final lap.

Roger Penske hired Fittipaldi for his racing 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. In 1993 he added a second Indianapolis 500 victory by taking the lead from defending Formula One World Champion Nigel Mansell on lap 185 and holding it for the remainder. The race saw him break Indianapolis victory lane tradition when he drank a celebratory bottle of orange juice instead of 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. He was widely criticized and ridiculed for the action, even though he later took a sip of milk after the television cameras were off.

Fan reaction to the milk snub was highly negative, and he was booed a week later at Milwaukee. In the years following, 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 the Chevrolet Corvette Pace Car for the 2008 Indianapolis 500. Despite coming clean, he was again booed and heckled by some fans during the Public Drivers' Meeting.

In May 1994, Fittipaldi skipped a practice session for the Indianapolis 500 after his close friend Ayrton Senna died during a Formula 1 crash. Fittipaldi was one of the pallbearers during Senna's funeral, alongside Jackie Stewart, Alain Prost and several other F1 world champions.

Approaching 50, he was still with Champ Car in 1996 when an injury at the Michigan International Speedway ended his career. Fittipaldi did not return to the series as a driver after the injury. Fittipaldi finished his Champ Car career with 22 wins. In 2003 he made a return to Champcars as a team owner.

Later career

Fittipaldi was the acting team principal for the Brazilian A1 GP entry.

In 2005 Fittipaldi made a surprise return to competitive racing in the Grand Prix Masters event held at Kyalami in South Africa, finishing second behind former CART sparring partner Nigel Mansell.

In 2008, Emerson and his brother Wilson entered the Brazilian GT3 Championship, driving a Porsche 997 GT3 for the WB Motorsports team. In 2011 he started embracing social media by opening up an official Twitter and Facebook account, as well as becoming a Chairman of Motorsport.com.

In 2013 he began writing a regular monthly blog column on the official website of McLaren.

Award

He was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2001.

Racing record

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	WDC	Pts.
1970	Gold Leaf Team Lotus	Lotus 49C	Ford V8	RSA	ESP	MON	BEL	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT									10th	12
		Lotus 72C	Ford V8										ITA	CAN	USA	MEX
1971	Gold Leaf Team Lotus	Lotus 72C	Ford V8	RSA	ESP																6th	16
		Lotus 72D	Ford V8			MON	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT		CAN	USA
	World Wide Racing	Lotus 56B	P&W gas turbine									ITA
1972	John Player Team Lotus	Lotus 72D	Ford V8	ARG	RSA	ESP	MON	BEL	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT		CAN	USA						1st	61
	World Wide Racing	Lotus 72D	Ford V8										ITA
1973	John Player Team Lotus	Lotus 72D	Ford V8	ARG	BRA	RSA															2nd	55
		Lotus 72E	Ford V8				ESP	BEL	MON	SWE	FRA	GBR	NED	GER	AUT	ITA	CAN	USA
1974	Marlboro Team Texaco	McLaren M23	Ford V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	ESP	BEL	MON	SWE	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	ITA	CAN	USA			1st	55
1975	Marlboro Team McLaren	McLaren M23	Ford V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	ESP	MON	BEL	SWE	NED	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	ITA	USA				2nd	45
1976	Copersucar-Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi FD04	Ford V8	BRA	RSA	USW	ESP	BEL	MON	SWE	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA	CAN	USA	JPN		17th	3
1977	Copersucar-Fittipaldi	Fittipaldi FD04	Ford V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	USW	ESP	MON		SWE										12th	11
		Fittipaldi F5	Ford V8							BEL		FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA	USA	CAN	JPN
1978	Fittipaldi Automotive	Fittipaldi F5A	Ford V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	USW	MON	BEL	ESP	SWE	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA	USA	CAN		10th	17
1979	Fittipaldi Automotive	Fittipaldi F5A	Ford V8	ARG	BRA		USW	ESP	BEL	MON	FRA	GBR									21st	1
		Fittipaldi F6	Ford V8			RSA
		Fittipaldi F6A	Ford V8										GER	AUT	NED	ITA	CAN	USA
1980	Skol Fittipaldi Team	Fittipaldi F7	Ford V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	USW	BEL	MON	FRA											15th	5
		Fittipaldi F8	Ford V8								GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA	CAN	USA

