Brabham BT49
Encyclopedia
The Brabham BT49 is a Formula One
racing car designed by South African Gordon Murray
for the British Brabham team. The BT49 competed in the to Formula One World Championships and was used by Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet
to win his first World Championship in .
The car was initially designed in 1979 as a short notice replacement for the team's Alfa Romeo
-engined BT48, after Brabham team owner Bernie Ecclestone
decided to end his relationship with the Italian engine manufacturer. The BT49 was created in only six weeks using elements of the BT48 chassis together with the widely used Cosworth DFV
engine. It is a single seater with an open cockpit and exposed wheels. The monocoque
chassis
is made from aluminium alloy
and carbon fibre composites. The car was fitted with controversial hydropneumatic suspension
and water-cooled brakes at different points in its life.
The BT49 was updated over four seasons taking a total of seven wins, six poles and 135 points. Seventeen were eventually built, most of which survive today. Some are used successfully in historic motorsport
; Christian Glaesel won the 2005 FIA Historic Formula One Championship
driving a BT49D.
for the Brabham team during the 1979 season
of the Formula One
motor racing World Championship. The Brabham team had been competing in partnership with engine supplier Alfa Romeo
since 1976 and won races in the 1978 season
. However, the team's 1979 car, the BT48
, was not a great success. Alfa Romeo entered their own Type 177
and Type 179
cars in Formula One Grands Prix that summer, helping to convince the Brabham team owner Bernie Ecclestone
that the partnership was over. Motorsport author Alan Henry
writes that Ecclestone did not want his team to take second place to an Alfa Romeo works team, and that the team designing Alfa Romeo's cars was drawing on Brabham knowledge.
Alfa's engines were powerful, but had proved troublesome and according to Henry, "the days during which pure power was the main criterion had temporarily vanished by the start of 1979". Instead aerodynamic ground effect
, as brought to Formula One by the Lotus 78
two years earlier, was the most important factor. To allow them to focus on this, the Brabham team reverted to a known quantity, the reliable and widely used Ford
Cosworth DFV
engine that it had last used in 1975. Three BT49s were designed and built in only six weeks for the Canadian Grand Prix
on 30 September 1979; two of them were converted BT48 chassis and one was newly built.
is a monocoque
structure. It is built from sheet aluminium alloy
with reinforcement from carbon fibre composite
panels and is one of the first Formula One chassis to incorporate this material structurally. The chassis is slightly longer than that of the BT48, and is new from the cockpit back with revised sidepods and a structural fuel tank reduced from 45 gallon capacity to match the reduced fuel consumption requirements of the DFV compared to the Alfa Romeo. This allowed a reduction in dry weight over the BT48 of 35 pounds (15.9 kg) and of 95 lb (43.1 kg) when fully fuelled.
The underside of the BT49 is shaped to create downforce
through ground effect: air is accelerated under the car, reducing the air pressure beneath it and pushing the tyres down harder onto the track. This provides more grip and thus higher cornering speeds, but compared to conventional wings creates less of the drag
that slows the car in a straight line. In its original form, the reduced pressure area under the car was sealed off with sliding skirts which rose and fell with the movement of the car to ensure no air could leak under it. According to Murray, the aerodynamics were the car's great strength: "It had more [downforce] than any other car and it all came from the ground effect. We ran the car with no front wing at all and scarcely any at the back."
The suspension
, which controls the relative motion of the chassis and the wheels, is similar to that of the BT48: it features double wishbones
front and rear, with the springs and dampers
mounted on the chassis out of the airflow and activated by pullrods. Anti-roll bars are fitted front and rear. The BT49's disc brakes are mounted outboard, within the wheel hubs, and are activated by a single four piston brake caliper for each wheel. For most of the BT49's career, it used conventional steel brakes. Lighter reinforced carbon-carbon
discs and pads, a technology that Brabham had introduced to Formula One in 1976, were used in 1981 and 1982; The wheels are of 13 inches (330 mm) diameter, although occasionally 15 in (381 mm) wheels were used at the front. The car initially raced on Goodyear
tyres, but the team had to adapt the BT49 to Michelin
's new radial tyres for part of the 1981 season when Goodyear temporarily withdrew from Formula One. Slick tyres were used in dry conditions and treaded tyres in the wet.
Three chassis, included the two modified BT48 units, were built for the end of the 1979 season. Two of these were re-used during the 1980 Formula One season
, alongside seven new chassis.
in Northampton
and had been used in Formula One since 1967. It is a 2,993 cc (183 cu in) normally aspirated four-stroke engine with two banks of four cylinders at 90 degrees to each other in a 'V8
' configuration. It has an aluminium alloy engine block with cylinder liners. Each of its crossflow cylinder head
s has a single spark plug
and four valves, activated by gear-driven double overhead camshafts. This, combined with the flat-plane crankshaft
, provides a relatively simple exhaust layout, in which the exhaust pipes exit on the outer side of the block. The engine is water-cooled, with water and oil radiators mounted in the left and right sidepods respectively. In 1980, a revised version of the DFV was introduced in which ancillaries such as the water and oil pumps were reduced in size and grouped further forwards on the flanks of the engine to provide more clearance for ground effect tunnels under the cars.
Like its contemporaries, the BT49 uses the engine as a fully stressed structural component, carrying all loads between the front and rear of the car: the front of the engine bolts directly to the integral fuel tank and the back of the engine attaches to the car's rear suspension and gearbox. The Ford Cosworth engine integrated into the car much more easily than Alfa Romeo's large, heavy and inconsistently sized units: Murray described returning to the DFV as being "like having a holiday".
By the time the DFV was used in the BT49, it weighed roughly 340 lb (154 kg) and produced around 500 bhp at about 11,000 revolutions per minute
(rpm). Peak torque
was 270 foot-pounds (366 N·m) at 9,000 rpm. After his first test session with the car, Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet
commented that he had always believed "that the DFV was quite a rough, coarse engine, but it felt quite the opposite to me. After those Alfa V12s it felt smooth and willing to rev." In 1979, when the BT49 first raced, all but three teams - Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Renault - used the DFV, and the most powerful alternative (Alfa Romeo's V12) produced 525 bhp. By 1982, most teams still used the DFV, but BMW, Ferrari and Hart had joined Renault in employing turbocharged engines: Ferrari's 1982 turbocharged V6 engine
produced around 580 bhp, while the DFV's output had remained at around 500 bhp.
The BT49 was initially fitted with the same gearbox
the team had been using since 1977: a six-speed unit designed by Brabham using internal components from Hewland
and a casing cast by Alfa Romeo.
A BT49B specification appeared early in the 1980 season; it was conceived around a new transverse gearbox designed by American gearbox specialist Pete Weismann. The new unit could be fitted with five or six gears and was tall and narrow, allowing a clearer airflow from under the car to the rear, with the intent of improving the ground effect. An alternative rear suspension layout was designed to go with this gearbox. It replaced the standard pullrods with rocker arms that activated vertical coil springs mounted behind the gearbox. The Weismann unit proved difficult to make reliable and was used alongside the original gearbox, mainly on a spare chassis, until the Dutch Grand Prix
, after which it was put to one side.
BT49T
A modified BT49, dubbed BT49T, was used to test the earliest versions of BMW's turbocharged
Formula One engine between the 1980 and 1981 Formula One season
s. This was a 1,499 cc (92 cu in) inline four-cylinder engine, with a single KKK turbocharger mounted in the left hand sidepod of the car. The first version of the engine was said to produce 557 bhp.
BT49C
For the 1981 season, a BT49C specification was produced with a chassis lightened through increased use of carbon composite materials. Five of this variant were built and two of the previous year's cars converted to this specification. That year a minimum ride height
of 60 millimetres (2.4 in) was introduced and sliding skirts were banned, with the intention of limiting ground effect and slowing the cars. The BT49C regained its front wings to compensate in part for the downforce lost. More significantly, Murray devised a hydropneumatic suspension
system for the BT49C in which soft air springs supported the car at the regulation height for checks while stationary. At speed, where the ride height could not be measured, downforce compressed the air and the car settled to a much lower height, creating more downforce. Because the skirts now had to be fixed, the suspension had to be very stiff to allow them to consistently seal around the sides of the car: by the end of the 1981 season, total suspension movement was only 1.5 inches (38 mm), half of which came from the compression of the tyres. A lightweight qualifying chassis was produced, featuring a small fuel tank and lighter reinforced carbon-carbon brake discs and pads.
