By the time Bellamy drew the F6, ground effect had become the central technical battleground of Formula One. The Lotus 78 and 79 had demonstrated that channelling airflow beneath flat-bottomed sections of the car to generate downforce could dramatically improve cornering speeds, and every competitive constructor was attempting to replicate and extend that understanding. Fittipaldi's previous car, the F5A, had incorporated ground-effect principles effectively enough to allow Emerson Fittipaldi to finish second at the 1978 Brazilian Grand Prix and score 17 points across that season, lifting the team to seventh in the Constructors' Championship.
Bellamy's F6 used a Ford Cosworth DFV engine, the same power unit deployed across the majority of the grid. The car replaced the F5A as the team's primary weapon for 1979, though the older car was retained and would ultimately outscore it.
The F6 debuted at the 1979 South African Grand Prix, driven by Emerson Fittipaldi, who finished thirteenth. The car then missed several rounds while it was being updated into the F6A variant; in the interim the team fell back on the F5A. The revised F6A returned at the German Grand Prix, where Emerson retired with an electrical fault. At the Austrian Grand Prix he retired with brake failure. Electrical problems again ended his Dutch Grand Prix. The Italian Grand Prix brought a finsh of eighth place, and Emerson recorded eighth again in Canada; Brazilian Alex Ribeiro was entered alongside him at that race but failed to qualify. At the United States Grand Prix East, Emerson finished seventh with Ribeiro again failing to qualify.
The F6A was replaced at the season's close by the Fittipaldi F7 — essentially a reworked 1979 Wolf WR7 chassis, acquired when Fittipaldi Automotive purchased the assets of Wolf Racing at the end of the year.
The F6 and its F6A variant scored no championship points during 1979. The single point Fittipaldi Automotive recorded that season came from the retained F5A. Emerson finished the year twelfth in the Constructors' Championship, a significant regression from the seventh place achieved in 1978.
The car's failure illustrated the difficulty teams faced in properly implementing ground effect at a time when understanding of the phenomenon was still developing rapidly. Bellamy's design was unable to match the downforce levels being generated by Lotus, Williams, and Ligier that year. The 1979 season also saw Copersucar withdraw their title sponsorship, fundamentally altering the team's financial position and setting up the more dramatic changes — acquisition of Wolf Racing assets, new Skol sponsorship, Keke Rosberg as second driver — that would define the 1980 campaign.
The F6 stands as a transitional car in the Fittipaldi story: a ground-effect attempt that fell short at precisely the moment ground effect was determining race outcomes, and whose failure accelerated the team's search for external solutions that would briefly produce better results before the team's eventual decline and closure in 1983.