BRABHAM’S GLORIOUS BT49
The Gordon Murray-designed car that resulted in a first F1 championship – of any kind – for Brabham since 1967
NOW THAT WAS A CAR No. 79 WORDS JAKE BOXALL-LEGGE PICTURES JAMES MANN
At the end of the 1970s, the hugely successful Brabham team’s performance had taken a sudden, dramatic nose-dive. The last two years of the disco decade had been very different for Bernie Ecclestone’s squad; for all of its controversies, Brabham had enjoyed a moderately successful 1978 season after a couple of years spent flattering to deceive. Despite making a gentleman’s agreement not to run the BT46B ‘fan car’ that so expertly blew away its competition (and many other small objects) in Anderstorp, Brabham won once again in Monza as reigning champion Niki Lauda revelled in the power of the flat-12 Alfa Romeo engine. By comparison, 1979’s results with the BT48 were nothing short of dreadful; the team found joining the ground effect craze problematic, and the scoresheet featured more retirements than a Saga holiday cruise.
The situation was so dire that Gordon Murray was tasked with quickly putting together a new car – the BT49 – to be rolled out before the end of the season, ideally to iron out the BT48’S failings. It also had to accommodate a new engine, as Brabham’s relationship with Alfa Romeo had soured. The flat-12 was too wide to accommodate ground effects, so Alfa provided a new V12 engine, but it was horrendously unreliable.
In its place, the time-tested Ford Cosworth DFV was dropped into the back; while less powerful than Alfa’s 12-cylinder powerplant, the DFV was trustworthy and significantly less thirsty, proving more than sufficient for Brabham’s engineers to focus on optimising their underfloor aerodynamics.
The appearance of the new car wasn’t enough for Brabham to keep Lauda, who handed in his notice with immediate effect during practice for the 1979 Canadian Grand Prix. The team leader mantle was passed to Nelson Piquet, while Brabham drafted in Ricardo Zunino – who just happened to be in Montréal as a spectator – to fill the vacant seat.
NOW THAT WAS A CAR No. 79 BR AB HA M B T 4 9
The car immediately showed improved performance over the beleaguered BT48, and Piquet ran as high as third in Canada before his gearbox called it a day – and qualified second for the season finale at Watkins Glen. For the six weeks of hurried work needed to put it together, the early iteration of the BT49 seemed like a great starting point.
In essence, the BT49 was a BT48 trimmed of excess, but with significantly more development potential and it proved to be a clear step up from its predecessor. Piquet took second place in the Argentina season opener, stamping his championship credentials on the 1980 season.
Victory in the fourth round at Long Beach brought Piquet to an early joint-lead of the standings with Renault’s René Arnoux and ahead of the intrepid Alan Jones. Like Brabham, Jones’s Williams team had pounced on and perfected the ground effect formula; the FW07 chassis was every bit the BT49’S equal.
Regardless, the constructors’ title was out of reach for Brabham, and even binning off Zunino midway through 1980 for Hector Rebaque yielded just one point from the second car. On the drivers’ front, however, Piquet held his own; with two rounds left, he led Jones by one point after back-to-back victories at Zandvoort and Imola. But then, it fell apart.
Jones clinched the title with victory in Canada as Piquet’s engine expired after 23 laps. The Australian finished the year with another win at Watkins Glen when Piquet retired following a spin on worn tyres.
Over the off-season in the lead-up to 1981, governing body FISA banned the ubiquitous sliding skirts, which prevented the leakage of airflow between the underside of the car and the ambient external conditions, and set a mandatory 60mm minimum ride height. As a workaround, Murray introduced hydropneumatic suspension, which supported the car enough to meet the regulations, but compressed the air springs under aerodynamic load to bring the chassis closer to the ground – reproducing stronger ground effect.
Brabham also improved braking performance by phasing out steel brakes for carbon discs and pads.
The 1981 season proved to be one of the closest-run championships; not only did Piquet have reigning champion Jones to contend with, but Carlos Reutemann, Jacques Laffite and Alain Prost were firmly in the hunt for glory too. Brabham’s consistency served Piquet well in the early part of the season, managing a third and two victories in the opening four races - only an ill-advised gamble to start from pole at the wet Brazilian Grand Prix on slicks blotted the copybook.
Reutemann had the upper hand and was three points clear of Piquet after the opening four races. Then, it looked like it had all unravelled spectacularly. Jones shoved Piquet into a fence at Zolder, before the Brabham driver’s error in Monaco when leading saw him come to rest in a barrier. Then, at Jarama, Piquet went too deep into Turn 11 and narrowly avoided a brush with some catch fencing.
The slide was arrested at Dijon with third, but a burst tyre at Silverstone sent Piquet into a heavy incident at Becketts while Reutemann sauntered into a 17-point lead. With six rounds left, Piquet had to cut out the incidents and he duly did so. Victory at Hockenheim got the recovery underway, and Piquet never strayed from the points throughout the rest SPECIFICATION Chassis Aluminium alloy monocoque, carbon-fibre reinforcement Suspension Double-wishbone pullrod suspension
Engine Ford Cosworth DFV 90-degree V8
Engine Capacity 2993cc
Power 500bhp @ 11,000 rpm
Gearbox Hewland six-speed manual gearbox Tyres Goodyear/michelin
Weight: 580kg Notable drivers Nelson Piquet, Hector Rebaque, Ricardo Zunino, Riccardo Patrese of the year as Reutemann faltered spectacularly. By a single point, Piquet won his first of three world titles.
A handful of appearances for a D-spec BT49 in 1982 gave the team a solid package to work with as the BMW turbo-powered BT50 was sorted. But for a car that was conceived and built in just a few weeks, the BT49 was immediately quick - and delivered Brabham a drivers’ title for the first time since 1967.
“WITH SIX ROUNDS LEFT, PIQUET HAD TO CUT OUT THE INCIDENTS AND HE DULY DID SO. VICTORY AT HOCKENHEIM GOT THE RECOVERY UNDERWAY”