New row over use of Brabham name

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Brabham is the latest former F1 team to be tipped to return to F1 in 2010, joining the likes of Lola and March.

However the company that has submitted the entry for 2010 under the Brabham name is not linked to the man who founded the original Brabham team, three-times F1 champion Sir Jack Brabham.

The entry has been put forward by a German-based company who it appears may have run afoul of Sir Jack in the past.

Last year a German company calling itself “Brabham Racing” announced plans to build a car based on the BMW M3, dubbed the BT92, harking back to Brabham’s car designations.

The Brabham family reacted with anger to the news. David Brabham, a son of Sir Jack who also competed in F1, said at the time:

Although legally they’ve actually registered those names, it’s in complete bad faith. It’s with our legal advisers. We want to make it clear it has nothing to do with us.

It’s not clear if the ‘Brabham Grand Prix’ team which claims to have lodged an entry for 2010 is related to the German company behind the BT92. But the Brabham family are understood to be unhappy with this new use of their historic name.

All of which makes you wonder how credible this purported entry really is.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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14 comments on “New row over use of Brabham name”

  1. Filling the spaces to try to get FOTA to fold?
    In Italy there is a rumour that Force India have signed but I haven`t seen any verification of this in the English speaking media yet.
    If it`s true it`s a case of Then There Were Eight.

  2. One wonders about how credible many of these entries are.

  3. Trying to piggy-back on a great man’s name is just plain *low.

    1. Yea, makes you wonder if they bought a company named Brabham, for the purpose of having a famous name for the team title, or did they buy the old team?

  4. Strangely, the Brabham or Formtech ‘team’ seems half credible, since they’ve acquired the former Super Aguri premises, with at least some manufacturing facilities. The row for the Brabham name makes it less credible, though.

  5. Isn’t it the same with March? That somebody else bought the brandname after the original company went broke?

    Jack Brabham sold Brabham (aka Motor Racing Developments) in 1970 to Tauranac, his partner, who sold Brabham in 1972 to Ecclestone, who sold Brabham in 1988 to Luhti/Windsor, who sold the team in 1990 to MiddleBridge before it went broke in 1992.

    Maybe somebody bought the right to use the name as apparently happened with March in 1993 when it went broke. Although I read that Herd (one of the original founders) tried to restart the March F1 team in ’99.

    1. If this is the case then Jack Brabham doesn’t really have case as far as I am concerned, you sold it mate. But it seems like he just wants to distance himself from it.

      Anyway, part of me thinks this is just a filling of applicants to scare FOTA, and there is no credibility to them. However, another part of me says “what do I know?” they could well be coming to the grid all prepared. If they do and March & Brabham are up mixing it with the best of them in 5 or so years, we’ll all be praising the return of the names.

      So… good luck to all of them, that’s what I say. Ultimately though, there will be the existing 10 teams (maybe minus a manufacturer or 2, no more) and a few of the new entries (hopefully including Prodrive).

      Just my view.

  6. I would like a lot seeing a dark blue and white car racing next year…

    1. Sush Meerkat
      5th June 2009, 19:24

      You’ve got one this year David, its called the Williams FW31.

  7. I read somewehere that the remnants of Super Aguri are behind this entry.

  8. First March now Brabham, how many more potential new teams are using the names of classic teams even though they don’t have a real connection to the original team only that they bought the rights to the name.

    Personally I don’t like it and if they do get into F1 I hope they change their name.

  9. What an odd story. Does anyone in this German based company share the Brabham name or is this just a publicity stunt..

  10. Yo! some of these teams I bet are ghost entities signed up by Bernie LOL

  11. But its the same with Lotus, if another company has bought the rights to the famous name, how can anybody originally associated with it have any say in what it is used for?
    Its their mistake for not holding onto the rights to use it.

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