AUSTRALIA'S RACE TEAM! The Demise of the Brabham Formula One Team (1987-1992)
Video contains SOME of the rise as well, because the lead up to the fall is one of success and innovation. But when it dropped off, it was like Lotus. It REALLY dropped off.
As such, two long standing teams dropped off the grid. Brabham having 30 years in the sport but the parallels with Lotus are eerily similar. Someone thrown in jail here, unable to get a works deal there... It's something to consider.
Thankfully though, the name has been kept alive through other means. David Brabham is still active in motorsport and holds on to the name, so there's every chance it could come back.
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The demise of Tyrrell should be the next feature. Like Lotus and Brabham, we lost them in the 90s. And like them, they were a big team who also won the Drivers and Constructor's World Championships.
the last of the garagista as enzo would say
And dont forget ligier
Since the 1984 "World's fastest shotgun" debacle, the team didn't had a stable sponsorship and in its final years it relied mainly on the sponsorship money that the pay drivers were bringing in. But did you know that Tyrrell were almost sponsored by the Rothmans tobacco company? The reason why the 1990 Tyrrell livrey was predominantly blue and white was because to accomodate the Rothmans colors and there are some photos and other materials showing the Tyrrell 018 with the Rothmans logos. But unfortunately that never came to pass.
Today is not the past. You don't win on the past, you win by being the richest most influential. The past pays no bills. Today does.
@@ivaneurope they didn't have consistent sponsorship even before that
Its such a shame we lost so many teams in the 90s
Some of them were no big loss but March, Lotus and Brabham were massive
@@AidanMillwardBrabham and Lotus ... March wasn't a long time entrant. I think the main reason Brabham couldn't survive is that Geoff and David were more interested in racing in IMSA than managing dad's team.
@@413TomaccoRoad March had been around since the 70s
@@AidanMillward Really? It seemed like they were in and out. a couple of times. They had good success in Indy Car in the 80s and IMSA though- with Adrian Newey designing both.
You’d be surprised who drove for March; Niki Lauda, Ronnie Peterson etc.
Hmm, Bernie was accused of having inside knowledge into upcoming rules as he was the head of FOCA. Just imagine the complete conflict of interest in IndyCar where Roger Penske not only owns the entire series, but a top team and the manufacturer of the Chevy engine (Ilmor).
You’ve just described a reason why Championship Auto Racing Teams split into Indy Racing League.
7:45 I'm all for Aiden learning the phrase "Scheiße, die Bullen!". That would be a more correct translation of "Crikey! It's the rozzers!" Cheers from Germany.
sadly he said polizei instead :(
I follow a guy on Twitter who worked for both Brabham and Jordan in the early 90s and he said that the Yamaha V12 wasn’t terrible but just thirsty, unreliable and not overly powerful for what it was. Also it had 5V heads - he recalls Yamaha over at the main factory in Shizuoka tried to run ceramic valves - the engine blew up after less than a minute on the dyno. The valves were 1000 GBP in 1991 pounds.
Ask him an engine being thirsty, unreliable and not overly powerful for what it was isn’t a terrible engine.
@@briankearn6991 Keep in mind it was relative to what was available It was more powerful than the customer Fords, that horrific Porsche V12, and its power figure was around 680HP - so in the ballpark of the Lamborghini V12. It was pretty light for a V12 too. I will add that “not terrible” doesn’t mean good, which is why Yamaha abandoned the V12 for 1993 for a V10 co-developed with Judd. Also they were subsidized by Yamaha itself ($$$$ saved.)
@@briankearn6991 Sorry for the repeated posts, but in simpler terms it was much better than their atrocious V8 of 1989 - legitimately one of the most farcical and embarrassing efforts I’ve ever seen (retroactively of course.)
1989-1992 might be the worst stretch where the teams were folding left and right. In those 4 years, you had: Zakspeed, Rial, Life, Onyx, Osella, Eurobrun, Coloni, Andrea Moda, March, Brabham, AGS, Leyton House, Scuderia Italia/Dallara, Lamborghini Modena, and Fondmetal all fold. A staggering 15 during that period(Technically 14 if you consider Dallara as Scuderia Italia for 1993). That might be an possible new video. Akin to the 1994 Driver roulette, how about an Team Roulette from 1989 to 1992?
Could be possible.
Funny you put Coloni/Andrea Moda and Leyton House/March on that list given you've just mentioned two teams twice. Also remember, Andrea Moda didn't exactly fold, they were kicked out for incompetence
It's basically the Roberto Moreno video.
