The Fittipaldi brothers, Wilson and Emerson, had a long history in Brazilian motorsport before reaching Formula One. During the 1960s they built karts, tuned engines, and constructed customer Formula Vee racing cars in their native São Paulo. Both reached Formula One, though Emerson proved the more successful — he drove for Lotus and won his first world championship in 1972, then his second with McLaren in 1974. Wilson drove for Brabham in 1972 and 1973, achieving a best finish of fifth.
In late 1973 the brothers resolved to build their own team. The 1974 season was devoted to setting it up with a distinctly Brazilian identity. Wilson secured sponsorship from Copersucar, the state-linked cooperative that would give the team its initial name. Emerson advised as a consultant while still at McLaren. Designer Richard Divila, a Brazilian who had worked on Fittipaldi Formula Vee and Formula Two machinery, drew the first car. National aerospace company Embraer supplied materials and wind-tunnel time. Mexican Jo Ramírez was appointed team manager.
The long, low Copersucar FD01, with bulbous bodywork, an enclosed engine bay, and unusual rear-mounted radiators, was unveiled in October 1974 at the Federal Senate in Brasília before President Ernesto Geisel. The FD designation combined the initials of Fittipaldi and Divila, mirroring Brabham's BT naming convention.
The team made its racing debut at the 1975 Argentine Grand Prix — an omen-laden start in which Wilson crashed and caught fire on lap 13, while his brother Emerson won the race in his McLaren. Wilson soldiered through 1975 as sole driver, managing only five finishes with a best result of tenth, and failing to qualify on three occasions. After Wilson broke his hand in Austrian practice, Italian Arturo Merzario substituted at the Italian Grand Prix.
The team's most significant decision came between seasons: Emerson Fittipaldi walked away from McLaren to join the family team for 1976. It was a sacrifice of proven machinery for a patriotic project. He acknowledged at the time that winning the world title would be "virtually" impossible, but expressed confidence in medium-term development. The move was stunning in context — his McLaren replacement, James Hunt, would win the 1976 championship.
Emerson qualified the new FD04 fifth at his home race in Interlagos, the team's best grid position ever, but finished 13th. Brazilian Ingo Hoffmann joined him for four rounds. Reliability and pace were both elusive. For 1977 the team introduced the F5 mid-season, liveried in yellow — Divila had departed and the D was dropped from the designation — and Emerson managed several fourth and fifth-place finishes.
The 1978 season brought the team its best spell. The F5A adopted the ground-effect principles pioneered so successfully by Lotus that year. Emerson drove competitively throughout, his best result a second place at the Brazilian Grand Prix after a battle with Mario Andretti and Gilles Villeneuve. He scored 17 points and the team finished seventh in the Constructors' Championship, one place ahead of McLaren.
The 1979 season reversed that progress. Ralph Bellamy designed the F6, which failed to exploit ground effect successfully. The car scored no points, and while the F5A picked up one point, the team ended the year in twelfth place in the Constructors' standings.
At the end of 1979, Copersucar withdrew their sponsorship. The team bought the assets of the nearby Wolf Racing operation, becoming a two-car team for the first time and rebranding as Skol Team Fittipaldi under new sponsor Skol Brasil. Emerson and incoming Keke Rosberg drove reworked Wolf chassis designated F7, each taking a third-place finish before the less successful F8 replaced them.
The 1980 season is notable not only for those podiums but for the design staff involved. Harvey Postlethwaite, acquired from Wolf, headed the design team, and a very young Adrian Newey served as chief aerodynamicist — both would later create championship-winning cars at other teams.
Emerson retired from driving at the end of 1980, citing the personal toll of managing the team alongside racing. He was 33 and had competed for a decade in Formula One. Brazilian Chico Serra replaced him for 1981 as the team, reverting to the Fittipaldi Automotive name after losing Skol backing, entered a sharp decline. Postlethwaite left for Ferrari early in the year and the car was largely an update of the F8. Rosberg joined Williams for 1982 and won the Drivers' Championship that season.
The team's final point came at the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder, where Serra finished sixth — and only after Niki Lauda was disqualified. A new car, the F9, appeared at the British Grand Prix but brought no improvement. Unable to raise funds for 1983, the team closed its doors early that year.
Fittipaldi Automotive represented an ambitious attempt to establish a genuinely Brazilian Formula One operation at a time when the sport was overwhelmingly centred in the United Kingdom. The experiment of basing the team in São Paulo was ahead of its infrastructure and ultimately unsustainable, but the team's relocation to Reading and its subsequent development demonstrated real ambition. Emerson Fittipaldi went on to win the CART championship in 1989 and the Indianapolis 500 in both 1989 and 1993. Keke Rosberg, who found the Fittipaldi car a proving ground rather than a competitive platform, won the 1982 Formula One Drivers' Championship with Williams. Adrian Newey's brief early tenure as aerodynamicist foreshadowed one of motorsport's most celebrated design careers.