Video: Emerson Fittipaldi returns to Lotus at head of Type 72 anniversary parade

F1
- Last updated: May 18th 2023

Emerson Fittipaldi was back behind the wheel of his beloved Lotus 72 at Hethel in a 50th anniversary celebration event

Author

Dominic Tobin

Watch Emerson Fittipaldi reunited with his double championship-winning Lotus 72, half a century after winning the title.

The 1972 champion returned to Lotus’s Hethel HQ in October, along with every remaining example of the legendary car, for what he described as “a very special party”.

Guests, including former Team Lotus members, watched seven of the eight cars running on the test track where they were developed. The celebratory parade was headed by Fittipaldi who was back in Chassis 72/5 that he drove to his maiden F1 victory at Watkins Glen, and which was still in action during his championship season two years later.

Fittipaldi also launched a special edition of the Lotus Evija hypercar, featuring black and gold JPS livery, a rotary dial made from Type 72 aluminium and Fittipaldi’s signature on the dashboard. All eight examples, costing more than £2m, have been sold.

Emerson Fittipaldi at the 1972 French Grand Prix at Clermont Ferrand

Fittipaldi at Clermont Ferrand in 1972 (Chassis 72/7)

Emerson Fittipaldi in Type 72 at Lotus test track in 2022

Fittipaldi at Hethel in 2022 (Chassis 72/5)

The video captures scenes from the day, recollections from Fittipaldi, and an earlier visit from 2009 world champion Jenson Button who drove both the special edition Evija and Fittipaldi’s Lotus 72. “It was a nice feeling stepping back in time but it’s also a little bit scary,” says Button.

Fittipaldi named the Colin Chapman and Maurice Philippe-designed Type 72 as the best racing car he had ever driven in our October 2022 issue, where we profiled all of the remaining examples, and he repeated that view after getting back into the cockpit.

“In different track conditions, it was always consistent,” he said. “It was well advanced for the time in shape, water radiators and inboard brakes. Colin [Chapman] was a fantastic guy; it was a fantastic car. In my career I drove many different cars and it was the best car to me.”

 

From the archive

In the video, Fittipaldi describes being at the very same Hethel test track when Jochen Rindt first drove the Type 72 chassis No 1.

Rindt went on to record four consecutive wins in the car during a 1970 season that he never finished; his championship awarded posthumously.

Fittipaldi won at Watkins Glen after replacing the late Rindt. The following year, Firestone introduced slick tyres and the extra grip unsettled the car, which was designed with flexible suspension. “We worked the whole year in 1971 to get better, rigid suspension,” said Fittipaldi. “By the end of the year at Brands Hatch, the Rothmans 50,000 race, the car really worked and then we knew we have a very competitive car for 72.

“After [those] two years I talk to the car and the car talks to me. “Before I sat in it, I knew how I was going to drive. We understand each other.”

Fittipaldi and the rejuvenated Type 72 prevented Jackie Stewart from retaining his championship, and delivered a double drivers’ and constructors’ championship for Lotus in 1972.

Emerson Fittipaldi with surviving Lotus 72s and Lotus Evija

Fittipaldi with all surviving Lotus 72s and the modern Evija special edition

Lotus

Its success, innovative design and six-year spell of racing in the top flight has led many to name it the greatest Formula 1 car of all time.

Joining chassis 72/5 on track was:

• 72/7, carrying the number 5, which won five world championship races in the hands of Fittipaldi.
• Chassis 72/8 was built for Ronnie Peterson in 1973, and won three grands prix.
• Jacky Ickx’s 72E/5 in which he won the 1974 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch in the wet.
• Chassis 72/4, painted in Gold Leaf colours, which was built as a customer car for Rob Walker Racing and Graham Hill, but initially proved unreliable.
• Another Ronnie Peterson car: Chassis 72/6. Initially driven by Renei Wisell and Dave Walker, Peterson used it to win four grands prix.

From the archive

Also at the track, but not running in the pictures, was the orange Team Gunston chassis 72/3, initially campaigned by Team Lotus, then taken by Dave Charlton to race in South Africa.

Fittipaldi described the arrival of the Type 72 as revelatory after making his Lotus debut in the Type 49, earlier in 1970.

“The Lotus 49 was easy to drive because it had been since Jim Clark’s time, and was well developed,” he said. “The car was very soft compared to the Lotus 72 and was more progressive: I could slide more the car, I could make a mistake in the braking.

“Then when I moved to the 72 was much more precise, much more agile. And it would change direction much faster. Everything seemed to be more slow motion in the Lotus 49.”

Fittipaldi said that on the rare occasion where the car wasn’t competitive, Chapman knew what to do.

“When the car wasn’t very good, there was Colin. He had a perception, an intuition. He said, ‘Emerson, tonight we will have dinner together’, and then I described every corner — every part of the corner. Colin put his two fingers [to his head], ‘I know what to do’. Next day [we were] much faster.

“Today we have all the analytics but Colin was a human analytic. It was incredible.”

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