ATS? Toleman too.
Congrats on being part of Brabham! That's something fun to tell your grandkids about for sure
Gotta have kids first. Not happening. 😅
@@AidanMillward Adopted grandkids then!
@@AidanMillwardthievery time
Glad to see the Brabham name lives on, albeit on e-Sports, but damn, you being part of that team really fit like a glove there.
Love the fact that I can go down the road and buy all sorts of Car parts and accessories from a plain old parts store. (That casually has two F1 championships under its belt 👀) Proud Aussie moment!
Yep
repco?
@@1greenMitsi Yep!
Well Said.
9:30 I think the Brundell brothers caused carnage with Murray Walker too!
It was a confusing time when Derek Warwick, Martin Brundle, and Blundell were all in F1.
Hello Aidan: I am Australian, so thank you very much for this. I am old enough to have had of Jack's car, and Jack on the back of my bedroom door, while he was still racing. Keep up the good work.
One of the Brabham cars was stolen from a garage last year. It was found down the same street with its clutch buggered because whoever stole it tried to roll start it. Didnt work. "Oh hey mick thats a nice new car youve got there where did you buy it from?" "Oh mate totally found it in the Trading Post it was a steal had to have it" "Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah i dont think the trading post deals in formula one cars bruh...."
I have always admired the underdog, 1970 was a titanic struggle because Rindt was unbeatable when the Lotus didn't break, Brabham was unbeatable when the Brabham didn't run out fuel or crash on the last lap, and Ickx was unbeatable when the Ferrari felt like cooperating. Then came Monza and Rindt was dead and the heart was torn out of the titanic struggle. I desperately wanted Ickx to win the championship and desperately hoped that he didn't. I loved those beautiful fragile lethal cars and I hated them... They were the glory years and they were terrible...
I know F1 doesn't have relegation but it would have been cool if Bernie somehow got control of GP2/F2 back then and had spots set aside for historic F1 teams of 10 years or more to downsize and to and keep going at a smaller scale. Imagine watching F2 with all the young drivers racing in teams with names like Lotus, Brabham, Minardi, Stewart, Jordan, Prost, Ligier, Tyrrell with some of those historic liveries still on the track.
That’s awesome that you race for Brabham
Berniebucks- copyright it Aidan. Well done on Brabham!
When Ecclestone, Piquet and Murray left, the heart went.
Bernie is a video series, not just a video.
1992 was the first full season I watched - I remember seeing the Brabhams struggle their way through the first half of the season and reading about Damon Hill coming through. To me, they were a small team that was quite good on Slicks on the Commodore 64 until I read about them and saw just how good they’d been. They were a loss, especially as I prefer the smaller teams!
Excellent as always - I’ll point out WRT BMW engines for the 1987 BT56 they were stuck with the old lay-down units intended for the BT55 that were badged as BMWs. They sold the rights to the upright units that Arrows and Ligier used to a Swiss Company and they were badged as the awesomely named “Megatrons”. The BT56 does possess a record that will likely never be broken - it never took the flag in De Cesaris hands throughout the season. 14 DNFs, 2 classified finishes, and one podium, a 3rd at Spa. Only Andrea could have pulled this off. Brabham post-Lauda was really a 1.5 car team from 1979-1985. It’s why Patrese left. The BT55 would have likely been better suited for a V6 - pretty car though, and I think might have been one of the first cars of any sort with a 7-speed manual.
The 7 speed manual is so amazing, so rarely you would get a configuration like that might have been the first 7 speed gearbox in F1 It’s such an interesting car I’m pretty sure the engine vibrations being tilted horizontally was the cause of the unreliability
@@RANDOMZBOSSMAN1 It had oil sealing issues too.
Their last win was Nelson Piquets win at Paul Richard in 1985, his only that season. The previous year, he only scored two wins due to the horrible reliability of the BMW Turbo engine. I'd say their troubles began long before they lost the factory support of BMW. I would say that the turning point where things started getting sour for the Brabham team was 1986. The radical Gordon Murray penned BT55, which looked fantastic, turned out to be a complete dud with the equally radical laying down BMW engine, they went from race winners to barely scoring any points that season. Murray left for McLaren halfway through the season. May I suggest that you make the BT55 the subject of its own video?
I adore the way the BT55 looks and the way it was designed. Had a 7-speed manual too.
David Brabham showed the sort of bloke he was in the dignified and amazing way he dealt with the events at Imola in 1994. One of the good blokes in Motorsport, according to everyone who's ever worked with him.