BT49D
Three new BT49D chassis were built for the 1982 season
, featuring a still lighter chassis and one-piece bodywork. By this stage, the cars had to be ballasted
to bring them up to the minimum weight limit of 580 kg (1,279 lb) specified in the rules. The BT49D used the carbon-carbon brakes as standard and was one of several DFV-powered cars to be fitted with large water tanks, ostensibly for "water-cooled brakes". In practice, the water was dumped early in the race, allowing the cars to race as much as 50 kg (110 lb) under the weight limit; the regulations stated coolant could be topped up at the end of the race before the weight was checked. In the view of the DFV teams, this practice met the letter of the regulations and equalised their performance with that of the more powerful turbocharged cars. The 60 mm ground clearance rule was removed for the 1982 season, but the fixed skirts and very stiff suspension remained.
, abruptly quit the sport after 10 laps of the first practice session at the penultimate race of the 1979 season, the Canadian Grand Prix. The car soon showed promise: Piquet ran third in the race on the high speed Circuit Île Notre-Dame
before retiring with a broken gearbox. Lauda's replacement, Argentine novice Ricardo Zunino
, was seventh of the nine who completed the race. At the season finale in wet conditions at the Watkins Glen International
circuit, Zunino spun off although Piquet set the fastest lap before a driveshaft
failed, putting his car out of the race.
Early in the 1980 season, Piquet's car scored points finishes at the Argentine
and South African Grands Prix
, behind Alan Jones' Williams FW07
-DFV and the turbocharged Renault RE20
of René Arnoux
. At the fourth race of the season, the United States Grand Prix West
, Piquet qualified on pole by over a second in a BT49 featuring some updates to the sidepods, bodywork and suspension, before leading the race, held on the streets of Long Beach, California
, from start to finish. BT49s in Piquet's hands scored in seven of the ten remaining rounds of the championship. Towards the end of the season, the suspension was reworked for the Dutch Grand Prix
on the high speed Circuit Park Zandvoort
, lengthening the wheelbase by three inches and allowing the car to run in a lower drag configuration. Piquet won after Jones destroyed his FW07's skirts on kerbs. Piquet also won the next race, the Italian Grand Prix
to give himself a one point lead over Williams driver Jones. By the end of the season the BT49 was "arguably the fastest Cosworth-powered car", but Piquet lost the title to Jones at the penultimate race of the year, the Canadian Grand Prix
, when a development engine failed while he was leading the race. The BT49s driven by the team's second drivers—Zunino and then from mid-season Mexican Héctor Rebaque
—either retired or finished outside the points, with the exception of Rebaque's sixth place at the Canadian race. The team finished third in the constructors' championship behind Williams and Ligier, unable to compete with only one car scoring points.
Disagreement between the teams and the sport's administrators over the technical regulations for the 1981 Formula One season contributed to Goodyear's temporary withdrawal from Formula One and meant that the 1981 South African Grand Prix
was run by the teams to 1980 regulations using cars with sliding skirts. Piquet finished second in a BT49B, but the race did not count towards the championship. The season proper opened with the United States Grand Prix West
, at which the BT49C was introduced. To the team's surprise, it was the only car to exploit the "obvious" loophole in the new ground clearance regulation by lowering itself, but the BT49Cs raced with conventional suspension after the hydropneumatic system repeatedly jammed. The team revised the system continuously over the next three races and used it to set pole position
at the Brazilian
and Argentine
Grands Prix and win the Argentine and San Marino races
while continuing to suffer from the system not rising or lowering correctly.
.jpg)
Frank Williams led an abortive protest against the car at the Argentine Grand Prix, objecting to the flexibility of the fixed skirts used to seal the underside of the car, which allowed them to replicate the effect of a sliding skirt. At the following race, the scrutineers rejected the flexible skirts. Brabham replaced them with stiffer material from one of the other teams for the race, which Piquet won. As the season progressed, other teams developed their own lowering systems—a front spring and cylinder were stolen from the Brabham garage in Argentina— but after a rule clarification from FISA many cars were lowered by the driver pressing a switch, a development that Murray found frustrating in light of Brabham's efforts to develop a system that he considered legal. The cars ran on Goodyear tyres again from the sixth round of the championship; motorsport author Doug Nye
believes this cost the BT49s good results at several races while the American company adapted to the latest Formula One developments. Despite the virtually solid suspension now required to maintain a consistent ride height, which put components under greater strain, Piquet built a championship challenge on the back of consistent reliability: by the end of the season, his BT49Cs had finished 10 of 15 races, with only one mechanical failure. Piquet finished fifth at the final race of the season—the Caesars Palace Grand Prix—to take the title from Carlos Reutemann
in a Williams FW07 by one point.
Brabham had been working with the German engine manufacturer BMW since 1980 on the development of a turbocharged engine for Formula One. The BMW-powered BT50 made its debut at the start of the 1982 season, taking advantage of the high-altitude Kyalami
circuit in South Africa, which favoured turbocharged cars. However, the as yet unreliable BMW-powered cars were dropped for the next two races. Piquet finished first at the Brazilian Grand Prix
in a BT49D, but was disqualified after a protest from Renault and Ferrari on the grounds that the car had raced underweight due to its water-cooled brakes. FISA ruled that in future all cars must be weighed before coolants were topped up, resulting in a boycott of the fourth race of the season by most of the DFV-powered teams, including Brabham. Under threat from BMW, Brabham did not use its Ford-powered BT49s again until the sixth race of the season, the Monaco Grand Prix
, where one was entered for Riccardo Patrese
alongside Piquet in a BT50. Patrese won the race after a chaotic final lap on which several other cars stopped. Patrese used the BT49 for the next two races, taking a second place behind Piquet's BMW-powered car in the BT49's final Formula One race, the 1982 Canadian Grand Prix
.
Since 1995, BT49s have competed regularly in the FIA Historic Formula One Championship
. The championship is open to cars that competed in Formula One in the DFV era, between 1967 and 1985, in several classes to allow for equal competition. The BT49 competes in class C, for post 1971 ground effects cars. In 1999, Motor Sport magazine tested a BT49D from the series featuring 530 bhp from its developed DFV at 11,200 rpm, but the championship has since introduced rules to restrict engines to 10,500 rpm to keep costs down. While the cars' original skirts can be kept, they must be set up such that there is 40 mm (1.6 in) clearance beneath the car, a rule that removes most of the advantage of ground effect. The hydropneumatic suspension employed during 1981 is not permitted. The carbon-carbon brakes originally used in 1981 and 1982 are also banned and the cars must run with conventional brake pads and steel brakes. The cars use Avon slick tyres. Christian Glaesel won the 2005 FIA Historic Formula One Championship driving a BT49D and Joaquin Folch finished second in the 2006 and 2009 championships in a BT49C.
[a] Placings in the constructors' championship are for chassis-engine combinations. Brabham used both Alfa Romeo and Ford-powered cars during this season: the BT49-Fords scored no points and Brabham-Ford was not classified.
[b] Brabham used both Ford and BMW-powered cars during this season: Brabham-Ford was classified 9th.
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
racing car designed by South African Gordon Murray
Gordon Murray
Prof. Gordon Murray , is a renowned designer of Formula One race cars and the McLaren F1 road car.-Early life:...
for the British Brabham team. The BT49 competed in the to Formula One World Championships and was used by Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet
Nelson Piquet
Nelson Piquet Souto Maior , known as Nelson Piquet, is a Brazilian former racing driver. He was Formula One world champion in , and . He is one of eight drivers to win three or more world championships, the others being Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna , Alain Prost , Juan...
to win his first World Championship in .
The car was initially designed in 1979 as a short notice replacement for the team's Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo in Formula One
Alfa Romeo participated in Formula One, as both a constructor and engine supplier, from to .-Success, 1950-1951:In 1950 Nino Farina won the inaugural Formula One World Championship in a 158 with supercharger, in 1951 Juan Manuel Fangio won while driving an Alfetta 159...
