NELSON PIQUET
In terms of pure on-track performance, Piquet could top this list. He scored more wins, more poles, started a greater number of races and took more drivers’ titles for Brabham than any other pilot. It’s just the unique position of the person who tops this ranking that keeps Piquet in the number two slot.
Piquet joined Brabham at the end of 1978 for his first full season of F1.
Race finishes were hard to come by, but Piquet had obvious promise and became number one following Niki Lauda’s sudden retirement and was a frontrunner with the Gordon Murray-designed BT49 in 1980.
His first victory came in dominant style at Long Beach. Piquet took pole by nearly a second, led throughout, set fastest lap by more than half a second and (fittingly!) won by 49s. He added two more wins and fought
Alan Jones for the crown, but a clash with the Australian helped the Williams driver clinch the title at the penultimate round in Canada.
It was Piquet versus Williams again in 1981 and this time it went Piquet’s way. After three wins, fifth in the Caesars Palace finale was enough to take the championship by one point over Carlos Reutemann, who faded inexplicably to eighth.
Hector Rebaque was unable to provide enough support to stop Williams beating Brabham in the constructors’ table, but the team’s next big challenge was working with BMW to get its turbocharged engine working. Piquet played a key part in pushing the project along. He bounced back from the ignominy of failing to qualify for the 1982 Detroit GP by winning the Canadian GP just a week later. Reliability remained suspect for much of the campaign, but the Brabham-bmw package was in a better place for 1983.
The last-minute scrapping of ground-effects resulted in Murray producing the dart-like BT52. Piquet won the season-opening Brazilian GP and kept racking up points even as Renault’s Alain Prost hit a purple patch. Once the B version and improved fuel arrived, Piquet put on a late charge, winning two of the last three races and pipping Prost to the title with third in the Kyalami finale.
The Brabham-bmw package was not a match for Mclaren-tag (nee Porsche) in 1984, at least in the races. Piquet took nine poles – more than anyone else – but woeful reliability and the Mclaren’s efficiency limited him to just two wins and fifth in the points.
Pirelli tyres provided another variable in 1985 and reliability was still dubious. A disgruntled Piquet took just one victory, in France, and eighth in the championship before heading off to Williams.