“Crikey! It’s the Rozzers!” is my favourite catchphrase of the year so far!
I took out a package for Project Brabham about 10 years ago - what happened to that? Love that hot pink / 2 tone blue scheme, it's what I use for my race car :)
awesome video, it's a great shame that Brabaham are no longer on the grid
being associated with Brabham is very cool, congrats!
I started watching F1 in 1992, and the Brabham BT60 looked amazing to me (the black and white, not the purple version). Too bad the engine was crap. Teams like Brabham, Tyrrell, Lotus, Ligier and Minardi should be revived in F1. Thank you for the video.
I learn something new everyday so that’s why the team was recorded as Motor racing developments ltd on the entry list for the most part rather than Brabham racing Also going through their racing history a lot of time they did complete sell their naming rights kinda similar to what racing bulls have done with the names such as Martini racing or Parmalat Racing or Fila sport
Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin
That 92 Brabham sounded lovely at the Britush GP a few years ago.
Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.
congrats on your association with the legendary name!
Being associated with Brabham? Yes,...........IMMENSELY COOL!
Seeing that BT46 fan car with clearly visible Goodyear decals yet having Avon tyres on it made me chuckle for a bit. Then I remembered that Goodyear now owns Avon. And speaking of that BT46, if you're branching out on covering histories of F1 sponsors you need to do a history of Parmalat. You'll have a field day.
Afternoon Aidan. Have you considered lately doing more content to the "unique little guys" in Motosport? Now Im not talking the Colonis and Eurobruns, but more like the Minardis. For instance, I was always curious about a piece surrounding Fittipaldi, with not just their quite insane story of Emerson joining the team, but as well as the fact of them being the only South American constructor to make the grid. Though I suspect finding information about them to be difficult, even more so in English.
Fittipaldi is on the list of to do, eventually.
RIP Wilson as well, recall he passed away not too long ago.
I did a video concerning the driver owner teams a few months ago if you want to check it out
awesome video
That comeback kind of rather makes me think of Ginetta, a name I first encountered on Gran Turismo 4 back in the day but who, as far as I could discern at any rate, seemed to disappear entirely, only to resurface a few years back with a factory in my hometown of Leeds no less, advertising for jobs as well in the Yorkshire Evenning Post, my late dad showed me! I'd jus taken up learning welding and fabrication (still need to finish that... waylaid by Beer Bug...) so there could have been a job for me there at some point! Could still be in fact! They even competed at Le Mans, giving me this lovely image of a paddock full of flatcaps and whippets! "Oh, a small part's broke? Bring out the ferret!" (I'll stop now...)
Another great video, Aidan.
how haven't I not known you before, such a great video
My grandad had a Brabham HB Torana... Dad reckoned it loved to get airborne around Clayfield and Paddington 😂😂😂😂
A video on the 2 Italian Teams? Minardi & Scuderia Italia?
A few comments: the Repco 620 was not a new engine, rather it was GM V8 converted from OHV to SOHC decreased in displacement from 3.5 to 3 litres. That's the same engine as 3500 Rover. Rindt won the title but didn't didn't run all the races, he was dead.
Hi Aidan, would love hear your opinion on the F1 Acadamy Controversial from last Race about Pin.
I've been playing the new Forza Motorsport - it's nice they can dripfeed out a new championship every week and get me to try out a new car for a few hours. The BT62 is by far my favorite car in the game.
With your recent videos on the demise of teams, would you consider a video on the demise of nations in the sport? The early 90s had 7-10 Italian drivers on the grid each year! With Giovinazzi being the only recent driver. And frequently 0 Next year could see no German drivers on the grid if Hulk is replaced. A sharp contrast to mid 2000s when there was 2 Schumachers, Heidfeld, Sutil, Glock and an emerging Vettel, Rosberg and Hulkenburg!
I think you should do the story of the ATS team because they were a team that had high and low.
Brabham, Lotus, Tyrrell. All legendary teams now sadly done. How long will it be until Williams goes the same way?
With the new (and better) leadership as well as investment, thankfully it will not fall by the wayside. It'll take abit to be regularly competitive considering the team was operating with methods nearly 2 decades out of date before the arrival of James Vowles, but its becoming way better then its been in a long while.
Suggestion for next episode: The worst career start of future world champion. Damon Hill will be in it
Mika Hakkenin had a long winless run too.
@Aiden Millward - You mentioned Landhurst Leasing in this video. They would make a VERY interesting video as they had fingers in all sorts of motorsports pies, not just F1 through their boss, Ted Ball. Hit me up if you want more info.
