Brabham Le Mans GTE rendering, 2019

Brabham returning to Le Mans in GTE class

RaceFans Round-up

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In the round-up: Brabham, which started 394 Formula 1 races between 1962 and 1992, winning two constructors’ championships, will return to racing competition at the Le Mans 24 Hours with a GTE version of its BT62 track car.

Former F1 driver David Brabham, who won the 2009 event in a Peugeot 908 shared with Alexander Wurz and Marc Gene, will leads the team’s entry in the 2021-22 season.

“Returning the Brabham name to Le Mans is something I have been working on for years, so it’s fantastic to make this announcement,” said Brabham.

“Brabham Automotive only launched its first car, the BT62, in May 2018 so we have a long road to travel to earn the right to return to compete at Le Mans. That work starts now with a long-term racing commitment.

“We look forward to developing the BT62 and future products while building a world-class competitive race team around the leading engineering and manufacturing talent we have in the business.”

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Comment of the day

@Alec-glen reckons Liberty Media are doing the right thing by playing the long game:

Liberty are all about long term growth, F1 had been stripped of talent and decent assets and was just milking the promoters and tv deals ready to be sold. Liberty are going to invest significant time and money into F1 before they gain any real shareholder value, we knew that from the start.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re finding Bernie’s web much more difficult to unravel and straighten on the commercial side, it was nonsensical at best, but they still have a significant growth opportunity just through modernising and bringing the sport into this century so I doubt that they’re worried. It will be interesting to see how this pans out and how quickly they can move behind the scenes but there’s too much opportunity available for all parties for deals not to happen, I just hope that they’re better thought out than they have been.
@Alec-glen

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On this day in F1

  • 25 years ago today Tyrrell confirmed Mark Blundell would drive for them in the 1994 F1 season

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40 comments on “Brabham returning to Le Mans in GTE class”

  1. Good COTD. As FWONK are publicly traded, I only wish that investors and analysts do give Liberty a bit of rope (and longer-term targets) to make F1 a sustainable money-spinner.

    From the sporting side, I can understand their need to equalize the level between teams. However, from a social perspective, I wonder if its better/preferable to let the rich corporates expend a few billion (across the teams) each year, part of which finds its way into the wallets of thousands of employees across multiple countries, rather than curtail spending via caps, which would only fatten the wallets of corporates and a different type of individual.

    1. Regarding the cotd, it is refreshing to read a more positive spin on Liberty and their goals, just as I have also looked at the glass half full since they took over. Yes it is a complex endeavour, and somebody had to take over from BE. I’m sure glad one of the players is Brawn. I have only heard the right things being said by Liberty about the future, and obviously implementing it all is the tough part. As a general comment, even the teams have admitted the BE way was unsustainable, so I remain positive that with the teams’ cooperation and compromise, everyone can end up better off by playing in a better and growing F1. Lot’s to be negative about I’m sure, as many stars have to align yet, but at the same time I find it hard to imagine Liberty’s F1 being worse than BE’s over the last 10 years, once the dust settles. The teams have a chance to either try to keep F1 in the past, or advance it. They know what Liberty wants to do, and part of that is having the teams on board with the new direction as much as possible before they have to dictate the new regs going forward from 2021.

  2. Re COTD: Yes, we knew Liberty play the long game from the start. By long game, I meant 2021, not five or seven year after that to get ‘the real new’ F1.

    Re Brabham: This is why I thought Racing Point should had ‘Stroll’ name in it. Lawrence would spend less than everything to build and protect a legacy.

  3. “It’s really been terrific to have him working with us already, and he’s a great team member,” Lowe told RACER. “Everybody loves Robert — in the office, in the garage… I remember when he first turned up the mechanics saying ‘Yeah, that’s a proper driver!’

    Regardless of how much Williams improve this season, I think there will be a positive mood in the garage with Kubica and Russell in the garage. On one side of the garage you have a heroic comeback of a phenomenal talent and on the other side of the garage you have a super impressive rookie who’s waiting to make his mark.

    Lmao at the “proper driver” comment by the Williams mechanics.. . Man… they must have had a hard year with Stroll.

    1. Lmao at the “proper driver” comment by the Williams mechanics.. . Man… they must have had a hard year with Stroll.

      @todfod – yeah, they might have had their issues with him behind the garage doors. But what happens in Grove stays in Grove, and I’d have expected Paddy to show a bit more tact in phrasing his statement. He’s not an Arrivabene or a Abiteboul to claim “lost in translation”. And I don’t recall him making such underhanded statements when he was on Stroll’s payroll, so he comes across a bit hypocritical.

      And let’s see if he builds a “proper car” for 2019, because as I recall, even Kubica panned the 2018 Williams.

      1. Who ever said that? ‘what goes on in Gove…’ I don’t recall anyone but happy to be proven wrong. The drivers were awful, the car was awful. They are in big trouble and trying to move on from it and by suggesting the drivers are better than they’ve had is a pick me up. For him, the team, the drivers.

        Teams say nothing, they are uncommunicative, teams say something and they should’ve said nothing.

        1. “What happens” is a play on a popular phrase that some information should stay within a group.

