Brabham Racing Organisation

Motor Racing Developments Ltd., more usually known as Brabham, was a racing car constructor and Formula One team founded by Australian Formula One world champion Jack Brabham and designer Ron Tauranac in 1961. The team was based in the UK throughout its existence, although it was initially staffed almost entirely by Australians and New Zealanders and employed Australian produced parts – including the Repco engines with which it won the 1966 and 1967 Drivers and Constructors championships. Jack Brabham's 1966 drivers championship remains the only one ever won by a driver in a car bearing his own name.

Brabham was also the largest manufacturer of single seater racing cars in the world in the mid 1960s and had built over 500 cars by 1970. Brabham cars won championships in Formula Two and Formula Three and competed at the Indianapolis 500.

During the 1970s and 1980s under the ownership of Bernie Ecclestone - who would later become the man responsible for administrating the Formula One World Championship - the team introduced innovations like carbon brakes, the 'fan car', in-race refuelling and hydraulic suspension designed to avoid rules regarding ride height. The team won two more drivers world championships with Nelson Piquet, the second of which was the first turbo-powered championship.

After Ecclestone sold the team at the end of 1987 it ended up in the hands of Middlebridge Group Limited, a Japanese engineering firm. Midway through 1992 the team collapsed after Middlebridge was unable to continue to make repayments against lease finance provided by Landhurst Leasing in a case investigated by the Serious Fraud Office.

Origins

Double world champion Jack Brabham made the leap into manufacturing his own cars - unprecedented for an established driver - during a difficult 1961 season with Cooper, during which he scored only four points. Jack acted as the lead driver while his friend and co-owner Ron Tauranac designed and engineered the cars. The car type designations began accordingly with 'BT'. During the 1960s the cars were known as Repco Brabhams. Repco was an Australian engineering firm which manufactured replacement automotive parts and they had supplied Jack Brabham with components while he was driving for Cooper. Repco's London warehouse was the new team's early base and a technical relationship flourished, which would later culminate in the engine partnership of 1966 to 1968.

Motor Racing Developments (MRD) was the original company set up by Brabham and Tauranac to construct and race cars. Brabham and Tauranac were short of money and in order to fund competing in the World ChampionshipCooper, Adam (May 1999) "The world according to Jack" Motorsport p.36 the new team also built production sportscars and Formula Two and Formula One chassis for customers, as did its contemporaries Lotus and McLaren. Its first product was a Formula Junior car in 1961, which although it started life as an MRD, soon became known as a Brabham. Initially Brabham ran a separate Formula One race team, called the Brabham Racing Organisation (BRO). BRO was the entrant in Formula One until the end of 1969, while MRD continued to manufacture the racing cars and sold them to Brabham, initially at £3000 per car, as well as to its other customers Fearnley, Paul (May 2006) "The powerhouse that Jack built" Motorsport p.39. During the ownership of Brabham and Tauranac, the sale of customer cars was a major part of the company’s purpose. Brabham was reported to be the largest manufacturer of single seater racing cars in the world in the mid-1960sBrabham - the man and the machines'' "Deeds, not words" p. 111 Unique Motor Books ISBN 184155619X and by 1970 had sold over 500 customer cars. The majority of these were for use outside Formula One, although Brabhams were also used in the top flight by many teams, most successfully by Frank Williams Racing Cars and Rob Walker Racing Team. Although the production of customer cars continued for a short time under Bernie Ecclestone’s ownership, Ecclestone was not a fan of the customer car business, preferring to focus on Formula One. The last production customer Brabhams were the Formula Two BT40 and Formula Three BT41 of 1972 although Ecclestone sold ex-works Formula One BT44Bs to RAM Racing as late as 1976.

Jack Brabham had an unusual reason for deciding to change the name of the race team from MRD to his own. The story has been reported in many different variants, but as reported by one of the Brabham team mechanics "(Swiss motor racing journalist 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

Racing History - Formula One

Jack Brabham (1961 - 1971)

The Brabham Racing Organisation started the 1962 season, its first in Formula One, with a single customer Lotus-Climax. The team debuted its own BT3, also powered by the 8 cylinder Coventry Climax engine, at the 1962 German Grand Prix. 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. The 1.5 litre engine formula introduced for 1961 did not suit BrabhamCooper, Adam (May 1999) "The world according to Jack" Motorsport p.36 The article quotes Jack as saying "There's no way you could call those 1500 cc machines Formula One." 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 team's first championship race win came with Dan Gurney at the 1964 French Grand Prix. Brabham finished in third or fourth spot in the constructors championship from 1963 to 1965.