-engined BT48, after Brabham team owner Bernie Ecclestone
Bernie Ecclestone
Bernard Charles "Bernie" Ecclestone is an English business magnate, as president and CEO of Formula One Management and Formula One Administration and through his part-ownership of Alpha Prema, the parent company of the Formula One Group of companies. As such, he is generally considered the primary...
decided to end his relationship with the Italian engine manufacturer. The BT49 was created in only six weeks using elements of the BT48 chassis together with the widely used Cosworth DFV
Cosworth DFV
The DFV is an internal combustion engine that was originally produced by Cosworth for Formula One motor racing. Named Four Valve because of the four valves per cylinder, and Double as it was a V8 development of the earlier, four-cylinder FVA , making it a Double Four Valve engine...
engine. It is a single seater with an open cockpit and exposed wheels. The monocoque
Monocoque
Monocoque is a construction technique that supports structural load by using an object's external skin, as opposed to using an internal frame or truss that is then covered with a non-load-bearing skin or coachwork...
chassis
Chassis
A chassis consists of an internal framework that supports a man-made object. It is analogous to an animal's skeleton. An example of a chassis is the underpart of a motor vehicle, consisting of the frame with the wheels and machinery.- Vehicles :In the case of vehicles, the term chassis means the...
is made from aluminium alloy
Aluminium alloy
Aluminium alloys are alloys in which aluminium is the predominant metal. The typical alloying elements are copper, magnesium, manganese, silicon and zinc. There are two principal classifications, namely casting alloys and wrought alloys, both of which are further subdivided into the categories...
and carbon fibre composites. The car was fitted with controversial hydropneumatic suspension
Hydropneumatic suspension
Hydropneumatic suspension is a type of automotive suspension system, invented by Citroën, and fitted to Citroën cars, as well as being used under licence by other car manufacturers, notably Rolls-Royce, and Peugeot. It was also used on Berliet trucks and is since recently used on Mercedes-Benz...
and water-cooled brakes at different points in its life.
The BT49 was updated over four seasons taking a total of seven wins, six poles and 135 points. Seventeen were eventually built, most of which survive today. Some are used successfully in historic motorsport
Historic motorsport
Historic motorsport relies on cars of a particular era. Events are purely regulated to only allow cars of a certain era to participate. Only safety precautions are modernized in these hobbyist races. A historical event can be of various types of motorsport disciplines...
; Christian Glaesel won the 2005 FIA Historic Formula One Championship
Historic Formula One Championship
The Historic Formula One Championship, previously known as the Thoroughbred Grand Prix Championship, is a championship for Formula One cars from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s which is sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, motor sport's world governing body...
driving a BT49D.
Concept
The BT49 was created by South African designer Gordon MurrayGordon Murray
Prof. Gordon Murray , is a renowned designer of Formula One race cars and the McLaren F1 road car.-Early life:...
for the Brabham team during the 1979 season
1979 Formula One season
The 1979 Formula One season was the 30th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1979 World Championship of F1 Drivers and the 1979 International Cup for F1 Constructors which were contested concurrently over a fifteen round series which commenced on January 21, 1979, and ended on...
of the Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
motor racing World Championship. The Brabham team had been competing in partnership with engine supplier Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo in Formula One
Alfa Romeo participated in Formula One, as both a constructor and engine supplier, from to .-Success, 1950-1951:In 1950 Nino Farina won the inaugural Formula One World Championship in a 158 with supercharger, in 1951 Juan Manuel Fangio won while driving an Alfetta 159...
since 1976 and won races in the 1978 season
1978 Formula One season
The 1978 Formula One season included the 29th FIA Formula One World Championship which commenced on January 15, 1978, and ended on October 8 after sixteen races. Mario Andretti was the season Champion and the last American to date to win a Formula One race...
. However, the team's 1979 car, the BT48
Brabham BT48
The Brabham BT48 was a Formula One racing car designed and raced by the Brabham team. The car, powered by a 12 cylinder Alfa Romeo engine, raced in the 1979 Formula One season. Its best results were two 4th places....
, was not a great success. Alfa Romeo entered their own Type 177
Alfa Romeo 177
The Alfa Romeo 177 was a Formula One car used by the Alfa Romeo team during the 1979 Formula One season, debuting at the 1979 Belgian Grand Prix.The car's name is derived from the fact that the design was commenced in 1977....
and Type 179
Alfa Romeo 179
The Alfa Romeo 179 is a Formula One car which was used by the Alfa Romeo team from to . The 179 made its debut at the 1979 Italian Grand Prix, replacing the flat-12 engined Alfa Romeo 177...
cars in Formula One Grands Prix that summer, helping to convince the Brabham team owner Bernie Ecclestone
Bernie Ecclestone
Bernard Charles "Bernie" Ecclestone is an English business magnate, as president and CEO of Formula One Management and Formula One Administration and through his part-ownership of Alpha Prema, the parent company of the Formula One Group of companies. As such, he is generally considered the primary...
that the partnership was over. Motorsport author Alan Henry
Alan Henry
Alan Henry is a Grand Prix reporter, working since the early 1970s. He is the Formula One correspondent of the Guardian newspaper and currently holds the title of Editor at Large of F1 Racing magazine. Henry is also the chief editor of the yearly Autocourse Formula One season review books, a...
writes that Ecclestone did not want his team to take second place to an Alfa Romeo works team, and that the team designing Alfa Romeo's cars was drawing on Brabham knowledge.
Alfa's engines were powerful, but had proved troublesome and according to Henry, "the days during which pure power was the main criterion had temporarily vanished by the start of 1979". Instead aerodynamic ground effect
Ground effect in cars
Ground effect is term applied to a series of aerodynamic effects used in car design, which has been exploited to create downforce, particularly in racing cars. This has been the successor to the earlier dominant aerodynamic theory of streamlining...
, as brought to Formula One by the Lotus 78
Lotus 78
The Lotus 78 'wing car' was a Formula One racing car used in the and seasons. It was designed by Peter Wright, Colin Chapman, Martin Ogilvie and Tony Rudd, and was the car that started the ground effect revolution in Formula One.-Concept:...
two years earlier, was the most important factor. To allow them to focus on this, the Brabham team reverted to a known quantity, the reliable and widely used Ford
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
Cosworth DFV
Cosworth DFV
The DFV is an internal combustion engine that was originally produced by Cosworth for Formula One motor racing. Named Four Valve because of the four valves per cylinder, and Double as it was a V8 development of the earlier, four-cylinder FVA , making it a Double Four Valve engine...
engine that it had last used in 1975. Three BT49s were designed and built in only six weeks for the Canadian Grand Prix
1979 Canadian Grand Prix
The 1979 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 30 September 1979 at Montreal.During practice Niki Lauda announced his retirement from Formula One. Ricardo Zunino replaced him for the race. The organizers would not let the Alfa Romeo team compete unless they pre-qualified...
on 30 September 1979; two of them were converted BT48 chassis and one was newly built.
Chassis and suspension
Like all of its Formula One contemporaries, the BT49 chassisChassis
A chassis consists of an internal framework that supports a man-made object. It is analogous to an animal's skeleton. An example of a chassis is the underpart of a motor vehicle, consisting of the frame with the wheels and machinery.- Vehicles :In the case of vehicles, the term chassis means the...
is a monocoque
Monocoque
Monocoque is a construction technique that supports structural load by using an object's external skin, as opposed to using an internal frame or truss that is then covered with a non-load-bearing skin or coachwork...
structure. It is built from sheet aluminium alloy
Aluminium alloy
Aluminium alloys are alloys in which aluminium is the predominant metal. The typical alloying elements are copper, magnesium, manganese, silicon and zinc. There are two principal classifications, namely casting alloys and wrought alloys, both of which are further subdivided into the categories...
with reinforcement from carbon fibre composite
Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer
Carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer or carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic , is a very strong and light fiber-reinforced polymer which contains carbon fibers. The polymer is most often epoxy, but other polymers, such as polyester, vinyl ester or nylon, are sometimes used...
panels and is one of the first Formula One chassis to incorporate this material structurally. The chassis is slightly longer than that of the BT48, and is new from the cockpit back with revised sidepods and a structural fuel tank reduced from 45 gallon capacity to match the reduced fuel consumption requirements of the DFV compared to the Alfa Romeo. This allowed a reduction in dry weight over the BT48 of 35 pounds (15.9 kg) and of 95 lb (43.1 kg) when fully fuelled.
The underside of the BT49 is shaped to create downforce
Downforce
Downforce is a downwards thrust created by the aerodynamic characteristics of a car. The purpose of downforce is to allow a car to travel faster through a corner by increasing the vertical force on the tires, thus creating more grip....
through ground effect: air is accelerated under the car, reducing the air pressure beneath it and pushing the tyres down harder onto the track. This provides more grip and thus higher cornering speeds, but compared to conventional wings creates less of the drag
Drag (physics)
In fluid dynamics, drag refers to forces which act on a solid object in the direction of the relative fluid flow velocity...
that slows the car in a straight line. In its original form, the reduced pressure area under the car was sealed off with sliding skirts which rose and fell with the movement of the car to ensure no air could leak under it. According to Murray, the aerodynamics were the car's great strength: "It had more [downforce] than any other car and it all came from the ground effect. We ran the car with no front wing at all and scarcely any at the back."