          I’d like to hear Paddy talk about the car. He’s the tech guy in Williams, so let him talk tech. There’s enough problems in that car that could make for enlightening reading that I’d be happy to hear from. And even if they talk to an extent about what’s wrong, it would still educate someone like me. It’s like how we don’t hear anything from Andy Cowell about Mercedes’ drivers, but when he spoke about MGU-H, it made for great reading.

          I’d prefer the TP be the one who covers drivers, motivation, etc. They are more the face of the overall team. And yes, as an Internet commenter, I will still criticize them :-)

          1. Yep, I think I feel much the same @phylyp, don’t get me wrong, I am happy for the people at Williams that they now feel that, but had last years car been a world beater, that would have been a great motivation too. And that’s on Lowe’s watch.

    2. Lmao at the “proper driver” comment by the Williams mechanics.. . Man… they must have had a hard year with Stroll.

      I see it more as a nasty swipe against Massa, he was the last experienced driver in the team.

      But more importantly, I’m getting annoyed with Lowe. Lots of talk lately, but not much he has shown us lately (including his Mercedes years).

      1. I notice in the Lowe article he says they don’t know where it will go performance wise with Kubica, and that even Kubica doesn’t know. I would say Lowe is covering for and not expecting much in the way of improvement in the car. And from reading the articles in the off-season about Williams’ issues through and through, they sound ill equipped to do much, however, at least they have had a chance to take out some of the problems if they know what they were and how to do that. Interestingly I read a quote from Kubica who was talking about the 2018 terrible car and he said perhaps they should have listened to the drivers, and reacted quicker. And he was a reserve driver, so…one of the drivers. I hope RK doesn’t get coloured by yet another terrible car, but I don’t expect it to be much better. Hope I’m wrong.

        1. I hope RK doesn’t get coloured by yet another terrible car

          @robbie – in hindsight, that’s why I’m happy that Kubica didn’t get a drive in 2018 with Williams. Having now seen the Williams car’s faults laid bare, even his most ardent of fans aren’t going to have any false hopes of seeing him duking it out with the Mercedes and Ferraris. So, I don’t think there’s anything to fear in him being coloured by a bad Williams – heck, he could genuinely underperform and people will now still attribute it to the car!

          1. heck, he could genuinely underperform and people will now still attribute it to the car!

            Only if Russell underperforms too – they only real pace comparisons this season for Williams will be Kubica vs Russell, even if it will be a fight for 19th.

  4. As a life-long Brabham supporter (there… it’s finally out… ;-) I am looking forward to this… but I’m curious: What will they be doing in 2019-2020…! And why make this announcement so early – dare I say it, ‘prematurely’…!

    1. Until Minardi makes a restart I’ll join you as a Braham supporter ;)

      1. *Brabham

    2. I’d hope that in 2019 and 2020 they will first and foremost be building and delivering cars to customers! And in the background they will be working on a few cars to get them tuned up to racing spec and hopefully start testing them too!

      1. I thought about buying one, but it would set me back a Porsche 911 S to pick up my groceries ;)

        Brabham is charging customers in Europe 150,000 pounds ($270,000) on top of the original cost — about the same price as a new Porsche 911 Carrera S (to make it street legal).

        1. You buy your groceries? Pah, pleb.
          ;)

          1. Do you suggest I let my staff drive my car?
            Anyway not a big issue for me; I can combine it with my pizza delivery round ;)
            @phylyp

    3. I imagine the prematurity of the announcement is for publicity reasons and with a view to attracting investors/sponsors/”partners”/…

    4. BlackJackFan, there is one aspect of this announcement to me that doesn’t quite stack up though, which is that it’s not clear how they can meet the homologation requirements to enter the GTE category.

      The indication so far is that they’ll be using the BT62 as the basis for their GTE entry, but as far as I am aware, the production run for the BT62 is meant to be limited to 70 cars.

      However, when you look at the engine homologation requirements, the regulations state “The engine must be derived from a series production Engine produced at more than 300 units and fitted to a series vehicle from the same manufacturer”.

      Now, if Brabham are only producing 70 cars, I can’t see how they are meant to meet the minimum requirement to homologate the engine if the minimum production run is 300 engines. I know that the ACO has been bending or openly breaking the homologation requirements in recent years to boost the GTE field – both the Ford GT and BMW M8 arguably should never have been allowed to race when they did, as neither one met the homologation requirement at the time – but I wonder if the other GTE entrants might see this as a bit of a step too far.

      1. In the old days Spyker and Saleen could race in GT2 and GT1 respectively, so there certainly used to be dispensations for smaller manufacturers. TVR, Morgan, and Panoz have also competed this century. I would hope that tradition would be left alive in GTE.

        1. matt90, whilst they have allowed smaller manufacturers to compete, most of those entrants are not great examples given that they date back about 10-20 years. The homologation requirements back then were fairly different, as they were related just to the chassis production figures and the minimum number of cars that had to be produced was significantly lower (in the case of the Saleen, only seven cars had to be produced).

          These days, the GT regulations require homologation of the engine separately to that of the chassis due to the “Balance of Performance” system that the ACO operates – furthermore, it’s also used as a means of controlling costs in the GT Am class, as the intention was to stop “production specials” that were intended for track use only and had a habit of causing major cost inflation.