Congratulations Aidan!
2018 Brabham BT62 1977 Aston Martin V8 Vantage 1969 Mustang Boss 429
For a second, my "octane" focused brain heard you say "RON Rating" and I thought of Ron Dennis. I think I've watched too many of your videos.
There is/was a BT62 mod for AC. Think I found it on Race Department.
It was supposed to be in the ACC GT2 pack but the licensing never went through.
Do you plan on doing a video on the decline and fall of Team Tyrell?
Would Brabham count as the last single car team in 1992? Also the last car to participate in a pre-qualifying session.
Interesting thing with the active suspension lotus was experimenting one it was whilst nigel mansell was at Lotus and its possibly why he adapted to It better than his teammate did when Williams adopted it. there is an old clip on youtube (sadly I can't find it) where Mansell drives a modified esprit with active suspension and praises it highly.
Active cars suited aggressive drivers.
@@AidanMillward Mansell was one of the first to drive an active car all the way back in 1983.
A Brabham the Bernie years sound interesting
Congratulations on joining Brabham. Do you stream your iRacing anywhere?
If I stream, it’s always here. I did 8hrs solo for make a wish back in November that was the last stream I did. I need to find a new league to do tho.
🏁
Bernie Ecclestone lost interest in brabham long before he sold it. It was hard work from then on. A sad end for whatever reason.
Ohhhh bloody ripper! Aussie content that isn't one of the 54865874654736583387 American reaction channels lmao
Wanna know if those channels are run by Americans? Don't worry, they'll fucking tell you... :P
The Japanese bubble economy going pop really did do a number on F1, didn't it?
Learning about racing history is bittersweet, because on one hand, the stories are amazing, but in the other, you can't really get stories of people at the highest tiers going "fuck it, I'm putting a door on top of my car for downforce" or "screw it, jet turbine in my single seater" now. Regs are awesome, but safety and understanding of physics has limited the insane and seemingly out of nowhere leaps that motorsport made in the earlier years. Now with things like the 9x8's ground effect or the vacuum suction McMurtry car, there is promise for sure and I hope to keep seeing crazy innovations, but nowadays the cost just keeps rising and the gains are getting smaller ad we approach the limits (at least with human bodies inside)
7:45 I returned 3 times to this mark just to enjoy you speaking German 😂
I’ve said it in Italian, German and Japanese at this point
“Yes, but ve vill half it!” James May’s rozzers moments & his contagious laugh are legendary! Like when Clarkson mimics accents or adanoids!
instability at the top leading to the drop off of a team... sounds familiar to something going on right now... maybe in 10 years aidan will be doing a video like this about renault/alpine, who knows
Inspector Blundell was probably working undercover for the SFO😂
Yes it is cool, very cool indeed
To quote Charlie Whiting, who was chief mechanic of Brabham in the 80's, "We never had a legal car". Former F1 Race Director, Charlie Whiting. As they say, it takes a cheater to catch a cheater.
Don’t think anyone back then had a legal car.
Ecclestone got Formula 1 and that was all she wrote for Brabham.
Next Video: SEAT's WRC Programme
What a pity
5:56 So this story for the 1986 Brabham car Gordon Murray IIRC completely changed the car concept from 1985 which required the engine to be tilted and a specially made 7 speed *manual* (unusual ikr!) gearbox which the longer being lower drag more vroom It didn’t quite pay off leading to disagreements and Murray leaving the company however because BMW spent a lot of money making these titled engines these were the engines they were forced to use for 1987
In 1992 Damon Hill would go from testing the best car on the grid (Williams) to racing the worst. Usually on his own getting lapped.
Jack.
ecclestone moving on from brabham killed it, just as if Frank or Ron leaving williams and mclaren respectively would have ended them
I'd argue the absolute stubborness of both are what made both teams go down the toilet if Adrian Newey's experience is anything to go by. It was only after they left and new people as well as better management that there is now improvement to be found.
@@RACECAR are you sure about that? how many championships have mclaren and williams won since ron and frank arent around? 😓
frank and ron literally carried their teams in the period when Formula 1 was most unstable (and eccelstone left brabham to die)
I spoke to David Brabham once, he told me the 1990 car was awful
You said piquets first title was in 1991 but i think you meant to say 1981.
ONE POINT FOUR K AWAY!!!!
I saw the 1992 car a few times at the Donington museum before they closed it down. Kinda liked the colour scheme though who the hell were "Madras"? It looked like the car was sponsored by curry!