The suspension
Suspension (vehicle)
Suspension is the term given to the system of springs, shock absorbers and linkages that connects a vehicle to its wheels. Suspension systems serve a dual purpose — contributing to the car's roadholding/handling and braking for good active safety and driving pleasure, and keeping vehicle occupants...
, which controls the relative motion of the chassis and the wheels, is similar to that of the BT48: it features double wishbones
Double wishbone suspension
In automobiles, a double wishbone suspension is an independent suspension design using two wishbone-shaped arms to locate the wheel. Each wishbone or arm has two mounting points to the chassis and one joint at the knuckle. The shock absorber and coil spring mount to the wishbones to control...
front and rear, with the springs and dampers
Shock absorber
A shock absorber is a mechanical device designed to smooth out or damp shock impulse, and dissipate kinetic energy. It is a type of dashpot.-Nomenclature:...
mounted on the chassis out of the airflow and activated by pullrods. Anti-roll bars are fitted front and rear. The BT49's disc brakes are mounted outboard, within the wheel hubs, and are activated by a single four piston brake caliper for each wheel. For most of the BT49's career, it used conventional steel brakes. Lighter reinforced carbon-carbon
Reinforced carbon-carbon
Carbon fibre-reinforced carbon is a composite material consisting of carbon fibre reinforcement in a matrix of graphite. It was developed for the nose cones of intercontinental ballistic missiles, and is most widely known as the material for the nose cone and wing leading edges of the Space Shuttle...
discs and pads, a technology that Brabham had introduced to Formula One in 1976, were used in 1981 and 1982; The wheels are of 13 inches (330 mm) diameter, although occasionally 15 in (381 mm) wheels were used at the front. The car initially raced on Goodyear
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company was founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling. Goodyear manufactures tires for automobiles, commercial trucks, light trucks, SUVs, race cars, airplanes, farm equipment and heavy earth-mover machinery....
tyres, but the team had to adapt the BT49 to Michelin
Michelin
Michelin is a tyre manufacturer based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne région of France. It is one of the two largest tyre manufacturers in the world along with Bridgestone. In addition to the Michelin brand, it also owns the BFGoodrich, Kleber, Riken, Kormoran and Uniroyal tyre brands...
's new radial tyres for part of the 1981 season when Goodyear temporarily withdrew from Formula One. Slick tyres were used in dry conditions and treaded tyres in the wet.
Three chassis, included the two modified BT48 units, were built for the end of the 1979 season. Two of these were re-used during the 1980 Formula One season
1980 Formula One season
The 1980 Formula One season was the 31st season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1980 World Championship of Drivers and the 1980 International Cup for F1 Constructors which were contested concurrently from January 13 to October 5 over a fourteen race series...
, alongside seven new chassis.
Engine and transmission
The Ford Cosworth DFV was produced by CosworthCosworth
Cosworth is a high performance engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in engines and electronics for automobile racing , mainstream automotive and defence industries...
in Northampton
Northampton
Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...
and had been used in Formula One since 1967. It is a 2,993 cc (183 cu in) normally aspirated four-stroke engine with two banks of four cylinders at 90 degrees to each other in a 'V8
V8 engine
A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft....
' configuration. It has an aluminium alloy engine block with cylinder liners. Each of its crossflow cylinder head
Crossflow cylinder head
A crossflow cylinder head is a cylinder head that features the intake and exhaust ports on opposite sides. The gases can be thought to flow across the head...
s has a single spark plug
Spark plug
A spark plug is an electrical device that fits into the cylinder head of some internal combustion engines and ignites compressed fuels such as aerosol, gasoline, ethanol, and liquefied petroleum gas by means of an electric spark.Spark plugs have an insulated central electrode which is connected by...
and four valves, activated by gear-driven double overhead camshafts. This, combined with the flat-plane crankshaft
Crankshaft
The crankshaft, sometimes casually abbreviated to crank, is the part of an engine which translates reciprocating linear piston motion into rotation...
, provides a relatively simple exhaust layout, in which the exhaust pipes exit on the outer side of the block. The engine is water-cooled, with water and oil radiators mounted in the left and right sidepods respectively. In 1980, a revised version of the DFV was introduced in which ancillaries such as the water and oil pumps were reduced in size and grouped further forwards on the flanks of the engine to provide more clearance for ground effect tunnels under the cars.
Like its contemporaries, the BT49 uses the engine as a fully stressed structural component, carrying all loads between the front and rear of the car: the front of the engine bolts directly to the integral fuel tank and the back of the engine attaches to the car's rear suspension and gearbox. The Ford Cosworth engine integrated into the car much more easily than Alfa Romeo's large, heavy and inconsistently sized units: Murray described returning to the DFV as being "like having a holiday".
By the time the DFV was used in the BT49, it weighed roughly 340 lb (154 kg) and produced around 500 bhp at about 11,000 revolutions per minute
Revolutions per minute
Revolutions per minute is a measure of the frequency of a rotation. It annotates the number of full rotations completed in one minute around a fixed axis...
(rpm). Peak torque
Torque
Torque, moment or moment of force , is the tendency of a force to rotate an object about an axis, fulcrum, or pivot. Just as a force is a push or a pull, a torque can be thought of as a twist....
was 270 foot-pounds (366 N·m) at 9,000 rpm. After his first test session with the car, Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet
Nelson Piquet
Nelson Piquet Souto Maior , known as Nelson Piquet, is a Brazilian former racing driver. He was Formula One world champion in , and . He is one of eight drivers to win three or more world championships, the others being Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna , Alain Prost , Juan...
commented that he had always believed "that the DFV was quite a rough, coarse engine, but it felt quite the opposite to me. After those Alfa V12s it felt smooth and willing to rev." In 1979, when the BT49 first raced, all but three teams - Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Renault - used the DFV, and the most powerful alternative (Alfa Romeo's V12) produced 525 bhp. By 1982, most teams still used the DFV, but BMW, Ferrari and Hart had joined Renault in employing turbocharged engines: Ferrari's 1982 turbocharged V6 engine
V6 engine
A V6 engine is a V engine with six cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of three cylinders, usually set at either a right angle or an acute angle to each other, with all six pistons driving a common crankshaft...
produced around 580 bhp, while the DFV's output had remained at around 500 bhp.
The BT49 was initially fitted with the same gearbox
Transmission (mechanics)
A machine consists of a power source and a power transmission system, which provides controlled application of the power. Merriam-Webster defines transmission as: an assembly of parts including the speed-changing gears and the propeller shaft by which the power is transmitted from an engine to a...
the team had been using since 1977: a six-speed unit designed by Brabham using internal components from Hewland
Hewland
Founded by Mike Hewland in 1957, Hewland is a British engineering company specialising in racing-car gearboxes. Hewland was the first company to manufacture a bespoke racing-car gearbox....
and a casing cast by Alfa Romeo.
Variants
BT49BA BT49B specification appeared early in the 1980 season; it was conceived around a new transverse gearbox designed by American gearbox specialist Pete Weismann. The new unit could be fitted with five or six gears and was tall and narrow, allowing a clearer airflow from under the car to the rear, with the intent of improving the ground effect. An alternative rear suspension layout was designed to go with this gearbox. It replaced the standard pullrods with rocker arms that activated vertical coil springs mounted behind the gearbox. The Weismann unit proved difficult to make reliable and was used alongside the original gearbox, mainly on a spare chassis, until the Dutch Grand Prix
1980 Dutch Grand Prix
The 1980 Dutch Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on August 31, 1980 at the Circuit Zandvoort in the Netherlands. It was the eleventh race of the 1980 Formula One season.- Classification :- Notes :* Milestones...
, after which it was put to one side.
BT49T
A modified BT49, dubbed BT49T, was used to test the earliest versions of BMW's turbocharged
Turbocharger
A turbocharger, or turbo , from the Greek "τύρβη" is a centrifugal compressor powered by a turbine that is driven by an engine's exhaust gases. Its benefit lies with the compressor increasing the mass of air entering the engine , thereby resulting in greater performance...
Formula One engine between the 1980 and 1981 Formula One season
1981 Formula One season
The 1981 Formula One season included the 32nd FIA Formula One World Championship season, which commenced on March 15, 1981, and ended on October 17 after fifteen races. Nelson Piquet won the Drivers' Championship, claiming the first of his three Formula One titles...
s. This was a 1,499 cc (92 cu in) inline four-cylinder engine, with a single KKK turbocharger mounted in the left hand sidepod of the car. The first version of the engine was said to produce 557 bhp.
