Jack Brabham

Australian racing driver

The champion who built his own car

Jack Brabham won two titles with Cooper and a third in a car bearing his own name, a feat no other driver has matched.

Jack Brabham was born in Hurstville, Australia, on April 2, 1926. Before racing he served as a flight mechanic in the Royal Australian Air Force and ran a small engineering workshop. He began in midget car racing in 1948, and his results in Australia and New Zealand took him to Britain, where he joined the Cooper team as both a driver and a builder of cars.

His first championship start came at the 1955 British Grand Prix. Brabham helped develop the mid engined Coopers that changed the shape of Formula 1, and he put them to work. He won the 1959 Monaco Grand Prix for his first victory and took the title that year, then won five races in 1960 to retain it.

In 1962 he set up his own marque with fellow Australian Ron Tauranac, and the Brabham name soon appeared on the grid. In 1966 he won four races in a Brabham with a Repco engine and became champion for a third time, the only driver ever to win the title in a car carrying his own name. He kept racing to the end of the decade and won once more in 1970, closing his career at the 1970 Mexican Grand Prix.

Our record shows 127 starts across 16 seasons, with 14 wins, 13 pole positions, 12 fastest laps and 31 podiums, and titles in 1959, 1960 and 1966, driving for Cooper, Maserati, Lotus and his own team. After 1970 he returned to Australia and kept business interests in motor racing, including an engine company. He was the last surviving champion of the 1950s when he died in 2014.

3 world titles, 14 wins, 13 pole positions, 127 starts.

Teams

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