Fittipaldi Automotive

Copersucar-Fittipaldi FD04: Emerson qualified 5th on his debut for the family team in 1976. This was the last Fittipaldi to be built in Brazil.

The team, initially known as Copersucar-Fittipaldi, did not have great success in its first racing season in 1975. Wilson crashed in chassis FD01 on lap 13 of their first race, the Argentine Grand Prix, which his brother went on to win in his McLaren.[9] Chassis numbers FD02 and FD03, used for the rest of the year, were the same design as the original car but abandoned most of the original bodywork.[10] Wilson was the sole driver and managed only five finishes, the highest of which was a 10th and last place at the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, and failed to qualify on three occasions. Italian Arturo Merzario did no better when he took over the chassis for his home Grand Prix after Wilson broke two bones in his hand in a practice crash at the Austrian Grand Prix.[11] Despite the lack of success, the tiny team achieved a coup for the following year: Emerson Fittipaldi joined the team from McLaren, with whom he had taken his second Driver's Championship in 1974. His brother stepped down from driving to look after the management of the team.

Emerson commented: "I am aware that I will virtually have no chance of winning the world title next season....It will be a very difficult beginning, but I am very enthusiastic and I am certain that with everybody's effort we will have the first positive results in the second half of next year. I think that in the medium term of one or two years Brazil will have one of the best Formula One teams in the world."[12]

Emerson was the team's main driver in 1976 although Brazilian Ingo Hoffmann joined him for four races. Fittipaldi qualified the new FD04 fifth for his debut, at Interlagos. In the race he could only finish 13th – a result which was more representative of the rest of the season during which he scored only three points. The qualifying result remained the best the team would ever achieve. The experiment of basing the team in Brazil did not last – it was too far from their engine and gearbox suppliers and did not have the large community of expert component manufacturers available in the UK. Although the first FD04 was built there, future cars would be built at the team's established base in Reading, UK, in what would become known as 'motorsport valley'.

The team continued with the same setup for 1977. Fittipaldi was able to score several 4th and 5th places during the year. Hoffman only appeared twice at the beginning of the year, finishing 7th at the Brazilian Grand Prix. The new F5, liveried in yellow rather than silver, (Divila having left the role of technical director, the 'D' was dropped from the designation) was introduced mid-season.

Fittipaldi F5A: The aerodynamics modified version of the F5 was designed by Giacomo Caliri.

While it was not a great success in 1977, in 1978 the F5A, modified to implement the principles of ground effect demonstrated to excellent effect by Lotus, allowed the former World Champion to score several good results. The best of these was a competitive second place, after fighting with Mario Andretti and Gilles Villeneuve,[13] at the team's perennial happy hunting ground in Brazil. Fittipaldi finished the year with 17 points and the team, now known as Fittipaldi Automotive,[14] came 7th in the Constructor's table – one place ahead of Emerson's old team McLaren.

The 1979 season saw the promise of the previous year fade away. Implementing ground effect successfully was becoming crucial to success on the track but understanding of the phenomenon was in its infancy and Ralph Bellamy's F6 was a failure on the track.[15] Fittipaldi was again the team's only driver, although Alex Ribeiro was run in the non-championship race which inaugurated the Imola circuit that year,[16] before attempting and failing to qualify a car for the end of season North American championship races.

At the end of 1979 Copersucar decided to end their sponsorship.[17] The team bought the remains of close neighbour Wolf Racing, becoming a two car operation for the first time. The team was renamed Skol Team Fittipaldi for the 1980 season to reflect new sponsorship from Skol Brasil (now an AmBev brand). Emerson and Wolf Racing driver Keke Rosberg raced the first part of the season with reworked Wolf chassis from the previous year. The cars, designated F7s, brought a third place for each of the drivers before being replaced by the less successful F8. The design team that year was headed by Harvey Postlethwaite, another asset gained from Wolf, and also included very young chief aerodynamicist Adrian Newey[18][19] – both were later designers of championship winning cars for other teams.

Fittipaldi F8: The car was designed by Harvey Postlethwaite and Adrian Newey.

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 colleagues' deaths as his reason.[20] 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 team-mate. He moved into the management of the team[21] and young Brazilian Chico Serra replaced him for 1981. The team, which reverted to the name of Fittipaldi Automotive as Skol sponsorship was lost again, entered a sharp decline from 1981 onwards. Postlethwaite left for Ferrari early in the year and the team once again raced updated variants of the previous season's chassis, using tyres from Michelin, Avon and Pirelli – including one race in which the two cars were on different brands.[22] Rosberg did manage to finish a fourth at the non-championship FOCA South African Grand Prix at the start of the year, albeit one lap down on the leaders[23] (see FISA–FOCA war), but after that the drivers recorded a succession of DNQs and retirements. When they did finish they were normally at the back of the field and scored no points that year.

The Finn moved to Williams for 1982, where he would win the Drivers Championship. The team continued with a single F8 for Serra – often using a chassis that had raced through most of the 1981 season[24] – and scored a final point from a sixth-place finish at the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder, although only after Niki Lauda had been disqualified. A final new car, the F9, was penned by the returning Divila and Tim Wright and introduced at the British Grand Prix that year, but failed to improve matters. The Fittipaldi brothers attempted to raise funds to continue in 1983, but the team closed its doors early in 1983.[25]