Precisely during the last day of Formula 1 pre-season testing which was held yesterday in Sakhir, Bahrain, the world champion Circus received some bad news. Wilson Fittipaldi, former Formula 1 driver and team owner, has died at the age of 80.
The older brother of two-time world champion Emerson and father of F1 and IndyCar driver Christian had been ill for some time.
He had been hospitalized since Christmas Day, which was also his birthday, after nearly choking on a piece of meat. The family members were unable to clear the airway, causing cardiac arrest.
Born in Sao Paulo, he drove a wide variety of cars in his youth, encouraged by his father and key Brazilian racing figure Wilson Fittipaldi Sr.
In 1966 he had a brief initial spell in Europe in F3, but it was younger brother Emerson who made a real impact when he went to the UK in 1969, arriving in F1 with Team Lotus the following year.
Wilson moved to Europe full time in 1970, taking advantage of Emerson's success. That year he raced in F3 against the likes of Niki Lauda and James Hunt, winning a British championship race and a couple of non-championship events.
In early 1971, he made his F1 debut in a Team Lotus car alongside Emerson in the non-championship Argentine GP.
That year he also moved to F2 with a Team Bardahl Lotus. He scored points on six occasions, notably third place at Hockenheim, and finished sixth in the championship in a group that included drivers of the caliber of Ronnie Peterson and Carlos Reutemann.
Wilson Fittipaldi, Brabham BT37 Ford
Photo by: David Phipps
This pushed him to join Bernie Ecclestone's Brabham F1 team in 1972, as a teammate of Graham Hill. He third in the non-championship race at Interlagos, then seventh place in Spain and Germany, but it was a generally disappointing year.
He remained with Brabham in 1973, having an excellent race in Monaco before retiring and scoring what would be the only points of his career with a sixth place in Argentina and fifth at the Nurburgring. He also continued to compete in F2 in 1972-73.
His only appearance in 1974 was for Brabham in a non-championship race in Brasilia, before leaving F1 to put together his own team in Brazil.
Copersucar, named after the sugar company that sponsors the team, arrived on the grid in 1975, but the first car was not competitive and its best result was 10th place in the US GP.
Wilson Fittipaldi, Copersucar-Fittipaldi FD3
Photo by: David Phipps
Despite the team's lack of competitiveness, Wilson convinced Emerson to leave McLaren and join him in 1976, while he himself retired from driving to manage the team.
Several years of difficulty followed, but Emerson's second place at his home race in 1978 was an early moment of glory. The merger with Wolf for 1980 saw future world champion Keke Rosberg join the team as second driver, while he gave graduate Adrian Newey a first F1 job that year. Emerson retired at the end of the 1980 season, and the team folded two years later.
The elder Fittipaldi returned to the track in 1982 and participated in local stock car races, while also dedicating himself to managing the career of his son Christian, who he drove in F1 from 1992 to 1994 before dedicating himself to the United States.
Father and son also enjoyed great moments together, triumphing in the very traditional Milhas Brasileiras in 1994, an event created by Wilson Fittipaldi Sr. In 2008 he shared a Porsche with Emerson in Brazilian GT events.
In 2020 Fittipaldi fell at his home and, due to the resulting partial loss of neurological functions, he was taken to hospital, where he was diagnosed with a cerebral hemorrhage. He underwent surgery to correct it and was discharged a few days later.
Despite his poor health, he has remained active on social media and at motorsport events, and was present in the paddock at last year's Sao Paulo F1 GP.
Bernie Ecclestone and Wilson Fittipaldi
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
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