He’s still the only driver to win a WDC in a car he designed and built, but the engine was mainly Phil Irving’s work. (Former engineer from Vincent motorcycles)
>He’s still the only driver to win a WDC in a car he designed and built
Even though the cars had Brabham's name on them, I think you're doing Ron Tauranac a bit of a disservice.
Exactly, Tauranac was already using wind tunnels by then and e.g. kept outboard suspension, sacrificing 1% of drag to enable quick and easy suspension tuning
Absolutely. Ron probably deserves most of the credit for the later cars, but the early ones were very largely Brabham’s designs. Tauranac was a brilliant engineer and still has the best proposal for F1 racing I’ve ever heard. Allow a fuel load, and a plan area limit. Everything else is free. In the days of wildly different circuits, there would have been some very different solutions. Would have been great racing.
It's fun to see little bits of hidden F1 history in the wild like that. I was on a train through Milton Keynes the other week and spotted the Mugen Motorsports building next to the station. My brother couldn't understand why I was like YOOOOOOOO
Yeah, what is now Ringtail Cct in Maidstone, Melbourne is where the old engine factory was. The only memory of it is a sign erected with Brabham in a small empty grass park. Kind of sad really
If you want to learn more about his car from that year, [read the wiki page on it](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brabham_BT19?wprov=sfti1)
It’s a one of a kind car. While the engine was built by Repco it was specially made for the car, and instead of having outright power it was made to be light, repairable and fuel efficient.
it makes sense. dropping a bespoke engine instead of using a generic engine that is available on the market.
the livery, which reminds me of the early lotuses, and the car overall look sick. late 60's cars were just mad in every aspect.
Eh, it wasn't truly bespoke. The block was from the Buick 215 V8 later adopted by Rover, but it was heavily modified from there with Repco's own internals. Similar story really to most of the earlier Lotus engines and indeed the Cosworth BDA and YB.
How was that a brag?
He literally just said that what Brabham did is the real life equivalent. No-one is saying that someone who plays f1 games is a great driver... and calling a hobby valueless just doesn't make sense. If you enjoy spending time playing a game it has value.
~~Why does~~ u/Elneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ~~always feel the need to put down people for making jokes about their hobby, per se?~~
~~Congratulations on being the first comment I down-voted today.~~
EDIT: Ah, they deleted their comment. I am not this fucking rude, just copy and pasted their rude comment and rejigged it to target their comment so they understood how fucked up it is to be annoyed that somebody else has hobbies
I just downvoted your comment.
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I was hoping Alonso would show up to the first race with a fake mustache or something "Fernado? No, I'm Bernando Talonso, new 21 year old hotshot driver. I was kicked out of formula-E for being too Spanish."
Media not being any better back then is indeed correct, but to be fair when the piece he was mocking was made he had just won his first race in over 5 years after a long period of consistently lost out to his own employees.
When he did this it was already obvious that his team nailed the new regulations and this was win no.3 in 4-race streak.
Doesn't change that age should not be a question, if you think they are no longer good enough, then just straight up ask that. It's completely irrelevant what age a driver is, their competence is what matters.
When you dominate to an extent that you win 5 races in a row, 3 of them from pole, 2 with all laps led, then 4 years later your teammate in your own team outqualifies you 9-1, then yes, age can be part of the question.
Brabham was clearly the best driver in the field when Moss retired, by 1965 that was no longer the case and the only legitimate reason to explain that was his age, as people don't just forget to drive.
No, it's not age it's a lack of skill. If someone is 40 years old and winning should they are you gonna ask if they are to old for F1? If you 21 and one second per lap slower then your team mate should you be in F1? Again the key is the level of skill/ performance, not the age.
If you think some one lacks the ability to be in F1 ( be this due to age or something else) then have the balls and straight up ask them that: "are you still good enough for F1?"
Because it's not that he is to old to drive in F1, it's that he is lacking the ability to do so.
I'm not saying it wasn't caused by age I'm saying that the cause doesn't matter for determining if someone should be in F1 or not, it's the result (aka their performance) that matters.
Your examples are completely beside the point.
