Wilson
Fittipaldi

Wilson Fittipaldi Júnior was born in São Paulo on 25 December 1943. His father was a motorsport journalist and radio commentator, and his younger brother Emerson went on to win two Formula One world championships. In the 1960s he raced karts that he and Emerson had built themselves, then moved on to Formula Vee. In 1970 he contested British Formula Three and won a round of the BARC Championship at Silverstone. In 1971 he entered the European Formula Two Championship alongside his brother for Team Bardahl-Fittipaldi, taking a podium at Hockenheim.

He joined Brabham in 1972 and took a podium in the Brazilian Grand Prix, a non-championship event. In the World Championship he started 25 races for Brabham across 1972 and 1973. In 1973 he scored all three of his championship points, with sixth place in Buenos Aires and fifth at the Nürburgring, and finished 16th in the standings. His best qualifying results were ninth at Monaco and tenth at Mosport. Emerson also scored in both races where Wilson did, in Argentina and Germany, and the two became the first brothers to start the same Grand Prix and to score points in the same race.

At the start of 1974 Wilson took a break from driving to set up a Brazilian Formula One team. In 1975 he was its only driver. He was entered for 13 races, failed to qualify several times and started ten. His best result that season was tenth at Watkins Glen. From 1976 he left the driving to others and ran the team, which Emerson joined from McLaren. The team lasted until 1982. In total Wilson started 35 World Championship Formula One races.

He later raced in the Brazilian Stock Car championship, winning several rounds. In 1994 and 1995 he won the Mil Milhas for Porsche, a race founded by his father, sharing the car with his son Christian in 1994. Christian made his Formula One debut in 1992 and scored his first point at the Japanese Grand Prix, which made them the first parent and child to score points in Formula One. In 2000 Wilson was a guest driver in the FIA European Truck Racing Cup round at the Nürburgring, and in 2008 he entered the Brazilian GT3 Championship with Emerson. He died in São Paulo on 23 February 2024.

Source: Wikipedia, “Wilson Fittipaldi Júnior”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.