<< Prev Page 2 of 3 Next >> Ready for the penultimate round of the championship in Canada, the BT49's debut was overshadowed by Brabham's lead driver Niki Lauda's sudden retirement from the sport just two days earlier. His team-mate, Nelson Piquet, was unaffected and placed the new car fourth on the grid only to retire from the race with a gearbox failure. The full potential of the car was revealed a week later when Piquet qualified the BT49 on pole but sadly his gearbox proved troublesome again during the race. Brabham were clearly on the right path and now had plenty of time to perfect the BT49 for the 1980 season.
Much time and resources was spent on incorporating a new, transverse gearbox built by Weismann in the United States. It was so compact that the rear springs could be mounted behind the gearbox, cleaning up the airflow even further. Unfortunately, it was very unreliable and eventually halfway through the season, it was set aside altogether. With the conventional Hewland gearbox fitted and in Piquet's hands, the BT49 was one of the top runners. The young Brazilian won three races and finished on the podium another three times, which saw him end the year second in the standings.
Subtle rule changes, which included a ban on the sliding skirts used to seal off the ground effect tunnel and a 6 cm minimum ground clearance, prompted Murray to further develop the car into the BT49C for the 1981 season. The talented South African conceived a sophisticated hydro-pneumatic damper system, which was able to lift the car to the mandatory 6 cm in the pits but also allowed the car to run as close to the ground as possible to generate maximum downforce. To compete with the increasingly competitive turbo-engined cars, more carbon fibre was used to further lower the weight.
Even in its third year, the Brabham BT49 was not bullet-proof. In 'C-specification', it nevertheless allowed Piquet to dice all season long with the Williams drivers, including defending World Champion Alan Jones. He won three races again but this time, it was enough to win the world championship, be it by a single point. Meanwhile Brabham had struck a deal with BMW to supply the team with a turbo engine. So despite fighting for the championship, Piquet also had to spend time testing the new engine, which was considerably more powerful but also ruefully unreliable. << Prev Page 2 of 3 Next >>
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Ready for the penultimate round of the championship in Canada, the BT49's debut was overshadowed by Brabham's lead driver Niki Lauda's sudden retirement from the sport just two days earlier. His team-mate, Nelson Piquet, was unaffected and placed the new car fourth on the grid only to retire from the race with a gearbox failure. The full potential of the car was revealed a week later when Piquet qualified the BT49 on pole but sadly his gearbox proved troublesome again during the race. Brabham were clearly on the right path and now had plenty of time to perfect the BT49 for the 1980 season.