Jack Brabham

Jack Brabham Career Overview

Australia’s first F1 World Champion, Jack Brabham remains the only driver to have won the title driving a car bearing his own name.

One of F1’s first superstars and the most dominant successor to the era of Juan Manuel Fangio, Brabham won the title on three occasions in 1959, 1960 and 1966.

Winning his first two titles with Cooper - for whom he worked as an engineer too - Brabham went on to form the Brabham Racing Organisation and won his first title as its driver in 1966.

The team bearing his name would go on to win three more drivers’ world titles, once in the year after his own crown (Denny Hulme) and another two in 1981 and 1983 with Nelson Piquet, albeit under different ownership by then.

During his F1 career, Brabham started 126 Grands Prix, won 14 races and scored 31 podiums.

Jack Brabham F1 Career Team-by-Team

Cooper: 1955-1961

A mechanic in the Royal Australian Air Force, Brabham was coaxed in competing in the popular Australian ‘midgets’ series by a friend. Discovering he had a flair behind the wheel, Brabham subsequently moved to Europe in an effort to kickstart a racing career.

Purchasing a 2-litre Cooper Bobtail, Brabham made his F1 debut in the British Grand Prix in the uncompetitive car - failing to finish - but turned heads by using the machine to tussle with the likes of Stirling Moss during a non-championship event at Snetterton and win the (also non-championship) Australian Grand Prix that same year.

The following year he entered his own Maserati-engined Brabham car at Silverstone again with no success, but remained on Cooper’s radar with sportscar and Formula 2 outings before getting a part-season campaign with the team in 1957.

Though his success was still fleeting, he got a full campaign in 1958 and finally cracked the points for the first time in the Monaco Grand Prix with a run to fourth position. 

Brabham’s determination paid off for the 1959 F1 season when he was upgraded to the more powerful 2.5-litre Cooper and immediately demonstrated his craft with victory on his first outing in the car at Monaco, backing it up with another win at Aintree.

However, his title ambitions were almost ruined by a serious accident at the Portuguese Grand Prix in Monsanto, when he lost control while overtaking a backmarker and struck a telegraph pole that launched him out of the car. Mercifully he was uninjured (and F1 never raced at Monsanto again), Brabham remaining in a three-way fight for the title into the final round.

With Moss retiring, Brabham was all set to win the Watkins Glen finale when he ran out of fuel on the final lap. Brabham jumped out and began pushing the stricken machine across the line to be classified fourth, though with Tony Brooks only able to manage third, he wouldn’t have needed to do it.

With one title in the bag, Brabham’s defence in 1960 began badly with a failure to finish in Argentina and an exclusion from Monaco for receiving outside assistance when he spun. However, thereafter he was untouchable, reeling off five straight wins to crown him champion even before the penultimate round in Italy was cancelled on the grounds of safety.

With Porsche, Lotus and Ferrari all coming to the fore following a switch to 1.5-litre engines, Brabham and Cooper endured a tough 1961 season that consigned him to only two top six results, leaving him 11th overall.

Brabham: 1962- 1970

It was during this time that Brabham set about founding his own set up away from Cooper, drawing upon his engineering background to form his own team and build his own cars. 

Commentators of the time recognised Brabham’s skill in setting up his cars prior to racing that enabled the Cooper to be more consistent and reliable than his counterparts, so Jack subsequently put this to a broader use.

While a number of drivers - including Graham Hill, John Surtees and the Fittipaldis - have attempted something similar over the years, Brabham stands clear as the most successful driver-to-manager combination to compete in F1.

That’s not to say success came quickly for Brabham, even if it was a consistent scorer from its first season in 1962. Running in the upper midfield for the years to come, between 1963 and 1965 Brabham himself achieved four podiums, peaking with a second place finish in the 1963 Mexican Grand Prix.

The stars eventually aligned again in 1966 after a run of four wins (France, Britain, Netherlands and Germany) that set Brabham on course for his third title but first as a team owner, comfortably clear of John Surtees.

He almost won again the following year in 1968 after wins in France and Canada, plus four podiums, but he would be beaten - satisfyingly - by his own team-mate Denny Hulme, who at least brought Brabham a second consecutive drivers’ crown. Brabham’s desire to debut innovative, but frail, new parts is regarded as the reason for him missing out on the title by four points.

The 1968 F1 season would prove considerably more challenging with Brabham achieving only a single points’ finish all year, before a crash during testing in 1969 forced him to sit out three events with a foot injury. On his return Brabham appeared back to his best with a trio of strong results, but intimated these would be his last in F1.

However, with Brabham unable to source a top replacement for himself, he stayed on in 1970 and duly clinched his first win in four years at the season opening South African Grand Prix, followed by three more podiums over the next six races that put him in title contention. 

A non-scoring stretch during the second-half of the year though demoted him to fifth overall and with it the decision to retire aged 44.

Jack Brabham - Beyond F1

Save for a stint in the 1970 World Sportscar Championship - winning the Paris 1000km in what would be his final international race outing - Brabham largely retired from driving as a whole to spend the remainder of retirement in his native Australia.

His only outings were in the iconic Bathurst 1000 race - between 1976 and 1978 - achieving a best result of sixth position in the latter event.

Brabham’s legacy continued to live on through the team that he founded, enjoying notable success in the 1970s and 1980s, even if it was under the ownership of Bernie Ecclestone by the time the team returned to title-winning glory in 1981 and 1983.

His son David Brabham raced - with minimal success - in F1 for two seasons, once in 1990 with Brabham and again in 1994 at Simtek. However, he would go on to prove an adept sportscar racer, winning his class on four occasions (GT1, LMGTP, GT1, GT2) at the 12 Hours of Sebring and winning the Le Mans 24 Hours outright with Peugeot in 2009 (one of three class wins)