Two-time Formula 1 champion Emerson Fittipaldi has opened up about the reasons behind his retirement from the sport in 1980, citing the loss of what he calls the “art of driving.”
Fittipaldi, who won the F1 title in 1972 and 1974, founded his own team, Copersucar-Fittipaldi, in 1975 and raced for the squad from 1976 to 1980. In a recent interview on the F1: Beyond the Grid podcast, he explained what made the 1978 season the Brazilian team’s best and why he eventually decided to leave Formula 1.
“Actually, it was a modified car we had, the ground-effect car,” Fittipaldi began. “It was developed by Giacomo Caliri, a former Ferrari engineer. He designed the car’s aerodynamics. He helped a lot.”
The Brazilian legend also highlighted his performance during the 1978 Brazilian Grand Prix, where he finished second.
“And once again, in Brazil it was fantastic. The Brazilian Grand Prix at the start of the season—I finished second behind Carlos Reutemann, but ahead of Gilles Villeneuve and Mario Andretti in the Lotus, which ended up winning the championship.”
“We had a very competitive car. In most races, the car was good. The F5A was a very good car; it was truly the best year for the Fittipaldi team. At the end of the year, we finished ahead of McLaren in points, ahead of Renault and Williams.”
Fittipaldi stated that he still enjoys racing to this day, but one factor drained his motivation to continue in F1 and led to his retirement: ground-effect cars.
“I always want to get the most out of the car, the track, and myself, because I still really enjoy racing,” he continued. “I started to lose motivation for F1 in 1980.”
“One of the reasons I retired is that with full ground-effect cars, it’s hard to explain, but you’d reach the end of the straight at Silverstone and still have five kilometers to the corner, multiplied by so many times the downforce, that it was difficult to feel the car’s limit.”
“And that was taking away the art of driving for me. It was just a matter of having a lot of courage,” he concluded.