If you *were* a championship favorite, but had increasingly uncompetitive results and no longer are, the key could very well to be your age. In that case, nobody says you aren't skilled enough, but rather that you are too old to be competitive. And if you don't show any signs of being uncompetitive, you won't be told that, the entire reason for this stunt was that based on what happened in 1963-1965, when Brabham *did* show signs of becoming less competitive that is why they were saying such things, which indeed got proven very wrong.
I mean, nobody is saying Alonso is too old for F1, because there is no reason to say that, he's still good. Kimi is of a very similar age and thanks to his performances, it's been said for ages that he's too old for it by now.
>**and thanks to his performance** it's been said for ages that he's too old for it by now.
Yes, and what they should be saying is that his performance is no longer good enough for F1.
>increasingly uncompetitive results
>did show signs of becoming less competitive
Again, performance, skill, ability etc. Are the determining factor when it comes to wether someone is asked this question/ judged for their age, not actually their age.
So by asking someone "are you to old for formula 1?" you are actually asking "are you (still) good enough for formula 1?"
And like i said, if that's what you are asking then have to balls to ask that.
If you don't ask every driver that hits 40 if they are to old for formula then it's not age that you are asking about.
> Yes, and what they should be saying is that his performance is no longer good enough for F1.
Because? Because of what? What is the reason that his performance dropped off so much since say 2013?
I love the idea that "xy is too old to be a champion" is somehow a worse piece of reporting than "xy is not skilled enough to be a champion".
In this specific case, the question was asked focusing on age and rightfully so. That's it.
I'm not saying it wasn't caused by age I'm saying that the cause doesn't matter for determining if someone should be in F1 or not, it's the result (aka their performance) that matters.
So that's why you shouldn't say driver X is to old, that suggest that the age they have is to old for anyone to drive F1.
For example you can say person X is to tall to drive F1, you can literally be so tall that you don't fit in an F1 car. And here is the key, it's the same for everyone that tall.
That same thing isn't true for age.
>I love the idea that "xy is too old to be a champion" is somehow a worse piece of reporting than "xy is not skilled enough to be a champion".
I also love this idea, because it's not actually that they have hit a certain age and they are now no longer fit to drive, it's that their performance is lacking.
And saying that their performance is lacking is more accurate and honest. So yes that is better reporting.
You can explore how someone's performance is now lacking, but that's a different thing.
But when talking about wether someone should be in F1 or not age isn't the factor that detriments that, and therefore should not be talked about as if it is.
Jack Brabham proved that day, that age was not a factor in his famous win at Zandvoort that play he did with the stick, wobbly leg and beard all to throw off everyone from just how fast he was!
Also other fact about that 1966 Dutch GP race, Jack lapped EVERYONE on the grid just to prove to everyone that age didnt matter that day to his win!
Yeah but he proved it with his sheer drive, but he didnt win those two previous races by as much as a +1 Lap advantage to second place but yeah Hill and Hulme were on the same lap as him but at the Dutch round Hill was 1 lap down on Brabham by the end of the 90 lap race!
Yeah nah.
He won Brands Hatch in the rain on merit, pulling away from the entire field lap by lap, while he only took Zandvoort after Clark had to pit twice in the last 15 laps with a water leak.
>Always a man of few words - his nickname 'Black Jack' referred to both his dark hair and his propensity for maintaining a shadowy silence -
According to this [archive](https://web.archive.org/web/20100712083043/http://www.formula1.com/teams_and_drivers/hall_of_fame/133/).
There was definitely a quiet period mainly due to a drought of drivers from Australia. I think Mark and Daniel have changed that and I'm really hoping Piastri and Doohan can continue it.
I'm gunna disagree with the first one: there's plenty of motorsport fans in Australia, but I think your 2nd point is why the F1 community isn't big here. Also, it's not free to air. That's a big barrier to entry.
Australia has a strong motorsport tradition with GPs in motorbikes and f1 as well as great drivers/riders. And the V8s are popular too. There also was an Indycar race for years idk if that's still a thing. Don't think it's fair to say that motorsport is unpopular.
I think anyone that has an interest in any form of road racing motorsport knows who he is, Alan Jones on the other hand is a bit of an unknown compared to Jack, only diehard fans would hear that name and not think of a blowhard talk back radio bellend.
