Editing Brabham (section)

===Bernie Ecclestone (1972–1988)===

Tauranac left Brabham early in the [[1972 Formula One season|1972 season]] after Ecclestone changed the way the company was organised without consulting him. Ecclestone has since said "In retrospect, the relationship was never going to work", noting that "[Tauranac and I] both take the view: 'Please be reasonable, do it my way'".<ref>Lawrence. pp. 116–118</ref> The highlights of an aimless year, during which the team ran three different models, were pole position for Argentinian driver [[Carlos Reutemann]] at his home race at [[Buenos Aires]] and a victory in the non-championship Interlagos Grand Prix. For the [[1973 Formula One season|1973 season]], Ecclestone promoted the young South African engineer [[Gordon Murray]] to chief designer and moved Herbie Blash from the Formula Two programme to become the Formula One team manager. Both would remain with the team for the next 15 years. For 1973, Murray produced the triangular cross-section BT42, with which Reutemann scored two podium finishes and finished seventh in the Drivers' Championship.

[[File:Brabham BT44 front.jpg|thumb|left|alt=A mid-engined single-seater racing car with large aerodynamic wings|The [[Brabham BT44]] on display in 2003.  The car was used in the {{F1|1974}} and {{F1|1975}} seasons.]]
In the [[1974 Formula One season|1974 season]], Reutemann took the first three victories of his Formula One career, and Brabham's first since 1970. The team finished a close fifth in the Constructors' Championship, fielding the much more competitive [[Brabham BT44|BT44s]]. After a strong finish to the 1974 season, many observers felt the team were favourites to win the [[1975 Formula One season|1975 title]]. The year started well, with a first win for Brazilian driver [[José Carlos Pace|Carlos Pace]] at the [[Autódromo José Carlos Pace|Interlagos]] circuit in his native [[São Paulo]]. However, as the season progressed, tyre wear frequently slowed the cars in races, and the team was constantly outperformed by [[Scuderia Ferrari|Ferrari]] and [[McLaren]].<ref>Gill (ed.) (1976) p. 103</ref> Pace took another two podiums and finished sixth in the championship; while Reutemann had five podium finishes, including a dominant win in the [[1975 German Grand Prix]], and finished third in the Drivers' Championship. The team likewise ranked second in the Constructors' Championship at the end of the year.<ref name=":0" />

While rival teams Lotus and McLaren relied on the Cosworth DFV engine from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, Ecclestone sought a competitive advantage by investigating other options. Despite the success of Murray's Cosworth-powered cars, Ecclestone signed a deal with Italian motor manufacturer [[Alfa Romeo in Formula One|Alfa Romeo]] to use their large and powerful [[flat-12]] engine from the [[1976 Formula One season|1976 season]]. The engines were free, but they rendered the new [[Brabham BT45|BT45s]], now in red [[Martini Racing]] livery, unreliable and overweight.<ref>Henry (1985) pp. 159–161</ref> At that time, designer David North was hired to work alongside Murray.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.grandprix.com//news/david-north-and-jordan.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200717225323/https://www.grandprix.com//news/david-north-and-jordan.html | title=David North and Jordan?|website=grandprix.com| publisher = Inside F1 Inc. | archive-date=17 July 2020}}</ref> The 1976 and [[1977 Formula One season|1977 seasons]] saw Brabham fall toward the back of the field again. Reutemann negotiated a release from his contract before the end of the 1976 season and signed with Ferrari. Ulsterman [[John Watson (racing driver)|John Watson]] replaced him at Brabham for 1977. Watson lost near certain victory in the [[1977 French Grand Prix|French Grand Prix]] (Dijon) of that year when his car ran low on fuel on the last lap and was passed by Mario Andretti's Lotus, with Watson's second place being the team's best result of the season. The car often showed at the head of races, but the unreliability of the Alfa Romeo engine was a major problem. The team lost Pace early in the 1977 season when he died in a [[light aircraft]] accident.<ref>Henry (1985) pp. 164, 167</ref>