Madras was a Japanese company that make shoes. Most Brabham sponsors in the 1989-1992 era were Japanese (Yamazen, for example) - at some rounds in 1989 and 1990 they ran Kanji/Hiragana/Katakana on the car. It was likely due to Kohji Nakauchi’s, who owned Middlebridge, connections. He was a guy who loved English Sportscars, particularly Caterhams (actually one of the largest markets for them is Japan, and it’s owned by a Japanese company.)
@@palm92 thanks for that, very informative. I did try and quickly look a few years ago but as you can imagine, searching for the word "Madras" on Google didn't yield a lot, and I didn't look too hard to be fair. I assume that they are/were a relatively obscure company that doesn't exist anymore.
Bernie really screwed over Brabham in 1988, he was so preoccupied with FOM that he hadn't even bothered to even try and get Brabham an engine deal for 88 and by the time he sold the team they'd missed the deadline to enter the 1988 season which is why Brum sold the team on as quickly as possible because they were useless to him.
Pretty much spot on. Bernie really did fuck them over to such an extent, they imploded within a few years.
If you ever get serious about doing a video concerning Brabhams 1983 season, I could contribute some pictures I have taken of the Brabham BT52 free of charge. Edit: Details of the car photographed in 2014, not during the '83 season.
I wonder how Robert Vesco missed out on owning a Formula One team.
Even though the Brabham was founded by an Australian, not once in the 30 years the team competed in F1 they never entered under a Australian licence
The reason the early Brabham cars were painted turquoise and yellow is because those are Australia's racing colours.
The team that gave Damon Hill the chance to race in F1 for the first time.
We are going to need a special edition of Story Time just called "The Bernie Files" which features every major story and controversy that Bernie has been involved in. 😂
For some reason, I imagined the Law & Order intro as I read that.
10:40 Honestly if you're ever feeling up to it, could you do a story time on the Japanese economy from the 80's through the turn of the millennium? It's a shame how little the Japanese boom-turned-recession is talked about in car/motorsports circles, because that was responsible for the explosion in Japanese sports cars which lasted barely a decade, to say nothing of Japanese racing series and teams.
To all the bots on here, it’s alright, I just had to watch an advert of a man taking a piss b4 this video started!!
When you gotta go you gotta go
That bottle advert with “ze annoyin’ Fake French accent” at least he could piss in a lake, better than drivers having to go in the car (or vomit in Webber’s case) PS: Aidan Millward in a Brabham has a nice ring to it.
Make the designers drive their own cars. F1 2.0. put up or shut up. Sound like a great idea. Don't have me for free thought.
Have the drivers design their own cars.
Brilliant! @@briankearn6991
I get the feeling even that would still have a Red Bull ontop as it turns out Newey is abit of a driver himself. Not sure I can say the same about ANY of the current designers in F1.
'Shitezer' means crikey. Alr 😂
the brab guy wanted to continue racing. the ham guy wants to produce spiral honey hams. bernie ecclestone wanted to become a billionaire so he sold the team.
Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah but it was never really our team was it. Aside from the nationality of the owner everything else about Brabham was pretty much British. Oh. Except Repco's involvement which to be honest im still confused about, they just build spares for other people, and the team were more known for Ford power.
I can't help but feel Stefano Modena was a huge wasted talent. Hell, he managed to score a point in the embarassing 1992 Jordan
The best thing that Sir Jack did was taking an underpowered Coventry Climax car to the Indy 900 and finish ninth. They called it a "fruity car." In other words, you had to be queer, a homosexual, to bring over a rear engine car, with a powerplant down by a 140h, with tires from Dunlop. I'm 76 and that is how I heard it. From my Dad and his friends, and likely all of USAC. I'm saying this as apolitical. That is how revolutionary Sir Jack Brabham was.
Sadly, turns out David Brabham was a kiddy fiddler.*EDIT* Sorry, that was Gary who was the rockspider.
AM: because my german is well, non existant Also AM: "Scheiße die Polizei!" lovely attempt at pronouncing it btw :D consider that point proven xD
7:45 not too bad! Probably the best pronounced "Polizei" I've heard from a Brit^^ Only the ß in Scheiße is a bit harder than just an s. It's more like the sound in "race" or "gaze". Like: "Shyze-eh" :) Oh and "die" is pronounced "dee". And for those who really care, I think "crikey it's the rozzers" would be "Scheiße die Bullen!" Which gives german criminals and F1 fans something to have in common ^^