BT49C
For the 1981 season, a BT49C specification was produced with a chassis lightened through increased use of carbon composite materials. Five of this variant were built and two of the previous year's cars converted to this specification. That year a minimum ride height
Ride height
Ride height is the amount of space between the base of an automobile tire and the underside of the chassis; or, more properly, to the shortest distance between a flat, level surface, and any part of a vehicle other than those parts designed to contact the ground...
of 60 millimetres (2.4 in) was introduced and sliding skirts were banned, with the intention of limiting ground effect and slowing the cars. The BT49C regained its front wings to compensate in part for the downforce lost. More significantly, Murray devised a hydropneumatic suspension
Hydropneumatic suspension
Hydropneumatic suspension is a type of automotive suspension system, invented by Citroën, and fitted to Citroën cars, as well as being used under licence by other car manufacturers, notably Rolls-Royce, and Peugeot. It was also used on Berliet trucks and is since recently used on Mercedes-Benz...
system for the BT49C in which soft air springs supported the car at the regulation height for checks while stationary. At speed, where the ride height could not be measured, downforce compressed the air and the car settled to a much lower height, creating more downforce. Because the skirts now had to be fixed, the suspension had to be very stiff to allow them to consistently seal around the sides of the car: by the end of the 1981 season, total suspension movement was only 1.5 inches (38 mm), half of which came from the compression of the tyres. A lightweight qualifying chassis was produced, featuring a small fuel tank and lighter reinforced carbon-carbon brake discs and pads.
BT49D
Three new BT49D chassis were built for the 1982 season
1982 Formula One season
The 1982 Formula One season was the 33rd FIA Formula One World Championship season. It commenced on January 23, 1982, and ended on September 25 after sixteen races. The World Drivers' Championship was won by Williams driver Keke Rosberg. Rosberg was the first driver since Mike Hawthorn in the 1958...
, featuring a still lighter chassis and one-piece bodywork. By this stage, the cars had to be ballasted
Ballast weight
Ballast weight is something that is added to a race car to alter its performance.In most racing series, cars have a minimum weight. Often, the actual weight of the car is lower, so ballast is used to bring it up to the minimum. The advantage is that the ballast can be positioned to affect the car's...
to bring them up to the minimum weight limit of 580 kg (1,279 lb) specified in the rules. The BT49D used the carbon-carbon brakes as standard and was one of several DFV-powered cars to be fitted with large water tanks, ostensibly for "water-cooled brakes". In practice, the water was dumped early in the race, allowing the cars to race as much as 50 kg (110 lb) under the weight limit; the regulations stated coolant could be topped up at the end of the race before the weight was checked. In the view of the DFV teams, this practice met the letter of the regulations and equalised their performance with that of the more powerful turbocharged cars. The 60 mm ground clearance rule was removed for the 1982 season, but the fixed skirts and very stiff suspension remained.
Racing history
The BT49's racing career got off to an unsettled start when Brabham's lead driver, Niki LaudaNiki Lauda
Andreas Nikolaus "Niki" Lauda is an Austrian former Formula One racing driver and three-time F1 World Champion. More recently an aviation entrepreneur, he has founded and run two airlines and was manager of the Jaguar Formula One racing team for two years.- Early years in racing :Born in Vienna,...
, abruptly quit the sport after 10 laps of the first practice session at the penultimate race of the 1979 season, the Canadian Grand Prix. The car soon showed promise: Piquet ran third in the race on the high speed Circuit Île Notre-Dame
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a motor racing circuit, venue for the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix, NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series and Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series....
before retiring with a broken gearbox. Lauda's replacement, Argentine novice Ricardo Zunino
Ricardo Zuniño
Ricardo Héctor Zunino is a former racing driver from Argentina who participated in Formula One from to . He competed in 11 World Championship races and two non-Championship Formula One races, the 1980 Spanish Grand Prix and 1981 South African Grand Prix.At the 1979 Canadian Grand Prix, he...
, was seventh of the nine who completed the race. At the season finale in wet conditions at the Watkins Glen International
Watkins Glen International
Watkins Glen International is an auto race track located near Watkins Glen, New York, at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. The facility is owned by International Speedway Corporation...
circuit, Zunino spun off although Piquet set the fastest lap before a driveshaft
Driveshaft
A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, propeller shaft, or Cardan shaft is a mechanical component for transmitting torque and rotation, usually used to connect other components of a drive train that cannot be connected directly because of distance or the need to allow for relative movement...
failed, putting his car out of the race.
Early in the 1980 season, Piquet's car scored points finishes at the Argentine
1980 Argentine Grand Prix
The 1980 Argentine Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on January 13, 1980 at the Autódromo Juan y Oscar Gálvez Circuit in Argentina. It was the first race of the 1980 Formula One season...
and South African Grands Prix
1980 South African Grand Prix
The 1980 South African Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Kyalami on March 1, 1980.Alain Prost and Marc Surer both crashed in separate incidents during qualifying: Prost broke his wrist and Surer suffered serious injuries to his legs. Neither started the race, with Prost also missing...
, behind Alan Jones' Williams FW07
Williams FW07
The Williams FW07 was a ground effect Formula One racing car designed by Patrick Head for the 1979 F1 season. It was closely based on the Lotus 79, even being developed in the same wind tunnel at Imperial College London. Some observers, among them Lotus aerodynamicist Peter Wright felt the FW07 was...
-DFV and the turbocharged Renault RE20
Renault RE20
The Renault RE20 was a Formula One car raced by the Renault team in the 1980 Formula One season. A modified version of the car, the RE20B, raced in first part of the 1981 Formula One season. Drivers were Jabouille, Arnoux and Prost....
of René Arnoux
René Arnoux
René Alexandre Arnoux is a retired French racing driver who is a veteran of 12 Formula One seasons...
. At the fourth race of the season, the United States Grand Prix West
1980 United States Grand Prix West
The 1980 United States Grand Prix West was a Formula One race held on March 30, 1980 at Long Beach, California.__FORCETOC__-Summary:Nelson Piquet took pole, fastest lap and his first career race win to dominate the weekend in his gleaming blue and white Brabham...
, Piquet qualified on pole by over a second in a BT49 featuring some updates to the sidepods, bodywork and suspension, before leading the race, held on the streets of Long Beach, California
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
, from start to finish. BT49s in Piquet's hands scored in seven of the ten remaining rounds of the championship. Towards the end of the season, the suspension was reworked for the Dutch Grand Prix
1980 Dutch Grand Prix
The 1980 Dutch Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on August 31, 1980 at the Circuit Zandvoort in the Netherlands. It was the eleventh race of the 1980 Formula One season.- Classification :- Notes :* Milestones...
on the high speed Circuit Park Zandvoort
Circuit Park Zandvoort
Circuit Park Zandvoort is a motorsport race track located in Burgemeester van Alphenstraat 108, 2041 KP in the dunes north of the town of Zandvoort, in the Netherlands, near the North Sea coast line.- History :...
, lengthening the wheelbase by three inches and allowing the car to run in a lower drag configuration. Piquet won after Jones destroyed his FW07's skirts on kerbs. Piquet also won the next race, the Italian Grand Prix
1980 Italian Grand Prix
The 1980 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on September 14, 1980 at the Imola Circuit in Italy. It was the twelfth race of the 1980 Formula One season.- Classification :- Notes :* Milestones:...
to give himself a one point lead over Williams driver Jones. By the end of the season the BT49 was "arguably the fastest Cosworth-powered car", but Piquet lost the title to Jones at the penultimate race of the year, the Canadian Grand Prix
1980 Canadian Grand Prix
The 1980 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on September 28, 1980, at the Montreal Circuit in Canada. It was the thirteenth race of the 1980 Formula One season.- Classification :- Notes :* Milestones:...
, when a development engine failed while he was leading the race. The BT49s driven by the team's second drivers—Zunino and then from mid-season Mexican Héctor Rebaque
Héctor Rebaque
Héctor Alonso Rebaque is a former racing driver from Mexico. He participated in 58 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 5 June 1977. He scored a total of 13 championship points...
—either retired or finished outside the points, with the exception of Rebaque's sixth place at the Canadian race. The team finished third in the constructors' championship behind Williams and Ligier, unable to compete with only one car scoring points.
