Fittipaldi Automotive, sometimes called Copersucar after its first major sponsor, was a Formula One racing team and constructor that competed from 1975 to 1982.

The team was formed during 1974 by racing driver Wilson Fittipaldi and his younger brother, double world champion Emerson, with money from the Brazilian sugar and alcohol cooperative Copersucar.

In the 1960s the young Fittipaldi brothers, Wilson and Emerson, ran a successful business in their native Brazil building karts and tuning engines.

[3] They were also race-winning drivers in Brazil and in the late 1960s went to Europe, where they progressed through the junior ranks to reach Formula One, the highest international single seater racing category.

[6][7] National aerospace company Embraer was also involved, supplying materials to the fledgling team and providing wind-tunnel time.

[8] The team was initially based in Brazil, almost 6,000 miles (10,000 km) away from the United Kingdom, a bold move given the overwhelmingly British nature of Formula One technology from the 1960s onwards.

The long and low Copersucar FD01, with bulbous bodywork enclosing the engine and unusual rear-mounted radiators, painted in silver with rainbow markings on the flanks, was unveiled in October 1974 at the Federal Senate in Brasília in the presence of President Ernesto Geisel.

Emerson commented: "I am aware that I will virtually have no chance of winning the world title next season....It will be a very difficult beginning, but I am very enthusiastic and I am certain that with everybody's effort we will have the first positive results in the second half of next year.

The experiment of basing the team in Brazil did not last – it was too far from their engine and gearbox suppliers and did not have the large community of expert component manufacturers available in the UK.

The new F5, liveried in yellow rather than silver, (Divila having left the role of technical director, the 'D' was dropped from the designation) was introduced mid-season.

The best of these was a competitive second place, after fighting with Mario Andretti and Gilles Villeneuve,[13] at the team's perennial happy hunting ground in Brazil.

He has since said that his last two years in Formula One were very unhappy: "I was too involved in the problems of trying to make the team work, and I neglected my marriage and my personal life", although at the time he cited colleagues' deaths as his reason.

A final new car, the F9, was penned by the returning Divila and Tim Wright and introduced at the British Grand Prix that year, but failed to improve matters.

[citation needed] Edwards and team-mate Bernard de Dryver scored other good results in the series, including a string of podium finishes.

[26] Valentino Musetti, a British stuntman, raced an updated F5B variant in the 1980 Aurora Formula One UK championship, but with less success than the previous year.

On several occasions team manager Jo Ramírez berated his driver after a sudden burst of speed indicated that he had not been driving to his full potential.

Emerson retired at the end of that year after five full seasons with the family team, but returned to racing in the CART series in 1984.

Rosberg reports that Emerson, who had not previously had a full-time teammate while at Fittipaldi Automotive, wanted another Brazilian driver but was persuaded by ex-Wolf employees Peter Warr and Harvey Postlethwaite to offer the number two drive to the Finn.