t the end of the 1970s, the hugely successful
Brabham team’s performance had taken a
sudden, dramatic nose-dive. Thelast two
years of the discodecade 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 spentfl attering 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 thefl at-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 thescoresheet featured more retirements
than a Saga holiday cruise.
The situation wasso di re that GordonMurray wastasked
with quicklyputting togethera new car– the BT49 – to be
rolled out before the endof the season, ideally to ironout the
BT48’s failings.It also had toaccommodate a new engine,
as Brabham’s relationship with Alfa Romeo had soured. Th e
fl at-12 was too wideto accommodate ground effects, soAlfa
provided a new V12 engi ne, but it was horrendouslyunreli able.
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 thansuffi cient
for Brabham’s engineers to focus on optimisingtheir
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 1979Canadian Grand Prix.
The team leader mantle was passed to Nelson Piquet, while
Brabham drafted in Ricardo Zunino – who just happenedto
be in Montréal as a spectator – tofi ll the vacant seat.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
secondfor the seasonfi nale at Watkins Glen. For thesix
weeks of hurried work needed to put it together, the early
iteration ofthe BT49 seemed like a great starting point.
In essence, the BT49 was a BT48 trimmed ofexcess,
but with significantly more developmentpoten tial and it
proved to be a clear step up from itspredecessor. Piquet took
second place in the Argentina season opener, stamping his
championship credentials onthe 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 thedrivers’ 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
engineexpired after 23 laps. The Australianfi nished the
year with another win at Watkins Glen when Piquet retired
following a spin onworn tyres.
Over the off-season in thelead-up to 1981, governing body
FISA banned the ubiquitous sliding skirts, whichpreven ted
the leakage of airflow between the undersideof the car and
the ambient external conditions, and set a mandatory 60mm
minimum ride height.As a workaround, Murrayintr oduced
hydropneumatic suspension, which supported thecar enough
to meet theregulations, but compressed theair spri ngs under
aerodynamic loadto brin g the chassiscloser to the ground–
reproducing stronger ground effect.A
NOW
THAT
WAS
A
CAR
No.79BRABHAM
BT49