In 1966, a new 3 litre formula was introduced. It proved to be a transitional year for most teams: 3-litre units were in very short supply and most of them were powerful but heavy, complicated and unreliable. 1965 champions Lotus tried both BRM and Coventry-Climax units during the year, often forced to race with 2 or 2.5 litre engines. The big winner was the Brabham team, which took victory two years in a row with the stock-derived Repco unit. With no more than 310 bhp, the Repco was by far the least powerful of the new 3 litre engines but unlike the others it was frugal, light and compact.Fearnley, Paul (May 2006) "The powerhouse that Jack built" Motorsport p.36 Also unlike the others it was reliable and Jack Brabham, the 1959 and 1960 World Champion, won his third title in 1966 in the BT19 and became the first and only driver to win the Formula One World Championship in a car that carried his own name. (cf Surtees, Hill and Fittipaldi)''

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. A new version of the Repco V8, with gear driven double overhead camshafts and four valves per head, was produced for that year to maintain its competitiveness with the new Cosworth DFV. The new version produced around 380 bhp, but the season was a disaster as it proved very unreliable.Fearnley, Paul (May 2006) "The powerhouse that Jack built" Motorsport p.41 Brabham and Rindt could manage only 10 points between them that year, achieved in just three finishes.

The Cosworth DFV was used from 1969, and Brabham could compete again. Rindt left for Lotus. Belgian Jacky Ickx joined the team and had a strong second half to the season - winning in Germany and Canada and finishing a distant second in the drivers championship with 37 points to Jacky Stewart's 63 points. Brabham himself took a couple of poles and two podiums, but failed to finish half the races. The team were a respectable second in the constructor's championship, aided by impressive second places at Monaco and Watkins Glen scored by Piers Courage, driving a Brabham for Frank Williams' privateer squad.

Brabham had intended to retire at the end of the 1969 season, but a late decision by Jochen Rindt to remain with Lotus meant he continued for another year. He had sold his share of MRD to Tauranac at the end of the 1969, so in his final year he was in theory only an employee of the team. Brabham took his last win in the first race of the 1970 season. He competed at the front throughout the season but his challenge was blunted by mechanical failures. Partnered by Rolf Stommelen, the team came fourth in the constructors championship.

Bernie Ecclestone (1971 - 1987)

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 achieved some success with the Brabham 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, and Brabham's first since 1970, at the 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 Racing. 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 first 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.

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.

Despite the introduction of an effective carbon-carbon braking system, the team 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 Brabham BT49 chassis that scored a 3rd overall.

By 1981 the ground effects cars were so efficient and so fast that the drivers were suffering from the tremendous g-forces involved in cornering and braking. The FIA banned the moveable skirts fitted to the bottom of the cars' sidepods that were vital for achieving consistent ground effect and regulated a mandatory ground clearance of 6cm, in the interests of driver safety. The Brabham team were the first to circumvent the rules using hydraulic suspension systems which lowered the Brabham BT49 onto the track once the car had left the pits. This had the side effect of rendering the car without any sort of suspension, causing the driver to be buffeted even more than before. However, the performance gains were such that other teams were soon following suit. That year 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, once again using an engine based on a road car unit - this time the BMW 4-cylinder M10 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. The team innovated yet again when they reintroduced in-race refuelling to Formula One at the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch. At tests at Donington Park the week before the race the pit crew were reported to "have refuelled and re-tyred the car in only 14 seconds"Skewis, Mark (July 13 2000) Five decades of news reporting Autosport 50th Anniversary issue'' page 240

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, another radical Brabham - 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 McLaren MP4/4 along similar lines to the BT55 at Team McLaren in 1988.

Middlebridge Racing (1989 - 1992)

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, Middlebridge Group Limited, a Japanese engineering firm which was already involved with established Formula 3000 team Middlebridge Racing, bought the Brabham Formula One team for the 1990 Formula One season using money loaned to them by leasing finance company Landhurst Leasing. 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, another former Middlebridge F3000 driver. He only qualified at Britain and Hungary, and each time finished 4 laps down. Before the end of the season, the team ran out of funds after Middlebridge Group Limited was unable to continue to make repayments against lease finance provided by Landhurst Leasing in a case investigated by the Serious Fraud Office"Landhurst duo took bribes for loans to Brabham" www.sfo.gov.uk Serious Fraud Office Annual Report 1997-1998 case studies retrieved 19 May 2006