Disagreement between the teams and the sport's administrators over the technical regulations for the 1981 Formula One season contributed to Goodyear's temporary withdrawal from Formula One and meant that the 1981 South African Grand Prix
1981 South African Grand Prix
The 1981 South African Grand Prix was a Formula Libre motor race held on February 7, 1981 at Kyalami.The race was originally scheduled to be the opening round of the 1981 FIA Formula One World Championship however the ongoing FISA-FOCA war resulted in Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile ...
was run by the teams to 1980 regulations using cars with sliding skirts. Piquet finished second in a BT49B, but the race did not count towards the championship. The season proper opened with the United States Grand Prix West
1981 United States Grand Prix West
The 1981 United States Grand Prix West was a Formula One race held on March 15, 1981 at Long Beach, California.__FORCETOC__-Summary:Defending World Champion Alan Jones finished nine seconds ahead of teammate Carlos Reutemann, and won his first Long Beach Grand Prix, as the 1981 season finally began...
, at which the BT49C was introduced. To the team's surprise, it was the only car to exploit the "obvious" loophole in the new ground clearance regulation by lowering itself, but the BT49Cs raced with conventional suspension after the hydropneumatic system repeatedly jammed. The team revised the system continuously over the next three races and used it to set pole position
Pole position
The term "pole position", as used in motorsports, comes from the horse racing term where the number one starter starts on the inside next to the inside pole. The term made its way, along with several other customs, to auto racing. In circuit motorsports, a driver has pole position when he or she...
at the Brazilian
1981 Brazilian Grand Prix
The 1981 Brazilian Grand Prix was the second race of the 1981 Formula One season and was held on March 29, 1981 at Jacarepaguá in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.-Classification:Results from the 1981 Formula One Brazilian Grand Prix:- Notes :...
and Argentine
1981 Argentine Grand Prix
The 1981 Argentine Grand Prix was the third race of the 1981 Formula One season and was held at the Buenos Aires circuit in Argentina on April 12, 1981. This was the last Argentine Grand Prix until the 1995 Argentine Grand Prix...
Grands Prix and win the Argentine and San Marino races
1981 San Marino Grand Prix
The 1981 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Imola on May 3, 1981.The race was the first to bear the title "San Marino Grand Prix", although several non-championship Formula One races and the 1980 Italian Grand Prix had previously been held at the circuit.The Lotus team...
while continuing to suffer from the system not rising or lowering correctly.
Doug Nye
Doug Nye born October 1945 is an English motoring journalist and author. He lives in Farnham, Surrey, England.He is generally recognized as a world authority on competition cars of any period from 1887, and is a consultant to the Bonhams auction house, the Collier Collection and sits on the...
believes this cost the BT49s good results at several races while the American company adapted to the latest Formula One developments. Despite the virtually solid suspension now required to maintain a consistent ride height, which put components under greater strain, Piquet built a championship challenge on the back of consistent reliability: by the end of the season, his BT49Cs had finished 10 of 15 races, with only one mechanical failure. Piquet finished fifth at the final race of the season—the Caesars Palace Grand Prix—to take the title from Carlos Reutemann
Carlos Reutemann
Carlos Alberto Reutemann , nicknamed "Lole", is an Argentine former racing driver , and later a politician in his native province of Santa Fe, for the Justicialist Party....
in a Williams FW07 by one point.
Brabham had been working with the German engine manufacturer BMW since 1980 on the development of a turbocharged engine for Formula One. The BMW-powered BT50 made its debut at the start of the 1982 season, taking advantage of the high-altitude Kyalami
Kyalami
Kyalami is a motor racing circuit located in Midrand, Gauteng province, South Africa. The circuit has been used for Grand Prix and Formula One races and has hosted the South African Grand Prix many times. In recent years, the area surrounding the circuit has developed into a residential and...
circuit in South Africa, which favoured turbocharged cars. However, the as yet unreliable BMW-powered cars were dropped for the next two races. Piquet finished first at the Brazilian Grand Prix
1982 Brazilian Grand Prix
The 1982 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Jacarepaguá on March 21, 1982. It was the second round of the 1982 Formula One season....
in a BT49D, but was disqualified after a protest from Renault and Ferrari on the grounds that the car had raced underweight due to its water-cooled brakes. FISA ruled that in future all cars must be weighed before coolants were topped up, resulting in a boycott of the fourth race of the season by most of the DFV-powered teams, including Brabham. Under threat from BMW, Brabham did not use its Ford-powered BT49s again until the sixth race of the season, the Monaco Grand Prix
1982 Monaco Grand Prix
The 1982 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monaco on May 23, 1982.This was the first race following the death of Gilles Villeneuve at the Belgian Grand Prix; consequently Ferrari entered only one driver, Didier Pironi....
, where one was entered for Riccardo Patrese
Riccardo Patrese
Riccardo Gabriele Patrese is an Italian former racing driver, who raced in Formula One from to .He became the first Formula One driver to achieve 200 Grand Prix starts when he appeared at the 1990 British Grand Prix, and the first to achieve 250 starts at the 1993 German Grand Prix...
alongside Piquet in a BT50. Patrese won the race after a chaotic final lap on which several other cars stopped. Patrese used the BT49 for the next two races, taking a second place behind Piquet's BMW-powered car in the BT49's final Formula One race, the 1982 Canadian Grand Prix
1982 Canadian Grand Prix
The 1982 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on June 13, 1982. Riccardo Paletti was killed at the start of the race, when his car ran into the back of the stationary Ferrari of Didier Pironi who had stalled on the grid...
.
Historic racing
Historic Formula One Championship
The Historic Formula One Championship, previously known as the Thoroughbred Grand Prix Championship, is a championship for Formula One cars from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s which is sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, motor sport's world governing body...
. The championship is open to cars that competed in Formula One in the DFV era, between 1967 and 1985, in several classes to allow for equal competition. The BT49 competes in class C, for post 1971 ground effects cars. In 1999, Motor Sport magazine tested a BT49D from the series featuring 530 bhp from its developed DFV at 11,200 rpm, but the championship has since introduced rules to restrict engines to 10,500 rpm to keep costs down. While the cars' original skirts can be kept, they must be set up such that there is 40 mm (1.6 in) clearance beneath the car, a rule that removes most of the advantage of ground effect. The hydropneumatic suspension employed during 1981 is not permitted. The carbon-carbon brakes originally used in 1981 and 1982 are also banned and the cars must run with conventional brake pads and steel brakes. The cars use Avon slick tyres. Christian Glaesel won the 2005 FIA Historic Formula One Championship driving a BT49D and Joaquin Folch finished second in the 2006 and 2009 championships in a BT49C.
