Your own worst enemy, sitting right over there in the identical car on the other side of the garage. Team-‘mate’? You must be joking. Formula 1 is littered with examples of messy civil wars. It’s rarely pretty, and it’s often petty.
8 EMERSON FITTIPALDI vs RONNIE PETERSON Lotus, 1973
Actually, our first entry contradicts the stereotype. Emerson Fittipaldi didn’t hate Ronnie Peterson. Of course not. How could he? It’s Super Swede! Everyone loved him.
“Ronnie was my best friend in F1,” said Fittipaldi. “I had been close to him ever since we raced in Formula 2 in 1970. I stayed with him in his house in England, he stayed with me in Switzerland. We had a strong working relationship.”
Fittipaldi had been teamed with Reine Wisell and Dave Walker when, at 25, he became F1’s then-youngest champion. But Peterson joining Team Lotus for the ’73 defence changed the dynamic. They won seven races between them – four to Peterson, three to Fittipaldi. Over one lap the Swede was fastest: he took nine out of 14 pole positions! Then when it came to it, at Monza, their friendship was tested to its limits – all because of the Old Man.
Their rivalry didn’t break up the band. Colin Chapman did that all by himself.
“Colin, Ronnie and I decide we will