Racing history - other formulae

Indianapolis 500

Brabham cars competed at the Indianapolis 500 from the mid 1960s to the early 1970s. In 1964 MRD was commissioned to build an Indycar chassis powered by the American Offenhauser engine. The resultant BT12 chassis was raced by Jack Brabham as the Zink-Urschel Trackburner at the 1964 event, but retired on lap 77 with a fuel tank problem. The car was entered again in 1965 and 1966, taking a third place for Jim McElreath on the latter occasion, although MRD was not involved. The Dean Van Lines Special in which Mario Andretti won the 1965 USAC title was a direct copy of this car by Andretti's crew chief, Clint Brawner.Lawrence, Mike (1999) Brabham+Ralt+Honda : The Ron Tauranac story p. 57 Motor Racing Publications ISBN 1899870350 From 1968 to 1970 Brabham returned to the Brickyard, at first with the 4.2 litre version of the Repco V8 the team used in Formula One before reverting to the Offenhauser engine for 1970. MRD's best finish was a fifth place for Peter Revson in 1969. The Brabham-Offenhauser combination continued to be used until 1972.Indy 500 Stats www.indy500.com. Retrieved 27 June 2006 Although not successful at Indianapolis, Brabham cars did win several USAC races.

Formula Two

In the 1960s and early 1970s, Formula One drivers often competed in Formula Two as well. In 1966 MRD produced the BT18 for the lower category, with a Honda engine acting as a stressed component. The car was extremely successful, winning 11 consecutive Formula Two races in the hands of the Formula One pairing of Brabham and Hulme - the cars were entered by MRD and not by the Brabham Racing Organisation, avoiding a direct conflict with Repco, their Formula One engine supplierBrabham - the man and the machines "Brabham - the organisation" p. 117 Unique Motor Books ISBN 184155619X.

Formula Three

The first Formula Three Brabham was the BT9 in 1964 but it was not until 1965 that the marque really took off in the category. The BT15 was a highly successful design, 58 of which were sold, winning championships in the UK, Italy, Sweden and Denmark. The cars very much followed the design route of their Formula One and Formula Two cousins with spaceframe chassis and outboard suspension. Indeed in the mid 1960s Formulas Three and Two both used 1 litre production derived engines and the chassis were often very closely related. Further developments of the same concept, featuring the addition of wings, were highly competitive up until 1971. 1972's BT38C was Brabham's first production monocoque and the first not designed by Tauranac, but was less popular and successful than its predecessors. The angular BT41 was the final Formula Three Brabham, the factory preferring to concentrate on Formula One after Bernie Ecclestone's takeover at the end of 1971. Manufacturers - Brabham www.f3history.co.uk Retrieved 26 June 2006

Formula Junior

The first Brabham chassis were built for Formula Junior.

Sportscars

The vast majority of Brabham chassis were single seaters, but a small numbers of sportscars were built.

Technical Innovation

Brabham was not in the main an innovator in the Brabham-Tauranac era of the 1960s. The team persisted with traditional spaceframe construction and outboard suspension designs long after Lotus and others had moved to monocoques and inboard units and won the 1966 and 1967 championships with cars of this type. The team was however to the forefront in the developments on aerodynamic aids, being one of the first two teams (the other was Ferrari) to introduce full width front and rear wings at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix. During Ron Tauranac's brief sole ownership of the company in 1971 he did produce the striking one-off BT34 'Lobster Claw' chassis which 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.

The team's most fertile period of technical innovation came in the 1970s and 1980s when Bernie Ecclestone promoted Gordon Murray - whose first job at Brabham was the detailing of the BT34 radiator inlets - to the position of Technical Director. The team's major innovations were:

Carbon fibre composites

Brabham were at the forefront of the structural use of carbon fibre composites, first employed in Formula One by the Embassy Hill team in 1975 for rear wing mounts. The Hill wing mounts failed with fatal effect at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix but Gordon Murray employed panels of the material to provide lightweight reinforcement and stiffening on Brabham's aluminium monocoques from 1979. Murray was reluctant to go fully composite until he completely understood the way the new materials worked, an understanding achieved in part through an intrumented crash test of a BT49 chassis. The team did not follow McLaren's 1981 MP4/1 with their own fully composite chassis until the 'lowline' BT55 in 1986. Hodges, David (1990) A-Z of Formula Racing Cars 1945-1990 p.43 Bay View books ISBN 1901432173

Carbon brakes

During 1976, the team started developing carbon-carbon brakes in Formula One with Dunlop. The initial versions used carbon composite pads and a steel disc faced with carbon 'pucks'. At first the new technology was not reliable - Carlos Pace was almost killed at the Osterreichring in 1976 when he went off the circuit at 180 mph after heat buildup in the brakes boiled the brake fluid, leaving him with no effective braking.Henry, Alan (1985) "Brabham, the Grand Prix Cars" p. 163 Osprey ISBN 0905138368 During 1979 Brabham switched to Hitco and developed an effective 'carbon-carbon' braking system combining structural carbon discs with carbon pads.Howard, Keith (June 2006) "Carbon fibre" Motorsport p.52 Interview with Gordon Murray and John Barnard on the early uses of Carbon Fibre in Formula One for brakes and chassis structure.

