FITTIPALDI ON CHAPMAN’S WONDER WEDGE
Double world champion Emerson Fittipaldi is a man inextricably linked with the Lotus 72. He took his first world championship grand prix win in a 72, on just his fourth start, scored his first title in the car in 1972, and won nine of his 14 victories in Colin Chapman’s wedge-shaped wonder.
Fifty years on from the first time he drove a 72, Fittipaldi doesn’t hold back when it comes to lavishing praise on both the car’s poise and Chapman’s ingenuity. Remember too that he won his second title in McLaren’s iconic M23.
“The Lotus 72 is the best car I ever drove in my career, an incredible machine,” says the 73-year-old. “It was the most consistent car at any track in the world. I talked to the car, and the car talked back to me. We were like friends.
“Colin was an amazing engineer. He was a
