After leaving F1 in 1982, Emerson Fittipaldi stunned the racing community with a CART championship and an Indy 500 victory in 1989.
Like Mario Andretti and Nigel Mansell, Emerson Fittipaldi is one of the elite. A driver who has won the Formula 1 World Championship (twice) and the CART title with a record in both—that reads like any self-respecting Walter Mitty’s wish list. He won 14 Grands Prix—not to mention non-title “oddments” like the Race of Champions (Brands Hatch), the International Trophy (Silverstone), the Italian Republic GP (Vallelunga) and the President Medici GP (Brazil)—and 22 CART races including two Indianapolis 500s in his long and extremely distinguished career.
On top of that, he set a record in 1972, at 25 years old, by becoming the youngest driver ever to win the F1 world title. A record that stood for 33 years, until 24-year-old Fernando Alonso came along in 2005 and broke it.
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