          Now, I am not saying it is impossible – the ACO has been making encouraging sounds about the Brabham entry and, as I noted, there have been a few recent examples of them openly ignoring their own regulations. However, this does seem to be stretching the limits of what is allowable under the homologation rules.

  5. What was more important that came out of the Lowe article, is that Lowe wanted to sign Kubica to mclaren many years ago.. He was wanted by mclaren and then ferrari. Now he is here, that’s all that matters.

    1. kpcart, however, given that you seem to be putting so many hopes and dreams on this comeback, sadly I cannot help but feel that the inevitable result will be little more than disappointment (I cannot help but feel that his comeback cannot live up to the idealised dreams that so many have of him).

  6. Jeffrey Powell
    10th January 2019, 8:45

    When I hear the name Brabham, my mind goes back to those halcyon days , a truly great driver Black Jack who at the age of 44 was still a contender for the World Championship. That last year 1970 had Jack against some of the best drivers of the era, Stewart,Rindt, Ickx, Amon and Rodriguez. If reliability had not been awful we may easily have had another 4 times world champion.

    1. We always hear what a fantastic accomplishment J Brabham achieved. Building his own car and winning championships. If we are to believe this achievement is as great as is made out by our southern hemisphere brothers then surely it’s his fault he didn’t win more WDCS? I mean…he built the damn car…Didn’t he? 😉

      1. Jeffrey Powell
        10th January 2019, 13:25

        OK, so I am English I have never been to Australia or anywhere near it. But I was there watching F1 from 65 onwards attended every British Grand Prix Brabham raced in from then to 1970 . I have never said he was the best driver of that era , that honour goes to Jim Clark, but he was amongst the absolute best and the team did win 2 out of the 9 years he competed in it. Reliability of the cars was pretty dire but that was quite normal then I would certainly leave it to our Antipodian friends to express fully biased opinions.

      2. Hi Dean… Very weird, illogical, and strangely venomous comment… ;-)

  7. I never expected an article from any Finnish-publication site to appear on a round-up, LOL. The reason for the split is rather simple, and it’s the on-track results, and, therefore, an understandable decision as he undoubtedly slumped in a bit too many races from around 2nd or 3rd-place to finishing as the worst of the top runners especially at the tail-end of the season. BTW, in case anyone’s wondering, the title roughly translates to
    ‘A significant setback for Valtteri Bottas – (he) lost his main backer/sponsor.

    Regarding the Racer-article: I wonder how a Hamilton-Kubica line-up at Mclaren 10 years ago might’ve worked out had that happened.

    Re Autosport-article: I highly doubt it, very unlikely. Renault already should be tough to beat next season.

    1. @jerejj Bing translator said: The main supporter of direct speech about the dropping of Valtteri Bottas – disappointed with the results: also rejected the Finnish Formula One promise.
      And I read somewhere that the sponsor said Bottas was weak. Is it true?

      1. @ruliemaulana It wasn’t really a direct implication of him being weak, or at least I didn’t see it that way. They were just disappointed with his results behind the wheel of Mercedes, so that along with the money-aspect, ultimately led to the decision to end the partnership, and yes, they also dropped the F2-driver Niko Kari from their line-up of backed drivers and for the same reason of underperforming.

        1. @jerejj If they drop another driver, maybe they just run out of money… But what I mean in my first reply is I’ve seen at least seven F1/racing news print that the sponsor boss basically said that Bottas was ‘weak’. I just really want to know if that is what had been said or it just another ‘lost in translation’ thingy.

          1. @ruliemaulana More likely just another ‘lost in translation’ thing.

      2. Not really, the sponsor names VB ending up fifth because of a weak back half of the season as a big part of the decision to pull out. Then again, he’s been with VB for twenty years.

  8. Reacted positively.

  9. The auto executive is unable to work while in jail. Visits from lawyers, family and friends are strictly controlled by prosecutors in Japan, making it difficult even for suspects to establish a defence.

    I can understand Japanese prosecutors objecting to Ghosn working in case he’s destroying evidence under the guise of working, but it doesn’t seem right to our Western eyes that he’s not able to prepare to defend himself in court. I can’t tell if there really is a case here or if jealousy is the motivator.
    Every now and then you come across a CEO of a company who actually has the technical nouce to not only run the company, but to also point it in the right direction as well. I think Ghosn was one of those types of people. From the sound of it this could have made Renault-Mitsubishi-Nissan quite a conglomerate, but unless they can appoint people who are prepared to carry on his work this alliance will fall apart. Toyota are currently the world’s largest vehicle manufacturer, and it seems likely to remain so.

    1. (@drycrust) I think the issue is Nissan and to a lessor degree Mitsubishi, object to being treated as junior partners. I believe under the current arrangement Renault / Ghosn had nearly 100% control. Ghosn is finished which is old news, we now wait to see if and who will take his place and if the alliance continues.

  10. Great to see the Brabham name back in racing. i have been following the goings on over the last few yrs. I’m hoping after all of the legal battles and work Brabham can be successful.

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