The was a
Formula One racing team founded by
Jack Brabham and
Ron Tauranac . It was the only
Australia n team ever to carry a World Champion to victory, and the only team run by the driver to win a Formula One world championship.
customer Brabham BT26A at the 1969 US Grand Prix]]
Founded in
1961 , the team saw Jack Brabham act as primary driver and Tauranac designing and engineering the cars. The cars type designations began accordingly with BT. The team debuted at the
1962 German Grand Prix , with a car powered by an 8 cylinder
Coventry Climax engine. It was not an auspicious debut, Jack retiring after nine laps with a throttle problem, although he took a pair of fourth places in the final two races of the season. A newly introduced engine limit in Formula One of 1.5 litres did not suit Brabham and he did not win a single World Championship race with a 1.5 litre car, although he won the non-championship 1963
Solitude Grand Prix near
Stuttgart . The first team win came with
Dan Gurney at the
1964 French Grand Prix .
In 1966, a new 3 litre formula was created. It proved to be a transitional year for most teams. While Ferrari and BRM struggled with their new engines —and Lotus struggled just to find a reliable powerplant— the big winner was the Brabham team, which took victory two years in a row with the stock-derived and
1960 World Champion, won his third title in
1966 and became the first and only driver to win the Formula One World Championship in a car that carried his own name.
In
1967 the title went to his teammate
Denny Hulme as Jack used unreliable new parts. Hulme left for
Mclaren in 1968 and was replaced by Austrian
Jochen Rindt . Attempts were made to fit
DOHC and 4-valve per-cylinders to the Repco V8 for that year to maintain its competitiveness with the new DFV. The new version produced around 380bhp, but the season was a disaster as the stock block was unable to sustain the increase in power. Brabham and Rindt could manage only 10 points between them that year.
The Cosworth DFV was used from 1969, and Brabham could compete again, losing races narrowly twice.
After retiring in 1970, Brabham made a complete break from racing, selling his interest in the team to Ron Tauranac in
1970 /
1971 and returning to Australia. Brabham cars in this period were of fairly conservative design, although the 'lobster claw' BT23 had a novel split front spoiler with integrated radiators. The car was notable for giving
Graham Hill his last Formula One victory in the non-championship 1971 International Trophy at
Silverstone .
Ron Tauranac found he preferred to focus on design work, and sold the team to
Bernie Ecclestone in
1972 . He was kept on as a designer for a while before being fired in favour of Ralph Bellamy. Ecclestone signed
Carlos Reutemann to drive alongside veteran and two-time World Champion
Graham Hill for the 1972 season. At the first race, in front of his home crowd at
Buenos Aires , Reutemann qualified his Brabham BT34 on pole position, while teammate Hill qualified 16th. He finished the race in seventh after having to pit to replace his soft tires, and the main highlight for the rest of the year was his win in the non-Championship Interlagos Grand Prix.
For 1973, Ecclestone brought in a young South African Engineer as chief designer,
Gordon Murray - a partnership that would bring great technical and sporting innovation, and success, to the team. Teamed with Brazilian
Wilson Fittipaldi for the
1973 season, Reutemann scored two podium finishes and seventh in the Driver's Championship.
From
1974 Carlos Reutemann and
Carlos Pace achieving some successes with the Brabham-Ford BT44, which was a vast improvement and the team finished a close fifth in the Constructor's Championship. Reutemann took the first three victories of his Formula One career at
South African Grand Prix ,
Austrian Grand Prix and the
United States Grand Prix . Though Reutemann matched Driver's Champion
Emerson Fittipaldi 's win total, inconsistent performances in the other races left him sixth in the season standings.
For 1975, the team raced its updated BT44B-Fords in the white colours of
Martini . After Reutemann's strong finish to the 1974 season, many observers felt the team were favourites to win the title. The year started well, with an emotional win for Pace in the second race of the season at the
Interlagos circuit in his native
São Paulo . Problems with tyre wear frequently slowed the cars over the season however, and the early promise was not maintained Gill, Barrie (1976) "The World Championship 1975" ''
John Player Motorsport yearbook 1976'' p.103 Queen Anne Press Ltd. ISBN 0362002541. Pace took another two podiums and finished sixth in the championship, while five podium finishes, including a dominant win in the
1975 German Grand Prix at the old
Nürburgring , allowed Reutemann to place third. The team were ranked third in the constructor's table at the end of the year.
BT46B "Fancar" at Anderstorp, 1978]]
The Brabham team switched to the
Alfa Romeo flat-12 engine for
1976 . The cars, now painted red, suffered from serious reliability problems, seemingly sapping Reutemann's fragile motivation. He negotiated a release from his Brabham contract to sign with
Ferrari , who were looking for a replacement after
Niki Lauda 's crash.
Hans Joachim Stuck , who replaced fellow
German Rolf Stommelen , scored a 3rd at the
1977 Austrian Grand Prix , and led the wet race at Watkins Glen.
In
1978 the team drove under the name ''Parmalat Racing team''. With sponsorship from the Italian dairy products company, the world champion
Niki Lauda , who had asked for a salary of US$ 1 Million flat, was brought to the team. The red cap with the
Parmalat Logo, worn permanently in order to hide his scars, became the brand name of the Austrian.