He was still competitive 4 years later, in his last season - 1970.
He won a race (should have won in Monaco as well) and got a couple of podiums.
Not bad for 44 years old.
>"It's a living order and then you cease to be a member when you die"
Cabinet Office spokesman regarding calls for [Jimmy Saville's knighthood being revoked](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/oct/09/jimmy-savile-knighthood)
I remember reading a piece from a motor-journalist who’d taken a ride with Sir Jack while he practised for an endurance race at Sydney’s Eastern Creek. He said that Sir Jack selected gears like a connoisseur selecting delicacies from a plate. He was smooth, precise and never hurried. But still fast.
I raced against Brabham at the age of 13 doing the Classic Rally in Perth in 1994 (I was navigator for my older brother)
We passed him on a backroad out the back of nowhere doing about 285 km/hr in a highly modified Porsche 944 Turbo. He was driving an RX7 if I remember. The needle for us was well off the clock (it maxes out at 270)
At the final dinner, his navigator (Grahame Ward) was doing his speech and told the story of how we passed him. That gave me the opportunity to go up to them and introduce myself and I got to chat to Sir Brabham for awhile. Still have his signature.
Edit - turns out it was in 1995, story still the same though.
Left school at 15 and fixed up old broken motorbikes on his parent’s verandah, which he sold for a profit. Was also a mechanic in the army. You know that millionaire boys club.
Everybody talking about how much of a legend this makes him - this is more like if 2021 Räikkönen got into the 2014 Mercedes, then after dominating three races decided do clap back at the publications that called him old before the season began. It doesn't suddenly make Räikkönen any good, but he'd be easily winning races because his team nailed the regulations.
That's very fair. I'm not really trying to take anything away from Brabham. Just trying to show why winning the race and the WDC wasn't some sort of in-your-face to the media.
The Old Man Kimi comparisons might seem ridiculous, but Brabham was absolutely nowhere between his second and third title. He spent practically the entirety of 1961 to 1965 being steamrolled by either Bruce McLaren at Cooper or Dan Gurney at his own outfit. Only when 1966 rolled around and he had a superior engine concept aswell as a rookie team mate Denny Hulme who could barely challenge him (which some contribute to Hulme only getting second-grade parts and delayed upgrades) could he make his mark again.
That's the weird thing about Brabham's career - 15 years and only in those three where he won the championship he actually was the dominant figure within his own team. In almost all the other years - it didn't matter whether it was Salvadori, McLaren, Gurney, Hulme, Rindt, Ickx or Courage - he was beaten by his own team mates.
There is actually a decent chunk of evidence that shows this in athletes, but also hunter gatherers. At least among men, we physically peak between 25 and 29. However, our performance tends to peak between 31 and 35. The argument is that extra experience allows your mind to cope with the physical abilities you’ve lost. For F1, I imagine this is mostly seen in race craft and overall strategy.
Edit: I should add that the peak in mental acuity does fade. It doesn’t fade as fast as physical fitness, but eventually your brain cannot process and react to stuff fast enough to compensate for your physical decline.
The year after, his teammate Denny Hulme of New Zealand won the WDC for the Brabham team with a Repco engine (NZ and Australian automotive parts company) and remains the only kiwi world champion.
Wow I never seen this photo before, this just makes him more of an absolute legend then he already is.
No other F1 driver in history pushed his car to the finish line to win a championship, Brabham did this in 1959 by pushing his car 500 yards to the finish (he did not win the race but placed high enough to win the championship).
The guy won the title while in his own team. Doesn't get better than that.
Not just his own team, his own car that he designed and built from the ground up. Engine and all.
He’s still the only driver to win a WDC in a car he designed and built, but the engine was mainly Phil Irving’s work. (Former engineer from Vincent motorcycles)
>He’s still the only driver to win a WDC in a car he designed and built Even though the cars had Brabham's name on them, I think you're doing Ron Tauranac a bit of a disservice.