The 'Fan car'

The Brabham BT46B, also known as the Fan car, was designed to compete with the Lotus 79 'wing car'. It generated an immense level of downforce by means of a fan, claimed to be for increased cooling, but which also extracted air from beneath the car. The car only raced once in the Formula One World Championship, Niki Lauda winning the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix at Anderstorp. The car was withdrawn before it could race again and the concept declared illegal by the FIA. The BT46B therefore preserves a 100% winning record.

Hydro-pneumatic suspension

In the early 1980s season FISA announced a minimum ride height intended to limit the amount of downforce that could be generated through 'ground effect' - an aerodynamic effect which increases the grip available for cornering as the underside of the car gets closer to the track surface. Minimum ride heights were to be measured in parc fermé to prevent cheating. Murray devised a suspension system with pneumatic suspension which supported the car at the regulation height while stationary. As the car circulated on the track the downforce created squashed the air suspension down and the car settled onto its secondary, mechanical, suspension at a much lower ride height. The lower ride height created greater levels of downforce, but the reduced ride height could not be measured by FISA while the car was out on the track.

Engines

While its competitors Lotus and McLaren used the Cosworth DFV engine from 1968 to the early 1980s, and before that used the almost equally ubiquitous Coventry Climax engines, Brabham successfully used a variety of engines from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s. Twice in its history Brabham used engines based on road car blocks to win the Formula One world championship.

Repco V8

In 1966, a new 3 litre formula was introduced. It proved to be a transitional year for most teams: 3-litre units were in very short supply and most of them were powerful but heavy, complicated and unreliable. 1965 champions Lotus tried both BRM and Coventry-Climax units during the year, often forced to race with 2 or 2.5 litre engines. The big winner was the Brabham team, which took victory two years in a row with the stock-derived Repco unit. With no more than 310 bhp, the Repco was by far the least powerful of the new 3 litre engines but unlike the others it was frugal, light and compact.Fearnley, Paul (May 2006) "The powerhouse that Jack built" ''Motorsport p.36 Also unlike the others it was reliable and Jack Brabham, the 1959 and 1960 World Champion, won his third title in 1966. In 1967 the title went to his teammate Denny Hulme as Jack used unreliable new parts.

A new version of the Repco V8, with gear driven double overhead camshafts and four valves per head, was produced for 1968 to maintain its competitiveness with the new Cosworth DFV. The new version produced around 380 bhp, but the season was a disaster as it proved very unreliable.

Alfa Romeo Flat 12

For 1976 Bernie Ecclestone did a deal with Alfa-Romeo for Brabham to use a unit based on their flat 12 sports car engine in Formula One. The deal was a good one financially and the engines were powerful in comparison to the almost ubiquitous Cosworth DFV. However, the flat-12 layout made packaging the cars difficult - they could not be mounted as a structural member like the DFV - and the engines were very thirsty. Murray's increasingly adventurous designs, like the BT46 which won two races in 1978, were in part a response to the challenge of producing a suitably light and aerodynamic chassis around the bulky unit. When ground effects arrived, it was clear that the low, wide engines would prevent full exploitation of the phenomenon, which required heavy sculpting of the underside of the car. At Murray's instigation Alfa produced a more suitable V12 design in only three months for the 1979 season, but it continued to be unreliable and thirsty. Before the end of the season Brabham reverted to the Cosworth DFV - a move which Murray recalls as like "having a holiday".

BMW straight 4 turbo

In 1982 Brabham once again employed an engine based on a road car unit - this time the BMW 4-cylinder M10 turbo that had been used in Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft touring cars. Brabham thus became only the third team after Renault and Ferrari to employ a turbo engine. Initially the turbo engine electronics had issues that made it hard to drive and unreliable. The team also developed a DFV powered BT49D chassis to keep the pressure on BMW. Together with Bosch, the BMW engineers solved the problem and BMW's turbocharged straight four brought Nelson Piquet his second world championship in 1983 - the first to be won by a driver in a turbo-engined car.

Notes

References

Official Formula 1 Website. Archive: Results for 1962 – 1992 seasons www.formula1.com Retrieved 27 April 2006
Henry, Alan (May 1999) "The House that Jack Built" Motorsport p.40

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