COULD BRABHAM EVER RETURN TO F1?
Ron Tauranac may have thought that Formula 1 was a distraction from the customer side of the Motor Racing Developments business, but Brabham’s success at the pinnacle of the sport was considerable. It is still eighth on the list of all-time world championship race wins, having only been overtaken by Renault/alpine at the 2021 Hungarian GP.
David Brabham, who started 24 F1 races for Brabham and Simtek, doesn’t rule out a Brabham return but believes such a project will look very different to the team that first appeared with Lotus chassis in 1962 or the Middlebridge squad that closed 30 years later.
“It’s close to our hearts and we want F1 to be a success and still be the pinnacle and leader in technology,” says Brabham. “There’s a lot of change going on – the fans have got a lot more engaged content now of what’s going on, the F1 paddock has opened up. The Netflix scenario has opened up a whole new audience and there are new regulations coming in 2026, synthetic fuels are going to become more prominent.
“I love watching F1 and it is still very healthy, although it’s pretty much a closed shop. For any new team coming in it’s probably near-impossible. I could be wrong but I think the barriers are quite high unless you are a major manufacturer. But it sounds like the big manufacturers aren’t really interested in doing something themselves, they want to do it with established teams, which will probably make it even harder for new teams to come in.”
There could, however, be another way in: “I’d still love to see Brabham back in F1. I can’t tell you how many people have approached us, saying, ‘We’re going to buy a team and we want a brand so we want to talk to you.’ You get really excited and then you start diving in to see how it could work and then the project would fail because the money didn’t turn up.
“The long-term dream would be to win Le Mans with a Brabham car and to see Brabham back in F1, but that won’t be through Brabham Automotive, that would be a separate brand activation.”