Wilson Fittipaldi Júnior


Wilson Fittipaldi Júnior is a Brazilian former racing driver and Formula One team owner. He participated in 38 World Championship Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on May 1, 1972, scoring a total of three championship points. He ran the Fittipaldi Formula One team between 1974 and 1982. He also participated in numerous non-Championship Formula One races.

Family

Born on Christmas day 1943, Wilson Fittipaldi Jr is the elder son of prominent motorsports journalist and radio commentator Wilson Sr and his wife Juzy, who had both raced production cars shortly after the Second World War. 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. Wilson Jr is often referred to as 'Wilsinho' or 'Tigrão'. He unsurprisingly became a keen motorsports enthusiast from an early age.
Wilson Fittipaldi is the older brother of CART champion and double Formula One world champion Emerson Fittipaldi. Like Jimmy Stewart and Ian Scheckter he remained in the shadow of his younger and more illustrious sibling in top level motorsport. He married Suzy. He is the father of former CART, Formula One and NASCAR driver Christian Fittipaldi and has a daughter, Roberta.

Racing career

Wilson Fittipaldi started racing the karts that he and his brother built in Brazil in the 1960s, before moving on to Formula Vee.
He made a brief trip to Europe in 1966 to race in Formula Three, but the opportunity fell through due to conflicts with the team he drove for in Brazil. He did not return to England until 1970, following his brother's success in Formula Two. That year he raced a Jim Russell Driving School entered Lotus 59 in British Formula Three, beating Carlos Pace and works Lotus driver Dave Walker, among others, to a victory at a BARC Championship round at Silverstone. At various times during the year he was also competing with future Formula One champions Niki Lauda and James Hunt. Combined with some other good results, particularly in the latter part of the year, including wins in two non-championship rounds, this enabled him to move up to the European Formula Two championship for 1971.
Here he scored several more good results racing alongside his brother for Team Bardahl-Fittipaldi in Lotus and March chassis including a podium in Hockenheim and 4th places at Rouen and Mantorp Park. These results were sufficient to gain him a deal with the Brabham Formula One team for the 1972 season as a pay driver.
His Formula One career started with a podium at the 1972 Brazilian Grand Prix - however, this was a non-championship race and he would not be able to repeat the performance in the world championship. He was a moderately competitive midfield runner for Brabham in 1972 and 1973. He scored no points in the 1972 championship. In 1973 he scored his only Formula One World Championship points with a fifth and a sixth place. His best qualifying results were 9th in Monaco and 10th at Mosport in 1973.
Wilson took a break from driving in 1974 to set up a Brazilian Formula One team. The team, initially known as Copersucar-Fittipaldi, did not have great success in their first racing season in 1975. Wilson was the sole driver and managed only six finishes, the highest of which was a 10th, and last, place at the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, and failed to qualify several times. Wilson stepped down from driving to look after the management of the team in 1976 when his brother, Emerson, joined the team from McLaren. His career total of three points, scored in 1972 and 1973 with Brabham, made him the most successful sibling of a Formula One World Champion until the arrival of Ralf Schumacher in 1997.
Wilson has occasionally returned to competitive driving. In the 1980s and early 1990s he drove in the Brazilian Stock Car championship, winning several rounds. In 1994 and 1995 he was victorious for Porsche in the classic Mil Milhas race founded by his father, on the former occasion sharing the car with his son Christian. In February 1998 he announced his return to competitive driving in the Brazilian Stock Car championship. In 2000 he was a guest driver for Mercedes-Benz at the Nürburgring round of the FIA European Truck Racing Cup, finishing 8th and 11th. In 2008, Wilson and Emerson entered the Brazilian GT3 Championship, driving a Porsche 997 GT3 for the WB Motorsports team.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