Complete Formula One World Championship results
(Results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)| Year | Team | Engine | Drivers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | Points | WCC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 1979 Formula One season The 1979 Formula One season was the 30th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1979 World Championship of F1 Drivers and the 1979 International Cup for F1 Constructors which were contested concurrently over a fifteen round series which commenced on January 21, 1979, and ended on... |
Brabham | Ford DFV Cosworth DFV The DFV is an internal combustion engine that was originally produced by Cosworth for Formula One motor racing. Named Four Valve because of the four valves per cylinder, and Double as it was a V8 development of the earlier, four-cylinder FVA , making it a Double Four Valve engine... V8 V8 engine A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft.... |
ARG 1979 Argentine Grand Prix The 1979 Argentine Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 21 January 1979 at the Autódromo Oscar Alfredo Gálvez in Buenos Aires.- Classification :- Notes :* Lap Leaders: Patrick Depailler 10 laps ; Jacques Laffite 43 laps .... |
BRA 1979 Brazilian Grand Prix The 1979 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 4 February 1979 at Interlagos.-Race report:The Ligier team dominated the race weekend with their superior ground-effect JS11... |
RSA 1979 South African Grand Prix The 1979 South African Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 3 March 1979 at Kyalami.- Classification :- Notes :* Lap Leaders: Jean-Pierre Jabouille 1 lap ; Gilles Villeneuve 39 laps ; Jody Scheckter 38 laps .... |
USW 1979 United States Grand Prix West The 1979 United States Grand Prix West was a Formula One race held on April 8, 1979 at Long Beach, California.__FORCETOC__-Summary:Canadian Gilles Villeneuve captured pole, fastest lap and the win for Ferrari, followed by teammate Jody Scheckter, as the Prancing Horses took a big step toward... |
ESP 1979 Spanish Grand Prix The 1979 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 29 April 1979 at Jarama.- Classification :-Standings after the race:Drivers' Championship standingsConstructors' Championship standings... |
BEL 1979 Belgian Grand Prix - Classification :- Notes :* Lap Leaders: Patrick Depailler 25 laps ; Jacques Laffite 12 laps ; Alan Jones 16 laps ; Jody Scheckter 17 laps .-Standings after the race:Drivers' Championship standings... |
MON 1979 Monaco Grand Prix The 1979 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 27 May 1979 at Monaco.- Classification :- Notes :* Lap Leaders: Jody Scheckter 76 laps .* Last race - James Hunt-Standings after the race:Drivers' Championship standings... |
FRA 1979 French Grand Prix The 1979 French Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 1 July 1979 at Dijon.It marked the first victory of a turbocharged car in Formula One, with Renault overcoming the reliability problems that had initially plagued their car... |
GBR 1979 British Grand Prix The 1979 British Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 14 July 1979 at Silverstone. It marked the Williams team's first GP pole position and win .- Classification :- Notes :... |
GER 1979 German Grand Prix The 1979 German Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 29 July 1979 at Hockenheimring.- Classification :-Standings after the race:Drivers' Championship standingsConstructors' Championship standings... |
AUT 1979 Austrian Grand Prix The 1979 Austrian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 12 August 1979 at Österreichring.- Classification :- Notes :* Lap Leaders: Gilles Villeneuve 3 laps ; Alan Jones 51 laps .* First pole position: René Arnoux-Standings after the race:... |
NED 1979 Dutch Grand Prix The 1979 Dutch Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 26 August 1979 at Zandvoort.-Summary:René Arnoux put his Renault on pole position but the slow start of the turbocharged car allowed Alan Jones to break free. Arnoux and Clay Regazzoni collided, eliminating the Williams on the spot while the... |
ITA 1979 Italian Grand Prix The 1979 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 9 September 1979 at Monza.Monza was revamped for 1979, including a re-surfaced track; and run-off areas were added to the Curva Grande and the Lesmo Curves.... |
CAN 1979 Canadian Grand Prix The 1979 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 30 September 1979 at Montreal.During practice Niki Lauda announced his retirement from Formula One. Ricardo Zunino replaced him for the race. The organizers would not let the Alfa Romeo team compete unless they pre-qualified... |
USE 1979 United States Grand Prix The 1979 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on October 7, 1979 at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York... |
0 | NC | ||
| Niki Lauda Niki Lauda Andreas Nikolaus "Niki" Lauda is an Austrian former Formula One racing driver and three-time F1 World Champion. More recently an aviation entrepreneur, he has founded and run two airlines and was manager of the Jaguar Formula One racing team for two years.- Early years in racing :Born in Vienna,... |
DNP | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Nelson Piquet Nelson Piquet Nelson Piquet Souto Maior , known as Nelson Piquet, is a Brazilian former racing driver. He was Formula One world champion in , and . He is one of eight drivers to win three or more world championships, the others being Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna , Alain Prost , Juan... |
Ret | Ret | |||||||||||||||||||
| Ricardo Zunino Ricardo Zuniño Ricardo Héctor Zunino is a former racing driver from Argentina who participated in Formula One from to . He competed in 11 World Championship races and two non-Championship Formula One races, the 1980 Spanish Grand Prix and 1981 South African Grand Prix.At the 1979 Canadian Grand Prix, he... |
7 | Ret | |||||||||||||||||||
| 1980 1980 Formula One season The 1980 Formula One season was the 31st season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1980 World Championship of Drivers and the 1980 International Cup for F1 Constructors which were contested concurrently from January 13 to October 5 over a fourteen race series... |
Brabham | Ford DFV Cosworth DFV The DFV is an internal combustion engine that was originally produced by Cosworth for Formula One motor racing. Named Four Valve because of the four valves per cylinder, and Double as it was a V8 development of the earlier, four-cylinder FVA , making it a Double Four Valve engine... V8 V8 engine A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft.... |
ARG 1980 Argentine Grand Prix The 1980 Argentine Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on January 13, 1980 at the Autódromo Juan y Oscar Gálvez Circuit in Argentina. It was the first race of the 1980 Formula One season... |
BRA 1980 Brazilian Grand Prix The 1980 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Interlagos on January 27, 1980.- Classification :-Notes:*Lap leaders: Gilles Villeneuve , Jean-Pierre Jabouille , René Arnoux... |
RSA 1980 South African Grand Prix The 1980 South African Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Kyalami on March 1, 1980.Alain Prost and Marc Surer both crashed in separate incidents during qualifying: Prost broke his wrist and Surer suffered serious injuries to his legs. Neither started the race, with Prost also missing... |
USW 1980 United States Grand Prix West The 1980 United States Grand Prix West was a Formula One race held on March 30, 1980 at Long Beach, California.__FORCETOC__-Summary:Nelson Piquet took pole, fastest lap and his first career race win to dominate the weekend in his gleaming blue and white Brabham... |
BEL 1980 Belgian Grand Prix The 1980 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Zolder on May 4, 1980.- Classification :-Standings after the race:Drivers' Championship standingsConstructors' Championship standings... |
MON 1980 Monaco Grand Prix The 1980 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monaco on May 18, 1980. It was won by Carlos Reutemann driving a Williams-Cosworth... |
FRA 1980 French Grand Prix The 1980 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Paul Ricard on June 29, 1980.Financial problems meant that this was the last race contested by the Shadow team.- Classification :-Standings after the race:Drivers' Championship standings... |
GBR 1980 British Grand Prix The 1980 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Brands Hatch on July 13, 1980.This race proved to be Patrick Depailler's final Grand Prix... |
GER 1980 German Grand Prix The 1980 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Hockenheimring on August 10, 1980. It was the ninth round of the 1980 Formula One season... |
AUT 1980 Austrian Grand Prix The 1980 Austrian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on August 17, 1980 at the Österreichring circuit in Austria. It was the tenth race of the 1980 Formula One season.- Classification :- Notes :*Milestones:... |
NED 1980 Dutch Grand Prix The 1980 Dutch Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on August 31, 1980 at the Circuit Zandvoort in the Netherlands. It was the eleventh race of the 1980 Formula One season.- Classification :- Notes :* Milestones... |
ITA 1980 Italian Grand Prix The 1980 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on September 14, 1980 at the Imola Circuit in Italy. It was the twelfth race of the 1980 Formula One season.- Classification :- Notes :* Milestones:... |
CAN 1980 Canadian Grand Prix The 1980 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on September 28, 1980, at the Montreal Circuit in Canada. It was the thirteenth race of the 1980 Formula One season.- Classification :- Notes :* Milestones:... |
USA 1980 United States Grand Prix The 1980 United States Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on October 5, 1980 at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Race Course in Watkins Glen, New York... |
55 | 3rd | |||
| Nelson Piquet Nelson Piquet Nelson Piquet Souto Maior , known as Nelson Piquet, is a Brazilian former racing driver. He was Formula One world champion in , and . He is one of eight drivers to win three or more world championships, the others being Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna , Alain Prost , Juan... |
2 | Ret | 4 | 1 | Ret | 3 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Ret | Ret | |||||||
| Ricardo Zunino Ricardo Zuniño Ricardo Héctor Zunino is a former racing driver from Argentina who participated in Formula One from to . He competed in 11 World Championship races and two non-Championship Formula One races, the 1980 Spanish Grand Prix and 1981 South African Grand Prix.At the 1979 Canadian Grand Prix, he... |
