“It was a pleasure to work with Rick as a team-mate,” Fittipaldi says in the book. “Rick was a great team-mate and a great person. I enjoyed every second I spent working with him because he was a great driver and an outstanding guy. Rick was always in control. When you were racing with him you knew what he was going to do.”

Fittipaldi adds that he never encountered another team-mate who was so open and equal with him. “Rick was a great team-mate, a great person, and very technical,” Emerson says. “It was always nice to work with him and to sit down for a meeting with Rick. He was very much into the setup of the car. He knew and understood about the car and there was a great exchange of information between us.”

To read the rest of this Gordon Kirby column and other 'The Way It Is' columns go to www.gordonkirby.com