Emerson Fittipaldi was born on 12 December 1946 in Brazil. He is the son motorsports journalist and commentator Wilson Fittipaldi Sr
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Emerson Wojciechowska Fittipaldi is a retired Brazilian automobile racing driver who won both the Formula One World Championship and the Indianapolis 500 twice each and the CART championship once. Fittipaldi was born on 12 December 1946 in São Paulo, Brazil. He is the younger son of prominent Italian-Brazilian motorsports journalist and radio commentator Wilson Fittipaldi Sr and his wife Józefa “Juzy” Wojciechowska, an immigrant from Saint Petersburg of Polish and Russian descent. He was named after American author and philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Both his parents had raced production cars shortly after the Second World War.
At age 14, Fittipaldi was racing motorcycles, and at 16, hydroplanes. While racing one day, his brother Wilson blew over at 70 mph (110 km/h) and landed upside down. Wilson was uninjured in the accident, but it prompted both Fittipaldi brothers to stop competing in boat racing and focus solely on racing land vehicles. In 1967, Fittipaldi won the 6 Hours of Interlagos in a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia at the age of 20. Following his Formula One career, Fittipaldi moved to the American CART series, achieving successful results, including the 1989 CART title and two wins at the Indianapolis 500 in 1989 and 1993, the final at an unprecedented 46 years old.
The Brazilian moved to racing Formula Vees, and built up a company with his parents. In his second season in single-seaters, Fittipaldi won the Brazilian Formula Vee title at age 21. He left for Europe in 1969, with the ambition to convince team owners of his talent in three months. After some podiums and his first victories in Formula Ford, Fittipaldi was first trained and then subsequently engaged by the Jim Russell Driving School Formula Three team. He won nine F3 races on the Jim Russell Lotus 59 in the MCD Lombard Championship to become the 1969 champion.
For 1970, Fittipaldi moved up to F2 by joining the Lotus semi-works Team Bardahl campaigning Lotus 59B. With six finishes in the points and four on the podium, he ended the eight-race season in third place behind Clay Regazzoni and Derek Bell. While this result was very impressive for the newcomer to the series, the spotlight was on Fittipaldi that year because of his activities in Formula One instead.
Fittipaldi made his race debut for Team Lotus as a third driver at the 1970 British Grand Prix. After Jochen Rindt was killed at the 1970 Italian Grand Prix, the Brazilian became Lotus’s lead driver in only his fifth Grand Prix. In his first full year as Lotus’s lead driver in 1971, Fittipaldi finished sixth in the Drivers’ Championship. Fittipaldi proved dominant in 1972 as he won five of 11 races and claimed the F1 Drivers’ Championship. He enjoyed considerable success with Lotus, winning the World Drivers’ Championship in 1972 at the age of 25. At the time, he was the youngest ever F1 world champion, and he held the record for 33 years.
| Races | 145 |
| Wins | 14 |
| Poles | 6 |
| Podiums | 35 |
| Points | 281 |
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According to sources, Emerson Fittipaldi net worth or net income is estimated to be between $1 Million – $5 Million dollars at the age of 76 years old. The Brazilian driver has made such an amount of wealth from his primary career as Race Car Driver.
Maria Helena Fittipaldi was the first Wife Of Motor Racing Driver Emerson Fittipaldi, they had three children. Fittipaldi was married a second time, to Teresa, in the mid-1980s. They have two children. In early December 2012 he married economist Rossana Fanucchi in São Paulo after a partnership of eleven years. They have a son, Emerson Jr., born in 2007, and daughter Vittoria, born in early 2012.
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