Fittipaldi was born in São Paulo, Brazil, the younger son of motorsport journalist and radio commentator Wilson Fittipaldi Sr. Both parents had raced production cars, and Emerson and his brother Wilson grew up steeped in motorsport. He began racing motorcycles at 14 and hydroplanes at 16. In 1967, aged 20, he won the 6 Hours of Interlagos in a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia, and the following year the 12 Hours of Porto Alegre.
After winning the Brazilian Formula Vee title at 21, Fittipaldi moved to Europe in 1969 with the goal of impressing team owners within three months. He won nine Formula Three races for the Jim Russell Lotus team to take the MCD Lombard Championship, then stepped up to Formula Two in 1970 with Team Bardahl, finishing third in the European championship behind Clay Regazzoni and Derek Bell.
Fittipaldi joined Team Lotus as a third driver at the 1970 British Grand Prix. When championship leader Jochen Rindt was killed at Monza that September, Fittipaldi — in only his fifth Grand Prix — was elevated to lead driver. He immediately delivered, winning the United States Grand Prix to give Lotus their first post-Rindt victory.
In 1972 he was dominant, winning five of eleven races and claiming the World Drivers' Championship at 25 years old — the youngest world champion in F1 history at the time, a record he held for 33 years. The following year he challenged again but Jackie Stewart ultimately prevailed.
Fittipaldi moved to McLaren for 1974, driving the highly competitive McLaren M23. Three victories and four additional podiums in a tightly fought season gave him his second Drivers' Championship, edging Clay Regazzoni. He also helped McLaren secure their first Constructors' Championship. In 1975 he added two wins and four further podiums but finished second to a dominant Niki Lauda.
At the height of his F1 success, Fittipaldi made the surprise decision to join his brother Wilson's Copersucar-sponsored Fittipaldi Automotive team. He remained for five seasons but the car was never competitive enough for victories; his best finish was second. Increasingly unhappy, managing team logistics while driving, he also saw his personal life suffer. He retired from Formula One at the end of 1980, his final years marked by seven DNFs in the last ten races and being outpaced by teammate Keke Rosberg.
After four years away from major racing, Fittipaldi returned in 1984 in the American CART series. He joined Patrick Racing in 1985, winning that year's Michigan 500 for his first CART victory. By 1989, after five wins and consistently high finishes, he took the CART title. His 1989 Indianapolis 500 victory was dramatic: he led 158 of 200 laps, was passed by Al Unser Jr. on lap 196, then repassed Unser using lapped traffic on the backstretch. The two cars touched wheels through turn three side by side; Unser hit the wall and Fittipaldi crossed the finish line first.
Roger Penske signed Fittipaldi for 1990, and he won at least one CART race per season for six consecutive years with the team. In 1993 he won his second Indianapolis 500, taking the lead from Nigel Mansell on lap 185 and holding it to the end. In a break with tradition, he drank orange juice rather than milk in victory lane — a nod to his own orange groves in Brazil — forfeiting $5,000 from the winner's purse and drawing booing from sections of the crowd that persisted for years.
Fittipaldi's career ended in 1996 when an injury at Michigan International Speedway ended his season; he did not return as a driver. He finished his CART career with 22 victories.
Fittipaldi went on to act as team principal for Brazil's A1 GP entry and made occasional competitive appearances, including the Grand Prix Masters event at Kyalami in 2005. He became chairman of Motorsport.com in 2011. Several members of his extended family followed him into racing: nephew Christian Fittipaldi won in Formula 3000 and IMSA; grandsons Pietro and Enzo Fittipaldi have both competed professionally, with Pietro making his Formula One debut at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix.
Fittipaldi is one of only a handful of drivers to have won both the Formula One World Championship and the Indianapolis 500. His 1972 title came at the youngest age in the sport's history for over three decades, and his pivot from F1 glory to rebuilding a second championship career in the United States demonstrated a competitive durability rare in elite motorsport. Inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2001 and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame in 2004, he remains one of the defining figures of 1970s Formula One and 1980s–90s American open-wheel racing.