 | |
| Full name | Motor Racing Developments, Ltd. |
|---|---|
| Base | Chessington, United Kingdom (1962–1989) Milton Keynes, United Kingdom (1990–1992) |
| Founder(s) | Jack Brabham Ron Tauranac |
| Noted staff | Bernie Ecclestone Gordon Murray Ron Dennis Charlie Whiting John Judd Herbie Blash |
| Noted drivers |  Jack Brabham Dan Gurney Denny Hulme Jochen Rindt Jacky Ickx Silvio Moser Graham Hill Carlos Reutemann Niki Lauda Nelson Piquet Riccardo Patrese Elio de Angelis Derek Warwick Stefano Modena Martin Brundle David Brabham Damon Hill Héctor Rebaque John Watson Carlos Pace |
| Formula One World Championship career | |
| First entry | 1962 German Grand Prix |
| Races entered | 403 entries (394 starts) |
| Engines | Climax, Repco, Ford, Alfa Romeo, BMW, Judd, Yamaha |
| Constructors' Championships | 2 (1966, 1967) |
| Drivers' Championships | 4 (1966, 1967, 1981, 1983) |
| Race victories | 35 |
| Podiums | 120 |
| Points | 832 |
| Pole positions | 40 |
| Fastest laps | 41[a] |
| Final entry | 1992 Hungarian Grand Prix |
Motor Racing Developments Ltd., commonly known as Brabham (/ˈbræbəm/ BRAB-əm), was a British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. It was founded in 1960 by the Australian driver Jack Brabham and the British-Australian designer Ron Tauranac. The team had a successful thirty-year history, winning four FIA Formula One Drivers' and two Constructors' World Championships, starting with two successive wins in 1966 and 1967. Jack Brabham's 1966 Drivers' Championship remains the only such achievement using a car bearing the driver's own name.
During the 1960s, Brabham was the world's largest manufacturer of open-wheel racing cars sold to customer teams, having built more than 500 cars by 1970. Teams using Brabham cars also won championships in Formula Two and Formula Three, and the cars competed in events like the Indianapolis 500 and Formula 5000 racing. In the 1970s and 1980s, Brabham introduced innovations such as carbon brakes and hydropneumatic suspension, and reintroduced in-race refuelling. Its unique Gordon Murray-designed 'fan car' won its only race before being withdrawn.
The team won two more Formula One Drivers' Championships in the 1980s with Brazilian Nelson Piquet. He won his first championship in 1981 in the ground effect BT49-Ford, and became the first to win a Drivers' Championship with a turbocharged car, in 1983. In 1983, the Brabham BT52, driven by Piquet and Riccardo Patrese and was powered by BMW's M12 straight-four engine, secured four of the Brabham's thirty-five Grand Prix victories.
The businessman Bernie Ecclestone owned Brabham during most of the 1970s and 1980s, and later became responsible for administering the commercial aspects of Formula One. Ecclestone sold the team in 1988. Its last owner was the Middlebridge Group, a Japanese engineering firm. Midway through the 1992 season, the team collapsed financially as Middlebridge was unable to make repayments against loans provided by Landhurst Leasing. The case was investigated by the United Kingdom Serious Fraud Office. In 2009, a German organisation unsuccessfully attempted to enter the 2010 Formula One season using the Brabham name.
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