For the [[1978 Formula One season|1978 season]], Murray's [[Brabham BT46|BT46]] featured several new technologies to overcome the weight and packaging difficulties caused by the Alfa Romeo engines. Ecclestone signed then two-time Formula One world champion [[Niki Lauda]] from Ferrari through a deal with Italian dairy products company [[Parmalat]] which met the cost of Lauda ending his Ferrari contract and made up his salary to the £200,000 Ferrari was offering. 1978 was the year of the dominant [[Lotus 79]] "wing car", which used [[aerodynamic]] [[ground effect in cars|ground effect]] to stick to the track when cornering, but Lauda won two races in the BT46, one with the controversial "B" or "[[Brabham BT46#Brabham BT46B .E2.80.93 the .22Fan car.22|fan car]]" version.<ref>Details of BT46 and 1978 season: Henry (1985) p. 171, pp. 179–189
* Lauda's move and salary: Lovell (2004) p. 98</ref>

The partnership with Alfa Romeo ended during the [[1979 Formula One season|1979 season]], the team's first with young Brazilian driver [[Nelson Piquet]]. Murray designed the full-ground effect [[Brabham BT48|BT48]] around a rapidly developed new Alfa Romeo V12 engine and incorporated an effective "carbon-carbon braking" system—[[#Technical innovation|a technology Brabham pioneered in 1976]]. However, unexpected movement of the car's aerodynamic [[center of pressure (fluid mechanics)|centre of pressure]] made its handling unpredictable and the new engine was unreliable. The team dropped to eighth in the Constructors' Championship by the end of the season.<ref>Henry (1985) p. 191</ref> Alfa Romeo started testing their own Formula One car during the season, prompting Ecclestone to revert to Cosworth DFV engines, a move Murray described as being "like having a holiday".<ref>Henry (1985) pp. 213, 215</ref> The new, lighter, Cosworth-powered [[Brabham BT49|BT49]] was introduced before the end of the year at the [[1979 Canadian Grand Prix|Canadian Grand Prix]]; where after practice Lauda announced his immediate retirement from driving, later saying that he "was no longer getting any pleasure from driving round and round in circles".<ref>Henry (1985) p. 216</ref>

[[File:2005 Brands Hatch A1GP 25 Sept Christian Glaesel Brabham BT49D.jpg|left|thumb|alt=A mid-engined single-seater racing car with large aerodynamic wings|The [[Brabham BT49]] competed over four seasons, winning one championship.{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}]]

The team used the BT49 over four seasons. In the [[1980 Formula One season|1980 season]] Piquet scored three wins and the team took third in the Constructors' Championship with Piquet second in the Drivers' Championship. This season saw the introduction of the blue and white livery that the cars would wear through several changes of sponsor, until the team's demise in 1992. With a better understanding of ground effect, the team further developed the BT49C for the [[1981 Formula One season|1981 season]], incorporating a hydropneumatic suspension system to avoid [[ride height]] limitations intended to reduce downforce. Piquet, who had developed a close working relationship with Murray,<ref name="RoePiq">Roebuck (1986) p. 114</ref> took the drivers' title with three wins, albeit [[#Controversy|amid accusations of cheating]]. The team finished second in the Constructors' Championship, behind the [[WilliamsF1|Williams team]].<ref name=":0" />

