Brabham

The Brabham name is synonymous with Grand Prix motor-racing and even today, Sir Jack Brabham, the very first driver ever to be knighted for his services to motorsport, remains one of racing's hottest personalities.

When New Zealander Denny Hulme drove the BT20 to success the next year the Brabham team won its second consecutive world championship.

Brabham established himself in Australian oval racing before changing to road racing within early 1950's. His driving style matured dramatically right now and, in 1955, he went from Australia to Europe to operate a vehicle for John and Charles Cooper. That partnership resulted in Brabham's first two tournament titles in 1959 and 1960. What seemed an anomaly in the time would actually cause the death of the traditional Indy roadsters as well as a revolution in the Brickyard.

At the conclusion of the 1961 season Brabham left Cooper and, because MRD didn't translate properly into French, it was determined that future automobiles could be called Brabhams. They moved into premises in Surbiton which were possessed by the Australian automotive components business Repco as well as the very first Brabham was assembled. The BT2 was a growth of the MRD Formula Junior chassis and work started on the Formula 1 car. Brabham purchased a Lotus with which to begin the season because this wouldn't be prepared in time for the 1962 season. The Formula Junior did well in the control of privateer Jo Schlesser and Brabham works driver Frank Gardner won the French Formula Junior title. Eleven vehicles were assembled. The year finished with Jack ending second in Mexico (a race) and fourth in South Africa.

Brabham hired Dan Gurney to get his team-mate. The pair finished second on three occasions however it was Jim Clark's year. Occasionally Brabham also-ran a classic car for Denny Hulme.

The business expanded quickly with a brand new sportscar (BT8), of which nine were assembled. That year Gurney gave its first F1 victory to the group in the French GP and followed up with another triumph in Mexico. Brabham himself scored a smattering of pointsscoring finishes. In F2 Brabham and Hulme drove the factory vehicles but the others were offered to many different clients including Ford Austria (for Jochen Rindt), Roy Winkelmann Racing (for Alan Rees) and John Willment (for Gardner). The business assembled almost 40 racing cars.

In 1965 Brabham began selling Rob Walker too with customer F1 cars, Bob Anderson and John Willment all buying chassis. Brabham himself did fewer races, leaving Hulme to partner Gurney on several occasions and also the year finished with Gurney concluding second in america and Mexican GPs. Brabham chassis were several in F1 but the title was won by Jim Clark for Lotus.

Gurney determined to create their own F1 team and so Brabham and Hulme became the factory drivers in the new Repco - engined BT19. In the French GP Brabham was Hulme and first third and also the pair concluded 1 - 2 in the British GP. Brabham won in Germany and Holland but retired while leading in Italy.

In Formula 2 factory cars were run by Brabham with Honda engines and Jack and Denny dominated. Brabham chassis won all-but among the races. Brabham was given an OBE that year.

Repco assembled a fresh engine but the coming of the Ford Cosworth outclassed the team and also the engine fought. In Formula 2 Matra became a strong force and Brabham customers slipped farther down the purchase.

With Rindt going to Lotus in 1969 Brabham changed to Cosworth engines and hired Jacky Ickx to become his team-mate. The Belgian won twice and finished 2nd in the World Championship . however, it was a period dominated by Jackie Stewart's Matra-Cosworth. In Formula 2 BMW and Matra cleaned-up but Brabham continued to market lots of vehicles.

The 1970 period would be Brabham's last for a driver with Ickx going to Ferrari, Jack hired Rolf Stommelen to become his team-mate. Cash was brief and even though Jack won the South African GP at the beginning of year and almost won at Monaco but went off to the final lap, results were inferior.

At the conclusion of the year Brabham retired and started making plans to return to Australia. He sold his half of the business to Tauranac. The group didn't do well, with Graham Hill and Tim Schenken scoring just five points between them. In Method 2 Carlos Reutemann did well and finished 2nd within the European Championship. The organization was earning money but Tauranac was tired and at the beginning of 1972 even though he would afterwards go back to Europe to begin the successful Ralt business, he sold the business to Bernie Ecclestone and went into retirement.

Ecclestone started to make adjustments to the end-of the year - another not really productive season with Reutemann and driver Graham Hill. There were no victories and Brabham finished fourth in the World Championship.

The BT44 was raced in Formula 1 in 1974 by Carlos Reutemann and a chain of paydrivers including Rikki von Opel, Richard Robarts and Lella Lombardi. Ultimately the automobile was handed down to Carlos Speed. An older vehicle was furnished to the group for John Watson to generate. Reutemann won three races however the team fell to fifth in the Constructors' title.