YearEntrantChassisEngine123456789101112131415WDCPts.
Motor Racing DevelopmentsBrabham BT33Ford Cosworth DFV V8ARGRSAESP
7		MON
9		NC0
Motor Racing DevelopmentsBrabham BT34Ford Cosworth DFV V8BEL
Ret		FRA
8		GBR
12		GER
7		AUT
Ret		ITA
Ret		CAN
Ret		USA
Ret		NC0
Motor Racing DevelopmentsBrabham BT37Ford Cosworth DFV V8ARG
6		BRA
Ret		RSA
Ret		15th3
Motor Racing DevelopmentsBrabham BT42Ford Cosworth DFV V8ESP
10		BEL
Ret		MON
11		SWE
Ret		FRA
16		GBR
Ret		NED
Ret		GER
5		AUT
Ret		ITA
Ret		CAN
11		USA
NC		15th3
CopersucarFittipaldi FD01Ford Cosworth DFV V8ARG
Ret		NC0
CopersucarFittipaldi FD02Ford Cosworth DFV V8BRA
13		RSA
DNQ		ESP
Ret		MON
DNQ		BEL
12		SWE
17		NC0
CopersucarFittipaldi FD03Ford Cosworth DFV V8NED
11		FRA
Ret		GBR
19		GER
Ret		AUT
DNS		ITAUSA
10		NC0

Complete Non-Championship Formula One results

YearEntrantChassisEngine12345678
1971Gold Leaf Team LotusLotus 49CFord Cosworth DFV V8ARG
Ret		ROCQUESPRINTRINOULVIC
1972Motor Racing DevelopmentsBrabham BT33Ford Cosworth DFV V8ROCBRA
3		INTOULREPVIC
1974Motor Racing DevelopmentsBrabham BT44Ford Cosworth DFV V8PRE
5		ROCINT
1975CopersucarFittipaldi FD02Ford Cosworth DFV V8ROCINT
Ret		SUI

Formula One records

; As Fittipaldi brothers
Before the Fittipaldis, three pairs of brothers had raced in Formula One: Jimmy and Jackie Stewart, Pedro and Ricardo Rodríguez, and Ernesto and Vittorio Brambilla. However, none of the siblings had competed in the same race. The Fittipaldi brothers were the first to compete in the same race, and also the first to score points in the same race: Wilson Fittipaldi only scored points in two Formula One races,, but on both occasions his younger brother, Emerson, also scored points.
Since the Fittipaldis, another six sets of brothers have competed in Formula One. Ian and Jody Scheckter, Gilles and Jacques Villeneuve Sr., Manfred and Joachim Winkelhock, Teo and Corrado Fabi, and Gary and David Brabham all failed to score points in the same race. Michael and Ralf Schumacher were the next to do so at the 1997 French Grand Prix.
; As the father of a Formula One driver
Fittipaldi's son, Christian, made his debut in Formula One in and took his first point at the 1992 Japanese Grand Prix, making Wilson and Christian Fittipaldi the first parent and child to both score points in Formula One. They have since been followed by Graham and Damon Hill, Mario and Michael Andretti, Gilles and Jacques Villeneuve, Keke and Nico Rosberg, Satoru and Kazuki Nakajima, Nelson Piquet and Nelson Piquet Jr, Jan and Kevin Magnussen, Jos and Max Verstappen and Jonathan and Jolyon Palmer.

Career in management and business

Although their father was reluctant to fund racing careers for them, the Fittipaldi brothers were able to finance their early racing careers by setting up a successful custom car accessory business while still in their teens, and then businesses building karts and Formula Vee cars. There was also a Fittipaldi-Porsche project - a one-off sports car chassis with Porsche mechanicals that the brothers built and raced in 1968.
Towards the end of 1973 Wilson had persuaded Brazilian sugar and alcohol conglomerate Copersucar to sponsor his Formula One team, and from 1976 he had retired from driving and to concentrate on the management of the team, which ran with occasional flashes of success in Formula One from 1975 until it shut down in 1982.
Since then he has involved himself with the family's business interests, including a Mercedes-Benz dealership. He has also carried out some TV work, and been involved in the racing career of his son, Christian, managing him from 1996. In 2004 he became technical director of the WB motorsport team in Brazilian V8 stock cars. This led to the younger Fittipaldi testing one of the cars in 2004 before taking part in the championship in 2005 with a different team.