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It’s the night before the 1974 US Grand Prix, and Emerson Fittipaldi is wide awake. By the time he gets up for the race on Sunday, he’ll have barely slept a wink. Three hours, maybe. Hardly the ideal preparation for winning a Formula 1 World Championship… but that’s exactly what he’s about to attempt.  

Emerson was already an F1 World Champion at this point, winning his first title in 1972, aged 25, but he hadn't been this nervous the first time around, having clinched the Championship with two rounds to spare - this time, it’s gone down to the wire.

Emmo – as he's affectionately known - is level on points with Clay Regazzoni, and there’s one race to go. This would be McLaren's first World Championship, just four years after the death of Bruce McLaren - a worthy reward for a team who persevered in the face of such devastating adversity.  

“I was thinking to myself… After the whole year, every test, every practice, every Qualifying, every race, who was going to win?” Emerson says, recalling the night before the race.

Speaking on the Boulevard at the McLaren Technology Centre, Emerson is flanked by multiple World Championship-winning cars on either side of him. History doesn’t show it, but Emerson had taken a risk in leaving Lotus for McLaren at the end of 1973, just one season after becoming Formula 1’s youngest World Champion with the Norfolk-based outfit.  

Comparatively, McLaren had relatively little experience, but Emerson had been impressed by our team’s enthusiasm. Led by Teddy Mayer and Alastair Caldwell, they were a young but hugely ambitious and vastly talented group, slowly finding their way after the tragic loss of their leader. 

Emmo had raced against the M23 in 1973 and knew it was quick, if flawed, and he backed those he’d met to iron out its weaknesses and take that final step.  

“It was my responsibility to choose the right team,” he says, reflecting on his decision to leave Lotus. “When I went to McLaren, I could feel the energy of this very young team, who had the desire to be World Champions, I had a lot of confidence in them. 

“Unfortunately, I never met Bruce, but I saw him race and had a lot of respect for him - and for Denny Hulme. Both were incredible workers, very dedicated, and I liked Teddy Mayer’s approach – it was very American. The team were motivated and working in perfect harmony. There were not many people on the team, but they had an incredible desire to win, everyone was working hard – they were what I would call ‘racers.”  

After signing with McLaren, Emmo tested the M23 for the first time at Paul Ricard in France, shortly after the end of the ’73 season. He requested a few subtle changes, but his assessment was positive, and he reported back that his confidence had been well-founded - the car was undoubtedly quick.  

“The first time I drove the M23, I loved the car,” he says. “It was a much more conventional car than the Lotus, but extremely fast on the corners. I had to adapt my driving style for this, and I requested a bit more front wing than they’d initially gone for, but it was good. I was so motivated to start the season because I knew we were going to be strong.” 

A growing confidence

Emerson notched another podium in Round 4 in Spain and won for the second time in Round 5 in Belgium, taking the lead of the Drivers’ Championship for the first time. But in a hugely competitive season, the advantage kept swinging. Denny, Clay, Emerson and Niki Lauda all took turns at the top of the standings, with six different drivers winning races in 1974.   

The M23 was a versatile car, with the team having developed three separate wheelbases that could be used depending on the characteristics of the circuit. However, the car initially struggled on bumpier tracks due to a weakness in its suspension. The team worked on a fix for this that was installed ahead of Round 10 in Brands Hatch. Emerson went on to secure a third victory and two more podiums, lining up a title showdown in the season finale. 

“Gordon Coppuck was the Chief Designer, and he re-designed the suspension, the geometry, the velocity, and the ratio. Everything on the back end of the M23 was different after Brands Hatch,” Emerson says. “That was key. McLaren also had a very reliable car, and at that time, this was very important for the drivers. To win, you first had to finish the race. 

“This was one of the most competitive grids in the history of Formula 1. You had so many different drivers in different cars who could win a Grand Prix, so we had to take every opportunity – we needed consistency and reliability.” 

The foundations of F1’s greatest team rivalry

Although four drivers were in the Championship fight at one point in 1974, it came down to only two in the season finale: Emmo, and Regazzoni of Ferrari. In the 50 years since, McLaren versus Ferrari has become one of sport’s all-time great rivalries, and its origin can be partially traced back to this race in the US, when tempers very nearly boiled over between the two title rivals.  

