Emerson Fittipaldi is a Brazilian former automobile racing driver who won both the Formula One World Championship and the Indianapolis 500 twice each and the CART championship once.
46 Facts About Emerson Fittipaldi
2.
Emerson Fittipaldi enjoyed considerable success with Lotus, winning the World Drivers' Championship in 1972 at the age of 25.
3.
Emerson Fittipaldi later moved to McLaren for 1974, winning the title .
4.
Emerson Fittipaldi took two more podium finishes, before retiring in 1980.
5.
Emerson Fittipaldi is the younger son of prominent Italian-Brazilian motorsports journalist and radio commentator Wilson Fittipaldi Sr and his wife Jozefa "Juzy" Wojciechowska, an immigrant from Saint Petersburg of Polish and Russian descent.
6.
Emerson Fittipaldi was named after American author and philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson.
7.
At age 14, Emerson Fittipaldi was racing motorcycles, and at 16, hydroplanes.
8.
In 1967, Emerson Fittipaldi won the 6 Hours of Interlagos in a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia at the age of 20, and a year later the 12 Hours of Porto Alegre.
9.
Emerson Fittipaldi left for Europe in 1969, with the ambition to convince team owners of his talent in three months.
10.
Emerson Fittipaldi won nine F3 races on the Jim Russell Lotus 59 in the MCD Lombard Championship to become the 1969 champion.
11.
For 1970, Emerson Fittipaldi moved up to F2 by joining the Lotus semi-works Team Bardahl campaigning Lotus 59B.
12.
The third seat was given to Alex Soler-Roig in early 1970, and then to Emerson Fittipaldi starting with the British GP in July, with Jochen Rindt and John Miles as the regular seat holders.
13.
Emerson 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.
14.
John Miles left the team, and Emerson 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.
15.
Emerson Fittipaldi proved up to the task and won this first post-Rindt race for Lotus.
16.
Armed with what was arguably the greatest Formula one design of all time, the Lotus 72D, Emerson Fittipaldi proved dominant in 1972 as he won five of 11 races and claimed the F1 Drivers' Championship.
17.
Emerson Fittipaldi left Lotus to sign with the promising McLaren team.
18.
Emerson Fittipaldi remained with the team for five seasons but only managed a best finish of second.
19.
Emerson Fittipaldi decided to retire from racing at the end of 1980.
20.
Emerson Fittipaldi 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.
21.
Emerson Fittipaldi was only 33, but had been racing in Formula One for a decade.
22.
Emerson Fittipaldi had failed to finish seven of the last ten races that year and had several times been outpaced by his Finnish teammate Keke Rosberg.
23.
Emerson Fittipaldi moved into the management of the team alongside his brother.
24.
Emerson Fittipaldi driving the Lotus 72 at the Nurburgring in 1971.
25.
Emerson Fittipaldi driving for his brother's eponymous team at the 1976 Brazilian Grand Prix at his home circuit, Interlagos.
26.
In 1984, the 37-year-old Emerson Fittipaldi made his debut in the American CART series.
27.
Emerson Fittipaldi spent his first season acclimatising to IndyCars, driving for two teams before joining Patrick Racing as a replacement for the injured Chip Ganassi.
28.
Emerson Fittipaldi stayed five years with the team, recording six victories and solid finishes in the overall standings.
29.
In 1989 Emerson Fittipaldi had five wins, finished in the top five in every race he completed, and was the CART champion.
30.
Three laps later, Emerson Fittipaldi used lapped traffic to his advantage to pull alongside Unser on the backstretch.
31.
Unser's car spun out of control to hit the outside wall, while Emerson Fittipaldi was able to maintain sufficient control to keep his car moving straight.
32.
Emerson Fittipaldi was only the second driver to not drink milk at Indianapolis since the tradition was founded in 1936.
33.
Emerson Fittipaldi owned several orange groves in his native Brazil, and wanted to promote the citrus industry.
34.
Fan reaction was negative to the break in tradition despite the fact that Emerson Fittipaldi did drink milk shortly after.
35.
In interviews since, Emerson Fittipaldi explained his action, and apologised for the wave of negativity that followed.
36.
Emerson Fittipaldi returned to Indianapolis to drive the Chevrolet Corvette Pace Car for the 2008 Indianapolis 500.
37.
In May 1994, Emerson Fittipaldi skipped a practice session for the Indianapolis 500 after his close friend Ayrton Senna, a native of Brazil and a former Formula One champion, died in a crash.
38.
Emerson Fittipaldi was one of the pallbearers during Senna's funeral, alongside Jackie Stewart, Alain Prost and several other F1 world champions.
39.
Emerson Fittipaldi nearly won his third 500 but clipped the turn 4 wall with 15 laps to go while he was holding a nearly full lap lead over teammate Unser Jr.
40.
Emerson Fittipaldi did not return to the series as a driver after the injury.
41.
Emerson Fittipaldi was the acting team principal for the Brazilian A1 GP entry.
42.
In 2005 Emerson Fittipaldi made a surprise return to competitive racing in the Grand Prix Masters event held at Kyalami in South Africa, finishing second behind fellow F1 driver Nigel Mansell.
43.
Emerson Fittipaldi is the younger brother of former Formula One driver and team owner Wilson Emerson Fittipaldi.
44.
Emerson Fittipaldi is the uncle of TUDOR United Sports Car Championship driver Christian Fittipaldi.
45.
Emerson Fittipaldi was married a second time, to Teresa, in the mid-1980s.
46.
Emerson Fittipaldi was a friend of Beatles guitarist George Harrison and was with him shortly before Harrison died in November 2001.