Fittipaldi Automotive entered 1980 in a transformed state. At the end of the previous season, Brazilian sugar cooperative Copersucar had withdrawn its title sponsorship, and the team acquired the assets of the rival Wolf Racing operation, including its personnel and equipment. This allowed Fittipaldi to run two cars for the first time, rebranded as the Skol Team Fittipaldi under new sponsorship from Skol Brasil. The technical direction fell to Harvey Postlethwaite, who had joined from Wolf, and the design team included a very young Adrian Newey serving as chief aerodynamicist — both men would later design championship-winning cars for other teams.
The season began with reworked Wolf chassis designated F7s before the team introduced the new F8 later in the year. The F8 was less successful than its predecessor, struggling to recapture the competitive form shown by the reworked Wolf machinery at the start of the campaign.
The 1980 season paired double World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi with the Finnish newcomer Keke Rosberg. Rosberg had driven for Theodore Racing, ATS, and Walter Wolf Racing in previous years without scoring a single World Championship point, though he had won a non-championship race with Theodore. At Fittipaldi he finally delivered, scoring a podium in his very first race with the team at the 1980 Argentine Grand Prix while driving the reworked Wolf-based chassis. The F7s brought a third-place finish for each of the two drivers before the F8 replaced them.
Rosberg proved highly competitive alongside Emerson, passing the older Fittipaldi on track during the second race. By Rosberg's own account, friction developed between the two drivers from that point forward. Emerson, who had previously operated as the sole driver throughout Fittipaldi Automotive's existence, had reportedly preferred a Brazilian second driver and had been persuaded by Postlethwaite and Peter Warr to give the seat to the Finn. Despite the internal tensions, the team's form with the F8 was insufficient to challenge the front runners.
Emerson Fittipaldi retired from Formula One at the end of 1980, citing unhappiness over his last two seasons and the emotional toll of colleagues' deaths, including Ronnie Peterson and Patrick Depailler. He was 33 years old and had raced in Formula One for a decade. In his final year he had failed to finish seven of the last ten races and had been outpaced by his younger teammate on multiple occasions.
For 1981 the team reverted to its Fittipaldi Automotive name as Skol sponsorship ended. Young Brazilian Chico Serra replaced Emerson as driver. The team ran updated variants of the previous season's F8 chassis, and the season was dismal. Postlethwaite had departed for Ferrari, leaving the squad without its leading technical voice. The cars used tyres from multiple manufacturers — Michelin, Avon, and Pirelli — at different points, and on at least one occasion the two cars raced on different tyre brands simultaneously. Rosberg managed a fourth-place finish at the non-championship FOCA South African Grand Prix at the start of the year, but that was an isolated result; the rest of the season brought a succession of non-qualifications and retirements. No championship points were scored.
Rosberg engineered his release from his contract during that difficult season and moved to Williams for 1982, where he won the Drivers' World Championship. The team pressed a single F8 into service for Serra for much of the 1982 season, finally introducing an all-new car, the F9, at the British Grand Prix. A final point was salvaged from a sixth-place finish at the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder, though only after Niki Lauda's disqualification. Fittipaldi Automotive closed its doors early in 1983 after failing to raise funds for another season.
The F8 represents the final chapter of Emerson Fittipaldi's Formula One career and the beginning of Keke Rosberg's emergence as a serious contender. Although neither car nor season was a competitive success, the team's 1980 roster contained the seeds of future greatness: Rosberg would be World Champion within two years, Postlethwaite would go on to design for Ferrari and Tyrrell, and Newey would become the most successful designer in the sport's history. The F8 also marked the effective end of South American ambitions to field a competitive Formula One team in the constructors' championship, a project the Fittipaldi brothers had launched with considerable optimism in 1974.