The FD04 emerged as the fourth iteration of Divila's original FD concept, the designation reflecting the initials of Fittipaldi and Divila. Like its predecessors, the car used a Ford Cosworth DFV engine and was built at the team's São Paulo base before the operation later moved to Reading, UK. The FD04 featured progressive refinements to the sidepod and bodywork layout compared to the FD02 and FD03.
The context of the FD04's introduction was notable: Emerson Fittipaldi had chosen to leave McLaren — one of the sport's most competitive teams — to drive for the family project. His place at McLaren was taken by James Hunt, who went on to win the 1976 Drivers' Championship. The decision was widely seen as a patriotic sacrifice of competitive advantage.
The FD04 made its debut at the 1976 Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos, driven by Emerson Fittipaldi. He qualified fifth — the best starting position Fittipaldi Automotive would ever achieve in Formula One — but engine problems relegated him to thirteenth by the finish. Brazilian Ingo Hoffmann drove an FD03 at the same race and finished eleventh.
The season was one of mechanical attrition and modest results. Emerson managed sixth-place finishes at the United States West Grand Prix, at Monaco, and in Britain, accounting for the three points he scored across the year. He faced recurrent problems: an engine failure in South Africa, transmission failure in Spain, handling issues in Sweden, oil pressure problems in France, an accident in Austria, an electrical fault in the Netherlands, a broken exhaust in Canada, and a withdrawal from Japan after Emerson, Niki Lauda, and the Brabham drivers deemed wet conditions at Fuji too dangerous.
Hoffmann appeared as a second entry at several rounds but failed to qualify at the United States West, Spain, and France.
The FD04 was retained at the start of 1977 while the Fittipaldi F5 was completed. The Argentine Grand Prix produced the car's best result — Emerson finished fourth. At the Brazilian Grand Prix he again finished fourth, while Hoffmann took seventh. Emerson added a fifth at the United States West Grand Prix and finished fourteenth in Spain before retiring with engine failure at Monaco. The FD04 was used once more at the Swedish Grand Prix, where Emerson finished eighteenth, and was then retired from competition. The F5 took over from the French Grand Prix onwards.
The FD04 competed across the 1976 season and into early 1977. Its 11-point contribution to the FD series total included the family's best-ever finishing positions. The fourth-place results in Argentina and Brazil in 1977 remained the high-water mark of the entire FD design lineage, and were only surpassed by the ground-effect F5A's second place in the 1978 Brazilian Grand Prix.
The FD04 demonstrated that Emerson Fittipaldi remained capable of competitive qualifying performances — his fifth-place grid slot at Interlagos being evidence — but the car's reliability and outright pace were insufficient to convert that promise into race victories. The successor F5 and F5A designs would bring the team closer to the front before the ground-effect era complicated matters further.