[[Renault F1|Renault]] had introduced [[turbocharged]] engines to Formula One in 1977. Brabham had tested a [[BMW in Formula One|BMW]] four-cylinder [[BMW M12|M12]] turbocharged engine in the summer of 1981. For the [[1982 Formula One season|1982 season]] the team designed a new car, the [[Brabham BT50|BT50]], around the BMW engine which, like the Repco engine 16 years before, was based on a road car engine block, the [[BMW M10]]. Brabham continued to run the Cosworth-powered BT49D in the early part of the season while reliability and driveability issues with the BMW units were resolved. The relationship came close to ending, with the German manufacturer insisting that Brabham use their engine. The turbo car took its first win at the [[1982 Canadian Grand Prix|Canadian Grand Prix]]. In the Constructors' Championship, the team finished fifth, the drivers [[Riccardo Patrese]], who scored the last win of the Brabham-Ford combination in the [[1982 Monaco Grand Prix|Monaco Grand Prix]], 10th and World Champion Piquet a mere 11th in the Drivers' Championship. In the [[1983 Formula One season|1983 season]], Piquet took the championship lead from Renault's [[Alain Prost]] at the last race of the year, the [[1983 South African Grand Prix|South African Grand Prix]] to become the first driver to win the Formula One Drivers' World Championship with a turbo-powered car. The team did not win the Constructors' Championship in either 1981 or 1983, despite Piquet's success. Patrese was the only driver other than Piquet to win a race for Brabham in this period—the drivers in the second car contributed only a fraction of the team's points in each of these championship seasons. Patrese finished ninth in the Drivers' Championship with 13 points, dropping the team behind Ferrari and Renault to third in the Constructors' Championship.

[[File:Piquet - Brabham-BMW BT 54 1985-08-02.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A mid-engined single-seater racing car with large aerodynamic wings|[[Nelson Piquet]] and his [[Brabham BT54|BT54]] were hampered by [[Pirelli]] tyres in {{F1|1985}}.{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}]]

Piquet took the team's last wins: two in 1984 by winning the seventh and eighth races of that season, the [[1984 Canadian Grand Prix|Canadian Grand Prix]] and the [[1984 Detroit Grand Prix|Detroit Grand Prix]], and one in 1985 by winning the [[1985 French Grand Prix|French Grand Prix]]. He finished fifth in 1984 and a mere eighth in 1985 in the respective Drivers' Championships.<ref name="RoePiq"/> After seven years and two world championships, Piquet felt he was worth more than Ecclestone's salary offer for 1986, and reluctantly left for the Williams team at the end of the season.

For the [[1986 Formula One season|1986 season]], Patrese returned to Brabham, and was joined by [[Elio de Angelis]]. The season was a disaster for Brabham, scoring only two points. Murray's radical long and low [[Brabham BT55|BT55]], with its BMW M12 engine tilted over to improve its aerodynamics and lower its centre of gravity, had severe reliability issues, and the Pirelli tyres performed poorly. De Angelis became the Formula One team's only fatality when he died in a testing accident at the [[Circuit Paul Ricard|Paul Ricard]] circuit. [[Derek Warwick]], who replaced de Angelis, was close to scoring two points for fifth in the [[1986 British Grand Prix|British Grand Prix]], but a problem on the last lap dropped him out of the points.

In August, BMW after considering running their own in-house team, announced their departure from Formula One at the end of the season. Murray, who had largely taken over the running of the team as Ecclestone became more involved with his role at the [[Formula One Constructors Association]], felt that "the way the team had operated for 15 years broke down". He left Brabham in November to join McLaren.<ref name="BGEnd">Lovell (2004) pp. 161–164</ref>

Ecclestone held BMW to their contract for the [[1987 Formula One season|1987 season]], but the German company would only supply the laydown engine. The upright units, around which Brabham had designed their new car, were sold for use by the [[Arrows (F1)|Arrows]] team. Senior figures at Brabham, including Murray, have admitted that by this stage Ecclestone had lost interest in running the team. The 1987 season was only slightly more successful than the previous year—Patrese and de Cesaris scoring 10 points between them, including two third places at the [[1987 Belgian Grand Prix|Belgian Grand Prix]] and the [[1987 Mexican Grand Prix|Mexican Grand Prix]]. Unable to locate a suitable engine supplier, the team missed the FIA deadline for entry into the 1988 world championship and Ecclestone finally announced the team's withdrawal from Formula One at the Brazilian Grand Prix in April 1988. During the season-ending [[1988 Australian Grand Prix|Australian Grand Prix]], Ecclestone announced he had sold MRD to [[EuroBrun]] team owner [[Walter Brun]] for an unknown price.