Emerson Fittipaldi on Jochen Rindt’s death and how he became Team Lotus’ F1 leader

Back in 1970, Brazil had never had a successful Formula 1 driver, but a 23-year-old named Emerson Fittipaldi was starting to make waves.

After winning the Formula Vee title in his country, then moving to Europe to become a race winner in Formula Ford and a champion in Formula 3, Fittipaldi was having success in Formula 2 with Lotus.

The youngster was handed his F1 debut by team boss Colin Chapman halfway through the season, driving the old-spec Lotus 49 alongside regular drivers Jochen Rindt and John Miles for three races before being upgraded to the new Lotus 72 for the 1970 Italian Grand Prix.

Fittipaldi never raced in Monza that weekend, for team-mate and championship leader Rindt suffered a fatal crash in qualifying practice.

“We had breakfast together,” the 79-year-old revealed in conversation with Autosport, answering readers’ questions. “He invited me to replace him in Formula 2. I accepted, I shook his hand, and a few hours later he got killed.”

Miles left Team Lotus following Rindt’s death, so Fittipaldi emerged as the three-time world constructors’ champion’s lead driver.

“I was very young,” he recalled. “I told Colin, when he called me, ‘I was expecting to get someone experienced to be number-one driver for Lotus after Jochen’. And he said, ‘Emerson, you will be our number-one driver’. I said, ‘Colin, I don’t have experience’. He said, ‘We are going to support you 100%’.

“And then I was always trying to perform, to deliver the results the team expects. But I felt a lot of responsibility, so young – replacing Jochen Rindt, who was a fantastic driver.

“And then I had the full support from Colin for the whole team. But I feel, when you are the leader of a team like Lotus was, I had a lot of pressure. ‘Welcome to the pressure world!’ Maximum pressure.

“And I always was able mentally to take the pressure in a positive way. And then, thanks to that, I was able to perform. And I had a fantastic team behind me.”

Fittipaldi did perform indeed, taking his maiden grand prix victory in his very next race, at Watkins Glen – ensuring Lotus clinched its fourth world title while Rindt was posthumously awarded the drivers’ crown.

Fittipaldi’s time at the Norfolk-based outfit was highly successful, with nine victories across 42 starts and a dominant 1972 campaign.

Emerson Fittipaldi, Lotus 72D Ford

Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Getty Images

The Brazilian described Colin Chapman as a “genius”, but explained how the Lotus founder was scarred by the fatal accident of the team’s emblematic racer, two-time champion Jim Clark, in 1968 – and then Rindt’s.

“People don’t realise how much he suffered from each driver he lost,” Fittipaldi said. “One day, end of ‘72, after winning the championship, we were doing commemoration with different sponsors in London; he came to me, looked to me in my eyes and said, ‘Emerson, I don’t want to get very close to you, I am afraid one day I can lose you’. And that shows how much he suffered.

“I mean, the worst for him for sure was Jimmy Clark. Jimmy was like a son to Colin. It was an incredible relationship. And Colin suffered a lot.

“People don’t realise, but it was a very, very human relationship. Like when I won the British Grand Prix in Brands Hatch, ‘72. He hugged me like [he energetically waves his arms] you are so happy, you know.

Emerson Fittipaldi

Photo by: Akhil Puthiyedath

“He was a fantastic human being. To the outside people, everybody thinks he was very cold and didn’t care about drivers. He was the opposite.”

Over half a century later, Fittipaldi feels deeply privileged to still be alive – as he said while F1 cars roared past us in Baku.

“It was a very difficult time, because I lost many, many friends, colleagues,” he said.

“I saw Jacky Ickx three years ago in Spa. He came to me, he hugged me and said, ‘Emerson, we are survivors’. I said, ‘Yes, thank God we are here’.”

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