Formula One non-championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
1971	Gold Leaf Team Lotus	Lotus 72	Ford V8	ARG		QUE	SPR		RIN	OUL	VIC
		Lotus 56B	P&W gas turbine		ROC			INT
1972	John Player Team Lotus	Lotus 72D	Ford V8	ROC	BRA	INT	OUL	REP	VIC
1973	John Player Team Lotus	Lotus 72	Ford V8	ROC	INT
1974	Marlboro Team Texaco	McLaren M23	Ford V8	PRE	ROC	INT
1975	Marlboro Team McLaren	McLaren M23	Ford V8	ROC	INT	SUI
1978	Fittipaldi Automotive	Fittipaldi F5A	Ford V8	INT
1980	Skol Fittipaldi Team	Fittipaldi F7	Ford V8	ESP

CART

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Rank	Points
1984	WIT Racing	March 83C	Cosworth DFX V8t	LBH	PHX																15th	30
		March 84C				INDY	MIL	POR
	H&R Racing								MEA	CLE	MCH	ROA	POC
	Patrick Racing													MDO	SAN	MCH	PHX	LAG	CPL
1985	Patrick Racing	March 85C	Cosworth DFX V8t	LBH	INDY	MIL	POR	MEA	CLE	MCH	ROA	POC	MDO	SAN	MCH	LAG	PHX	MIA			6th	104
1986	Patrick Racing	March 86C	Cosworth DFX V8t	PHX	LBH	INDY	MIL	POR	MEA	CLE	TOR	MCH	POC	MDO	SAN	MCH	ROA	LAG	PHX	MIA	7th	103
1987	Patrick Racing	March 87C	Chevrolet 265A V8t	LBH	PHX	INDY	MIL	POR	MEA	CLE	TOR	MCH	POC	ROA	MDO	NAZ	LAG	MIA			10th	78
1988	Patrick Racing	March 88C	Chevrolet 265A V8t	PHX	LBH	INDY	MIL	POR													7th	105
		Lola T88/00							CLE	TOR		MCH
		Lola T87/00									MEA		POC	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LAG	MIA
1989	Patrick Racing	Penske PC-17	Chevrolet 265A V8t	PHX	LBH																1st	196
		Penske PC-18				INDY	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	MEA	TOR	MCH	POC	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LAG
1990	Team Penske	Penske PC-19	Chevrolet 265A V8t	PHX	LBH	INDY	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	MEA	TOR	MCH	DEN	VAN	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LAG		5th	144
1991	Team Penske	Penske PC-20	Chevrolet 265A V8t	SRF	LBH	PHX	INDY	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	MEA	TOR	MCH	DEN	VAN	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LAG	5th	140
1992	Team Penske	Penske PC-21	Chevrolet 265B V8t	SRF	PHX	LBH	INDY	DET	POR	MIL	NHA	TOR	MCH	CLE	ROA	VAN	MDO	NAZ	LAG		4th	151
1993	Team Penske	Penske PC-22	Chevrolet 265C V8t	SRF	PHX	LBH	INDY	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MCH	NHA	ROA	VAN	MDO	NAZ	LAG		2nd	183
1994	Team Penske	Penske PC-23	Ilmor 265D V8t	SRF	PHX	LBH		MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MCH	MDO	NHA	VAN	ROA	NAZ	LAG		2nd	178
			Mercedes-Benz 500I V8t				INDY
1995	Team Penske	Penske PC-24	Mercedes-Benz IC108B V8t	MIA	SRF	PHX	LBH	NAZ	INDY	MIL	DET	POR	ROA	TOR	CLE	MCH	MDO	NHA	VAN	LAG	11th	67
1996	Hogan Penske	Penske PC-25	Mercedes-Benz IC108C V8t	MIA	RIO	SRF	LBH	NAZ	500	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MCH	MDO	ROA	VAN	LAG		19th	29

Indy 500 results

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

Complete 24 Hours of Daytona results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1985	Ralph Sanchez Racing	Tony Garcia Mauricio DeNarvaez	March 85G-Buick	GTP	-	DNS	DNS

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

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	23rd	8

* Season still in progress

[ Source: Wikipedia ]