7 | 8 | 10 | Ret | Ret | DNQ | Ret | ||||||||||||||
| Héctor Rebaque Héctor Rebaque Héctor Alonso Rebaque is a former racing driver from Mexico. He participated in 58 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 5 June 1977. He scored a total of 13 championship points... |
7 | Ret | 10 | Ret | Ret | 6 | Ret | ||||||||||||||
| 1981 1981 Formula One season The 1981 Formula One season included the 32nd FIA Formula One World Championship season, which commenced on March 15, 1981, and ended on October 17 after fifteen races. Nelson Piquet won the Drivers' Championship, claiming the first of his three Formula One titles... |
Brabham | Ford DFV Cosworth DFV The DFV is an internal combustion engine that was originally produced by Cosworth for Formula One motor racing. Named Four Valve because of the four valves per cylinder, and Double as it was a V8 development of the earlier, four-cylinder FVA , making it a Double Four Valve engine... V8 V8 engine A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft.... |
USW 1981 United States Grand Prix West The 1981 United States Grand Prix West was a Formula One race held on March 15, 1981 at Long Beach, California.__FORCETOC__-Summary:Defending World Champion Alan Jones finished nine seconds ahead of teammate Carlos Reutemann, and won his first Long Beach Grand Prix, as the 1981 season finally began... |
BRA 1981 Brazilian Grand Prix The 1981 Brazilian Grand Prix was the second race of the 1981 Formula One season and was held on March 29, 1981 at Jacarepaguá in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.-Classification:Results from the 1981 Formula One Brazilian Grand Prix:- Notes :... |
ARG 1981 Argentine Grand Prix The 1981 Argentine Grand Prix was the third race of the 1981 Formula One season and was held at the Buenos Aires circuit in Argentina on April 12, 1981. This was the last Argentine Grand Prix until the 1995 Argentine Grand Prix... |
SMR 1981 San Marino Grand Prix The 1981 San Marino Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Imola on May 3, 1981.The race was the first to bear the title "San Marino Grand Prix", although several non-championship Formula One races and the 1980 Italian Grand Prix had previously been held at the circuit.The Lotus team... |
BEL 1981 Belgian Grand Prix The 1981 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Zolder on May 17, 1981.-Mechanic safety:The Belgian Grand Prix of 1981 was marred by two serious incidents involving mechanics, one fatal. In Friday practice a mechanic from the Osella team, Giovanni Amadeo, stumbled off the pitwall... |
MON 1981 Monaco Grand Prix The 1981 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monaco on May 31, 1981.-Race:Nelson Piquet led for much of the race, but crashed out late on... |
ESP 1981 Spanish Grand Prix The 1981 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on June 21, 1981, at the Circuito Permanente Del Jarama, Jarama, Spain.-Summary:... |
FRA 1981 French Grand Prix The 1981 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Dijon on July 5, 1981.- Classification :- Notes :*Alain Prost's first F1 victory*Race was stopped after 58 laps due to rain... |
GBR 1981 British Grand Prix The 1981 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Silverstone on July 18, 1981. John Watson won his first race for five years, and McLaren's first since James Hunt's victory at the 1977 United States Grand Prix... |
GER 1981 German Grand Prix The 1981 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Hockenheimring on August 2, 1981. The race was notable for a memorable battle between Alain Prost and Alan Jones.-Standings after the race:Drivers' Championship standings... |
AUT 1981 Austrian Grand Prix The 1981 Austrian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Österreichring on August 16, 1981.The Fittipaldi team was not present because it did not have enough engines.- Classification :- Notes :*Pole position: René Arnoux - 1:32.018... |
NED 1981 Dutch Grand Prix The 1981 Dutch Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Circuit Zandvoort on August 30, 1981.- Classification :-Standings after the race:Drivers' Championship standingsConstructors' Championship standings... |
ITA 1981 Italian Grand Prix The 1981 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monza on September 13, 1981.- Classification :-Trivia:*John Watson had a huge accident at the Lesmo curves when he went wide coming out of the second Lesmo curve, touched the grass and spun across the track, and his carbon-fibre... |
CAN 1981 Canadian Grand Prix The 1981 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on September 27, 1981, at Montreal. Jacques Laffite won the race driving for Ligier. It would prove to be Ligier's last race win for fifteen years, until the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix... |
CPL | 61 | 2nd | ||
| Nelson Piquet Nelson Piquet Nelson Piquet Souto Maior , known as Nelson Piquet, is a Brazilian former racing driver. He was Formula One world champion in , and . He is one of eight drivers to win three or more world championships, the others being Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna , Alain Prost , Juan... |
3 | 12 | 1 | 1 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 3 | Ret | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 5 | ||||||
| Héctor Rebaque Héctor Rebaque Héctor Alonso Rebaque is a former racing driver from Mexico. He participated in 58 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 5 June 1977. He scored a total of 13 championship points... |
Ret | Ret | Ret | 4 | Ret | DNQ | Ret | 9 | 5 | 4 | Ret | 4 | Ret | Ret | Ret | ||||||
| 1982 1982 Formula One season The 1982 Formula One season was the 33rd FIA Formula One World Championship season. It commenced on January 23, 1982, and ended on September 25 after sixteen races. The World Drivers' Championship was won by Williams driver Keke Rosberg. Rosberg was the first driver since Mike Hawthorn in the 1958... |
Brabham | Ford DFV Cosworth DFV The DFV is an internal combustion engine that was originally produced by Cosworth for Formula One motor racing. Named Four Valve because of the four valves per cylinder, and Double as it was a V8 development of the earlier, four-cylinder FVA , making it a Double Four Valve engine... V8 V8 engine A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft.... |
RSA 1982 South African Grand Prix The 1982 South African Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Kyalami on 23 January 1982. Turbo-charged cars took the first six positions on the grid... |
BRA 1982 Brazilian Grand Prix The 1982 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Jacarepaguá on March 21, 1982. It was the second round of the 1982 Formula One season.... |
USW 1982 United States Grand Prix West The 1982 United States Grand Prix West was a Formula One race held on April 4, 1982 at the temporary street circuit at Long Beach, California.__FORCETOC__-Summary:... |
SMR 1982 San Marino Grand Prix The 1982 San Marino Grand Prix was the fourth race of the 1982 Formula One World Championship. It was held on the weekend of April 23–25, 1982 at the Autodromo Dino Ferrari, Imola... |
BEL 1982 Belgian Grand Prix The 1982 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Zolder on May 9, 1982. It was the fifth round of the 1982 Formula One season.-Qualifying:... |
MON 1982 Monaco Grand Prix The 1982 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monaco on May 23, 1982.This was the first race following the death of Gilles Villeneuve at the Belgian Grand Prix; consequently Ferrari entered only one driver, Didier Pironi.... |
DET | CAN 1982 Canadian Grand Prix The 1982 Canadian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on June 13, 1982. Riccardo Paletti was killed at the start of the race, when his car ran into the back of the stationary Ferrari of Didier Pironi who had stalled on the grid... |
NED 1982 Dutch Grand Prix The 1982 Dutch Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Circuit Zandvoort on July 3, 1982.Ferrari entered Patrick Tambay to replace Gilles Villeneuve, who had been killed during qualifying a few race weekends prior, at the Belgian Grand Prix.... |
GBR 1982 British Grand Prix The 1982 British Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Brands Hatch on July 18, 1982.- Classification :-Standings after the race:Drivers' Championship standingsConstructors' Championship standings... |
FRA 1982 French Grand Prix The 1982 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Paul Ricard on July 25, 1982. Six turbo-charged cars completed the first 6 grid positions, and 4 turbo-charged cars driven by 4 French drivers finished in the top 4 places, and the French Renault team finished 1-2 with René Arnoux... |
GER 1982 German Grand Prix The 1982 German Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Hockenheimring on 8 August 1982. It was won by Patrick Tambay for Scuderia Ferrari.-Race report:... |
AUT 1982 Austrian Grand Prix The 1982 Austrian Grand Prix was a Formula One World Championship race held on 15 August 1982 at the Österreichring in Spielberg, Styria, Austria. The race was won by Lotus' Elio de Angelis, who held off Keke Rosberg's Williams to win by just 0.050 seconds, or less than half a car length.- Report... |
SUI 1982 Swiss Grand Prix The 1982 Swiss Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Dijon-Prenois in France on August 29, 1982. This was the only win of the season for eventual World Champion Keke Rosberg.- Classification :-Standings after the race:... |
ITA 1982 Italian Grand Prix The 1982 Italian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Monza on 12 September 1982.- Classification :-Standings after the race:Drivers' Championship standingsConstructors' Championship standings... |
CPL | 19 | 9th | |
| Nelson Piquet Nelson Piquet Nelson Piquet Souto Maior , known as Nelson Piquet, is a Brazilian former racing driver. He was Formula One world champion in , and . He is one of eight drivers to win three or more world championships, the others being Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna , Alain Prost , Juan... |
DSQ | Ret | |||||||||||||||||||
| Riccardo Patrese Riccardo Patrese Riccardo Gabriele Patrese is an Italian former racing driver, who raced in Formula One from to .He became the first Formula One driver to achieve 200 Grand Prix starts when he appeared at the 1990 British Grand Prix, and the first to achieve 250 starts at the 1993 German Grand Prix... |
Ret | 3 | 1 | Ret | 2 |
[a] Placings in the constructors' championship are for chassis-engine combinations. Brabham used both Alfa Romeo and Ford-powered cars during this season: the BT49-Fords scored no points and Brabham-Ford was not classified.
[b] Brabham used both Ford and BMW-powered cars during this season: Brabham-Ford was classified 9th.