Origins
In the 1960s the young Fittipaldi brothers, Wilson and Emerson, ran a successful business in their native Brazil building karts and tuning engines. They went on to build customer Formula Vee racing cars and various successful one-off sports cars, including a twin-engined, fibreglass-bodied Volkswagen Beetle, as well as maintaining a car and racing accessories business. They were also race-winning drivers in Brazil and in the late 1960s went to Europe, where they progressed through the junior ranks to reach Formula One, the highest international single seater racing category. The younger brother, Emerson, was the more successful; by 1970 he was driving for the Lotus team in Formula One and won his first world championship in 1972. Wilson drove for the Brabham team in Formula One in 1972 and 1973, scoring a best race finish of fifth place. In late 1973 the brothers decided to start their own Formula One team.
The 1974 season was spent setting up the new team, which was to have a strong Brazilian flavour. Wilson was able to persuade Brazilian sugar and alcohol cooperative Copersucar to sponsor the team. McLaren driver Emerson acted as a consultant to the team. The Copersucar-branded car was designed by Brazilian Richard Divila, who had worked for Fittipaldi Empreendimentos designing Formula Vee cars, and later for the European Formula Two Team Bardahl Fittipaldi, modifying their Lotus and Brabham chassis. National aerospace company Embraer was also involved, supplying materials to the fledgling team and providing wind-tunnel time. Mexican Jo Ramirez was hired as team manager. The team was initially based in Brazil, almost 6,000 miles (10,000 km) away from the United Kingdom, a bold move given the overwhelmingly British nature of Formula One technology from the 1960s onwards. The long and low Copersucar FD01, with bulbous bodywork enclosing the engine and unusual rear-mounted radiators, painted in silver with rainbow markings on the flanks, was unveiled in October 1974 at the Federal Senate in Brasilia in the presence of President Ernesto Geisel. Like Brabham's BT series of cars (Brabham and Tauranac), the car's FD designation reflected the initials of the driver and the designer (Fittipaldi and Divila).
Read more about this topic: Fittipaldi Automotive
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