Even though the new
Wing Car designs of the competitions did not favour such a wide engine, flat-12 engines from
Alfa Romeo were kept. Brabham's answer, the controversial
BT46B 'fan car', outdid Lotus in generating downforce, but was withdrawn in acrimonious circumstances after winning its only race, the
1978 Swedish Grand Prix at the hand of Lauda.
In 1979, Brabham dropped to 8th, and Lauda retired in mid-season, while
Alfa Romeo had started its own team.
For 1980, Brabham used the Ford Cosworth V8 again, which was better suited to the aerodynamic needs of the BT49 chassis that scored a 3rd overall.
In 1981, the BT49C carried
Nelson Piquet to his first championship, and the team to a 2nd rank.
In the tragic 1982 season, the BT50 was introduced, powered by a
BMW 4-cylinder
Turbo that had been used in
Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft touring cars. Also, an Ford-powered BT49D was used in order to put pressure on BMW, as the turbo engine electronics had issues that made it hard to drive, and unreliable. Together with Bosch, the BMW engineers solved the problem.
In 1983, the BT52/B-BMW was the first world championship winning turbo-powered F1 car, again with
Nelson Piquet , who scored a sequence of good results from mid-season to overtake
Renault 's
Alain Prost at the season-ending
South African Grand Prix .
In the years to follow, Brabham and the other BMW teams dropped down the order, beaten by the V6-turbos of Porsche, Honda, Ferrari and Renault.
In 1986, the long and low BT55, with its BMW four-cylinder engine installed tilted over to the side, excited much attention. The vehicle proved however too problematic to develop.
Elio De Angelis also suffered a fatal accident in testing the car at
Circuit Paul Ricard .
Murray, who since 1973 had designed cars that scored 22 GP wins, left Brabham at the end of 1986, to produce the very successful MP4/4 along similar lines to the BT55 at
Team McLaren in 1988.
After the
1987 Formula One Season , engine supplier BMW withdrew from F1 due to rules changes in order to re-introduce mandatory
Naturally Aspirated engines in 1989. Their turbo engine was already re-badged as
Megatron when used by other teams. Due to financial difficulties, the Brabham team missed the 1988 season, regarded as a transitional year by several teams that needed new engines.
Bernie Ecclestone was becoming increasing involved with his roles at the FIA and FOCA, in particular with negotiating Formula One's television rights. Having bought the team for approximately $120,000, Ecclestone eventually sold it for over $5 million, to Swiss businessman Joachim Luhti. A new car, the
Sergio Rinland designed BT58 powered by a
Judd Engine , was produced for the
1989 Formula One Season . John Judd's company, Engine Developments, had been formed in partnership with Jack Brabham in 1971, Judd having worked on the Repco engine for the Australian. Italian driver
Stefano Modena was signed and regularly matched his more experienced team-mate
Martin Brundle . The team managed to score eight points, including the team's last ever podium, a third place achieved by Modena at Monaco.
After the arrest of Luhti in mid-1989, established
Formula 3000 team Middlebridge Racing bought the team for the
1990 Formula One Season . Modena stayed on for 1990, but the team were low on funds. Aside from fifth place at the opening
United States Grand Prix the year was something of a non-event. Jack's youngest son
David Brabham , who drove for Middlebridge in Formula 3000, raced for the Formula One team for a short time in 1990 alongside the Italian.
The team used
Yamaha engines in 1991.
Mark Blundell and the returning
Martin Brundle were the drivers, managing three points with a 5th and a 6th place at Spa.
Giovanna Amati , the last woman to attempt to race in Formula One, tried to qualify the car for the first few races of the
1992 Formula One Season , but could not drag the car onto the grid. Following the
1992 Brazilian Grand Prix , she was dropped as her backing had not materialised.
This opened a seat for the
1996 World Champion
Damon Hill who began his Formula One career with Brabham, shortly before the team folded in the middle of the
1992 Formula One Season . He only qualified at Britain and Hungary, and each time finished 4 laps down.
Motor Racing Developments (MRD) was the name that appeared on the entry list for the Brabham team in Formula One. MRD was the original company set up by Brabham to construct and race cars. In 1963 he decided to separate off his Formula One race team, which became the Brabham Racing Organisation. MRD continued to manufacture the racing cars and sold them to Brabham, initially at £3000 per car Fearnley, Paul (May 2006) "The powerhouse that Jack built" ''
Motorsport p.39. As was common at the time, during the first part of its existence this company sold Formula Two and Formula One chassis to customers. Teams which used Brabham chassis in Formula One included
Frank Williams Racing Cars and
Rob Walker Racing Team .
At this time Formula One drivers often competed in Formula Two as well. In 1966 Brabham produced the BT18 for the lower category, with a
Honda engine acted as a stressed component. The car was extremely successful winning 11 consecutive
Formula Two races.
Jack Brabham had an unusual reason for deciding to change the name of the race team from MRD to his own: ''"(Jabby Crombac) pointed out to Jack that the initials of Motor Racing Developments, MRD, may have sounded innocuous enough in English, but in French it would not do....the way a Frenchman pronounces those initials—written phonetically, 'em air day'—sounded perilously like the French word for what one may politely call excreta; ''merde''. This was not the ideal name for a racing car."''Scarlett, Michael (May 2006) "Team Building" ''
Motorsport p.43
All Formula One race and championship results are taken from:
- ''Official Formula 1 Website. Archive: Results for 1962 – 1992 seasons'' www.formula1.com Retrieved 27 April 2006