Emmo and Regazonni arrived level on points, but both struggled in Qualifying. Watkins Glen International was an especially bumpy circuit, and neither car could deal with this particularly well - even with the Brands Hatch fix deployed on the M23.   

“Watkins Glen was very cold and there was a lot of undulation,” Emerson says. “We were surprised because it was much bumpier than the previous year, which meant we needed to change the car. It wasn’t good in Qualifying, but we started next to Clay, coincidentally.” 

Qualifying eighth and ninth, both cars were at the mercy of the midfield, a minefield for those with aspirations of finishing the race in the points at this period in F1 history. Lining up on the fourth and fifth rows of the grid, there were no pre-race mind games – neither team dared look at the other.   

“It was McLaren against Ferrari, like it is now,” Emmo says with a smile. “I remember being next to each other on the grid. I couldn’t look at Clay or Ferrari, and they couldn’t look at me or our boys. We all knew that in an hour and a half, one of us would be World Champion, and the other would not. That was it. There was a tremendous tension. I have never felt that pressure before any Grand Prix in my life - not in the Indianapolis 500 or the Brazilian Grand Prix. It was a tremendous pressure. Tremendous.” 

Emerson was known for his cool temperament – smooth and meticulous in his planning, he had always handled pressure well during his career, but he barely slept the night before his title showdown with Regazzoni. Yet, on the day, despite his sleep deprivation and incessant nerves, he was surprisingly confident as the adrenaline began to take over.  

“Clay and the Ferrari team were very tough,” he says. “But I had a lot of confidence that we could beat Ferrari.” Outside of the cockpit, Emerson and Clay were good friends, but inside the car, there was no love lost between the pair. Emmo had enjoyed some close battles with Sir Jackie Stewart, Niki and James Hunt, but none of them – not even James – took as many risks as Regazzoni.  

“He was what I would call an aggressive driver,” Emmo says. “Sometimes, Clay would put himself in a dangerous spot, and that was not easy. He was always like that. I knew Clay, and he would go for a space with his car, even when there was no space to take.” 

Emerson didn’t want to take any risks, so he didn’t plan on sticking around long enough to battle with his rival. His car was set up with this tactic in mind.

“Gordon Coppuck was incredible work with,” Emmo continues. “We worked on our strategy before the race and decided to drop the rear wing off to have more speed on the straights so that I could get ahead of Clay from the beginning.”  

Except, it didn’t play out as Emerson had hoped. Regazzoni got the better launch and put Emerson on the back foot. This left him needing to pass the Ferrari and at the mercy of his more aggressive driving style.  

“We went up the hill after Turn 1, and I was thinking, ‘If I attack Clay now, then I have a chance to pass him before the end of Lap 1’, and I knew that he would be surprised by my speed on the straights – he wouldn’t expect it,” Emmo says. “I was right on his gearbox and in his slipstream going into the fast axis, and I saw him look into his mirror, spotting my McLaren approaching him.

“He was in the middle of the track, and I went down his inside. My left wheel reached his cockpit, and he just shut the door. I had to move two wheels onto the grass and nearly span. I thought, ‘Well, if that’s the game you’re going to play’, and steered back towards him. He was shocked and moved his Ferrari, allowing me to pass him. I was in front of him by the end of the straight.  

“From here, I knew that I had to break away from him, if I did, it would be demoralising for him. I was so focused and concentrated on this, and by the end of the lap, there was already a big gap between us. And that was it.” 

The making of McLaren  

Only four years on from Bruce’s death, the World Championship was a hugely significant moment for the team, but no one could have known how significant, nor have predicted that this band of enthusiastic Kiwi racers would go on to inspire 50 more years of Championship success, and counting.  

Emerson’s McLaren career would last just one more season, but he’d already etched his name into our history books.   

“For all of us, it was important to win the Championship, it was a fantastic achievement for me and the team,” Emmo concludes. “At the time, we were 28 people, now it’s 1,000. For sure, it created even more motivation for the future. History tells us what happened next, with so many fantastic World Champions.  

“If you look at the list of World Champions for McLaren, these are incredible champions: Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, James Hunt, Mika Häkkinen and Lewis Hamilton. There is so much talent there. You don’t realise how important it is to win a World Championship until it has happened. I see it as a gift from God.  

“I want take opportunity to thank every team member in '74 that put so much effort for us to win the championship.”