Brabham

British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team

Jack Brabham's Car in Jack Brabham's Name

Founded by a champion driver and his designer friend, Brabham won four drivers' titles and two constructors' titles across thirty years.

Jack Brabham, the Australian who won the 1959 and 1960 championships for Cooper, set up Motor Racing Developments with his countryman Ron Tauranac to build racing cars of their own. The company deliberately avoided either man's name, but its Formula One cars raced as Brabhams, beginning at the 1962 German Grand Prix. The team was based in Weybridge until 1977, then in Chessington, and finally in Milton Keynes. It also became a large builder of customer cars for the junior categories.

Dan Gurney gave the marque its first championship win at the 1964 French Grand Prix. With Repco engines, Brabham then took the constructors' titles of 1966 and 1967, Jack Brabham winning the 1966 drivers' crown in a car bearing his own name and Denny Hulme following him in 1967.

Bernie Ecclestone owned the team through most of the 1970s and 1980s, and his chief designer Gordon Murray made it a home for clever engineering, from carbon brakes to the fan car that Niki Lauda drove to victory in its only race, the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix. Nelson Piquet won the 1981 title with Ford power and the 1983 title with a BMW turbo, the first championship for a turbocharged car. Piquet won 13 races for Brabham, more than anyone else, and the team's last victory came with him at the 1985 French Grand Prix.

Ecclestone sold the team in 1988, and it sat out that season. It returned under new owners but faded, and midway through 1992 it collapsed when its owner, the Japanese firm Middlebridge, failed to repay its loans. Its last race was the 1992 Hungarian Grand Prix. In all, Brabham cars started 394 World Championship races and won 35.

Drivers

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