The end of a grand prix team……

Brabham were a racing team formed back in 1960 by World Champion driver Jack Brabham and designer Ron Tauranac, their car taking Jack to the drivers World title in 1966 – the first and so far only champion to drive a car of his own construction. Over the subsequent decades the team took a further 3 drivers titles and 2 constructors titles, and were driven along the way by a number of world class drivers, Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet and John Watson to name but three.

However in the world of sport such as Formula One a teams achievements count for very little at the start of each season, apart from potentially the ability to gain sponsorship, and by the late 1980’s the team was in what can politely be termed a state of decline. Over the course of 5 years the team changed ownership four times, with at least two owners being the subject of legal & financial investigations, and before the end of the 1992 season the team had gone into administration.

1989 saw the team return to the grid after a year owned by Alfa Romeo spent building a prototype “Procar” based on their 164 model, which was intended to be raced as a one-make series supporting Formula One, but this plan never came to fruition. Instead Alfa sold the team to Joachim Luthi, and a new model, the Judd powered BT58 took to the tracks driven by Stefano Modena and Martin Brundle.

Modena scored the teams last podium (obviously neither he or the team knew that it would be their last at the time!) and Brundle added a 5th place and two 6th places to bring the team in 9th in the Constructors championship with 8 points. In 32 appearances the drivers racked up 17 retirements and only 12 finishes, but reliability across the grid in this era was far different to todays sport where a retirement for mechanical reasons is almost a surprise.

Team owner Luthi was arrested mid-1989, and the Middlebridge Group who had a stake in the team gained full control in time for the 1990 season. Stefano Modena was retained and joined initially by Gregor Foitek for the first 2 races, who was replaced by David Brabham for the rest of the season. Modena scored a fifth place in the USA GP, but the team had a terrible season – 18 retirements, 6 races where one driver did not qualify……but such was the season that the 2 points earned allowed the team to finish 9th in the Constructors standings once again. The team were even at this stage a shadow of their former glorious self.

1991 saw Martin Brundle return to the team, partnered by Mark Blundell (a dream for TV commentators the world over, especially Murray Walker for the BBC) and although they struggled in the first half of the season, forcing both drivers to have to pre-qualify for the races in the second half of the season, reliability was slightly better. Brundle scored a 5th place in Japan, Blundell a 6th place in Belgium, and with 3 points the team finished 10th in the Constructors championship.

1992 saw the team grabbing pre-season headlines with the announcement of Giovanna Amati joining the team, the first female Grand Prix driver for over a decade racing alongside Belgium Eric van de Poele in their Judd powered car, essentially the 1991 chassis with a new engine. Initial results were poor, even by the standards of the past few seasons – Amati was unable to qualify for the first three races, and after her promised sponsorship money failed to appear she was replaced by Damon Hill. Eric and Damon managed to qualify for 2 races each, Eric finished 10th at his home grand prix in Belgium, Damon came in 11th in Hungary, and then 16th in the British Grand Prix a small matter of four laps behind race winner Nigel Mansell!

The 1992 Hungarian Grand Prix turned out to be the teams last race as it entered administration and disappeared from the grids for ever – a multiple championship winning team had literally spluttered to a halt, and like a lot of teams in the late 1980’s / early 1990’s (even with racing pedigree and history) the economic pressures of a global recession combined with the necessity of large budgets to compete meant the world of F1 lost a lot of teams.

As a footnote there were a few glimmers of positivity that come out of the Brabham story of this period; Martin Brundle moved to the Benetton team in 1992 and had his most successful season in F1; Mark Blundell moved to drive for Tyrrell, McLaren and drove successfully in CART ; David Brabham supported by his Dad re-entered F1 in 1994 with the Simtek team (and went on to have a successful sportscar career…..he’s now even a constructor in his own right!), and Damon Hill went on to win the 1996 drivers title.

Maybe the legacy of this period of Brabham was the springboard for a small number of successful drivers, or maybe Brabham was fortunate to have them onboard ? Either way it feels like a sad way to leave the sport.