For the 1975 season sponsorship was landed by Ecclestone from Reutemann and Martini and Pace drove B variants of the BT44. The group then started a relationship with Murray and Alfa Romeo created the allnew BT45 to house the flat12 Italian motor. A group was created to run old cars for other paydrivers and Loris Kessel and this is run by RAM Racing. Neither group was successful and Reutemann changed to Ferrari in the end-of the full year, leaving his automobile to Larry Perkins.

John Watson was employed to replace Reutemann and the 1977 period started on the note of confidence as Pace concluded second in Argentina. Hans Stuck was hired to replace him but Watson and he scored just three podium finishes.

Martini left by the end-of the season but Ecclestone signed-up Parmalat as an alternative and hired World Champion Niki Lauda to become Watson's team-mate. Murray created the remarkable BT46, an angular system which highlighted surface cooling. This didn't work and also the car was revised and once the car was debuted in South Africa Watson ended third. The Lotus was the automobile that year and Murray created their own variation of the thought, making a partial vacuum underneath the vehicle as the Fan Car, which used a fan for cooling the motor and making the BT46B - known. Lauda won the Swedish GP . however, it was banned shortly after from the sport's governing body, the FIA. The car was revised again as the Lauda and BT46C won again in Italy. Watson moved to McLaren and Ecclestone signed-up Nelson Piquet as Lauda's companion. There is a brand new V12 engine from Alfa Romeo however the automobiles weren't quite dependable. Lauda won the non-tournament Dino Ferrari Grand Prix at Imola however in Canada declared he was retiring immediately. Ecclestone signed-up paydriver Ricardo Zunino to replace him.

The group had gone so far as it would choose Alfa Romeo so when the Italians were preparing their very own operation, Brabham changed back to Cosworth power. Murray revised the Piquet and BT49 could win three races in 1980. The next year-he won three more races and took the World Championship following a chain of great finishes.

Within the class of 1981 Brabham began examining BMW turbocharged engines however, they were not used consistently before the end-of 1982, by which time Piquet's new team-mate Riccardo Patrese had won an interesting success at Monaco.

The Canadian GP was won by Piquet with auto later that year but for the remainder of the time the Munich engines proved to be unreliable. That year the FIA reintroduced refuelling at pitstops into Formula 1, empowering Patrese and Piquet to operate on half tanks. The BT53 appeared in 1983 and Piquet could consider his 2nd World Championship and win three victories. Patrese won one race and also the team finished third in the Constructors' title. The 1984 period wasn't successful. Piquet won twice but the automobiles were quite undependable and Teo Fabi was unable to create much of an opinion within the 2nd vehicle. In 1985 the group had a different patron in Pirelli and Olivetti tires and these empowered Piquet to score surprise win in the French GP. The team's second driver Francois Hesnault had a tremendous testing injury and determined that he didn't need to become a Grand Prix driver and therefore Marc Surer took over.

There have been enormous changes in 1986 with Piquet departing to join Patrese and Williams being joined by Elio de Angelis. Murray designed the BT55 - which is usually called the Skateboard Brabham. The BMW engine was tilted over and also the car was amazingly low. Unfortunately the gearbox and also the motor were unreliable. He was replaced by Derek Warwick but the vehicles didn't prosper. John Baldwin, Brabham designers David North and Sergio Rinland designed the BT56. Because all of the old erect units was sold to Megatron this needed to work with the BMW laydown engines. Cash was running short and Andrea and Patrese de Cesaris neglected to reach much in 1987, Patrese going to Williams at the end-of the full year.

With BMW also withdrawing in the end-of the full year, Ecclestone announced that Brabham will be taking a sabbatical. The group built a Procar for Alfa Romeo but the entire operation subsequently fell in the hands of Swiss businessman Joachim Luhti. The BT58 was designed in a hurry by Rinland and had Pirelli tires and a Judd V8 engine for the 1989 season. Stefano Modena and Martin Brundle scored eight points between them-but Luhti was arrested within the midseason and also the group foundered.

Sick and tired of the madness Martin Brundle leave the team. A brand new buyer appeared within the kind of Windsor and Middlebridge decided to sell the group for them.

The team fought in 1990 but Blash hired Mark and Brundle Blundell to generate and struck a deal for Yamaha engines in 1991. At the conclusion of the time Yamaha chose to change to Brabham and Jordan was left with Judd engines, no cash and old automobiles.

The group borrowed heavily from an organization called Landhurst Leasing and in 1992 began the season with woman racer Giovanna Amati and Eric van de Poele, who was later replaced by Damon Hill. Between them, they were able to qualify in just three races and in mid-season the team leave F1 after missing the Italian and Belgian GPs.