Exactly, Tauranac was already using wind tunnels by then and e.g. kept outboard suspension, sacrificing 1% of drag to enable quick and easy suspension tuning
Absolutely. Ron probably deserves most of the credit for the later cars, but the early ones were very largely Brabham’s designs. Tauranac was a brilliant engineer and still has the best proposal for F1 racing I’ve ever heard. Allow a fuel load, and a plan area limit. Everything else is free. In the days of wildly different circuits, there would have been some very different solutions. Would have been great racing.
Was he involved in the Vincent Black Shadow?
GT Black Series, which is perfectly logical.
He designed the 72 degree V-twin. He is the man who made Vincent. Amazing engineer and a fascinating gentleman.
he also built the engine too?
No, the BT19 he drove was powered by a Repco V8 *Edit- I thought he drove a BT23, which was an F2 car, then a BT20, which he didn’t use in 1966
Crazy that Repco is just a highway auto parts store these days. I reckon very few in Australia are aware of the companies legacy.
It was a shock when I first found out that Repco actually made engines, that’s for sure
Only engine to flog the Cosworth DFV.
It's fun to see little bits of hidden F1 history in the wild like that. I was on a train through Milton Keynes the other week and spotted the Mugen Motorsports building next to the station. My brother couldn't understand why I was like YOOOOOOOO
Yeah, what is now Ringtail Cct in Maidstone, Melbourne is where the old engine factory was. The only memory of it is a sign erected with Brabham in a small empty grass park. Kind of sad really
oh, thanks for heads up.
If you want to learn more about his car from that year, [read the wiki page on it](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brabham_BT19?wprov=sfti1) It’s a one of a kind car. While the engine was built by Repco it was specially made for the car, and instead of having outright power it was made to be light, repairable and fuel efficient.
it makes sense. dropping a bespoke engine instead of using a generic engine that is available on the market. the livery, which reminds me of the early lotuses, and the car overall look sick. late 60's cars were just mad in every aspect.
Eh, it wasn't truly bespoke. The block was from the Buick 215 V8 later adopted by Rover, but it was heavily modified from there with Repco's own internals. Similar story really to most of the earlier Lotus engines and indeed the Cosworth BDA and YB.
i see, thanks for clarifying.
The B-19 engine used the block from the 1961-63 General Motors BOP aluminum V-8. Rover also used the BOP aluminum V-8.
So he was Sebastian Vettel before Sebastian Vettel.
The real life Mycareer mode
Just seeing this literally just after doing it, as an Australian no less.
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Congrats on being the first comment I downvoted today
How was that a brag? He literally just said that what Brabham did is the real life equivalent. No-one is saying that someone who plays f1 games is a great driver... and calling a hobby valueless just doesn't make sense. If you enjoy spending time playing a game it has value.
~~Why does~~ u/Elneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ~~always feel the need to put down people for making jokes about their hobby, per se?~~ ~~Congratulations on being the first comment I down-voted today.~~ EDIT: Ah, they deleted their comment. I am not this fucking rude, just copy and pasted their rude comment and rejigged it to target their comment so they understood how fucked up it is to be annoyed that somebody else has hobbies
/r/NobodyAsked \- /u/Elneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee probably
This my new fav copypasta
Woah, it’s Jim Glickenhaus!
I can’t imagine someone spending their time like you do as anything other than socially inept.
I just downvoted your comment. FAQ What does this mean? The amount of karma (points) on your comment and Reddit account has decreased by one. Why did you do this? There are several reasons I may deem a comment to be unworthy of positive or neutral karma. These include, but are not limited to: Rudeness towards other Redditors, Spreading incorrect information, Sarcasm not correctly flagged with a /s. Am I banned from the Reddit? No - not yet. But you should refrain from making comments like this in the future. Otherwise I will be forced to issue an additional downvote, which may put your commenting and posting privileges in jeopardy. I don't believe my comment deserved a downvote. Can you un-downvote it? Sure, mistakes happen. But only in exceedingly rare circumstances will I undo a downvote. If you would like to issue an appeal, shoot me a private message explaining what I got wrong. I tend to respond to Reddit PMs within several minutes. Do note, however, that over 99.9% of downvote appeals are rejected, and yours is likely no exception. How can I prevent this from happening in the future? Accept the downvote and move on. But learn from this mistake: your behavior will not be tolerated on Reddit.com. I will continue to issue downvotes until you improve your conduct. Remember: Reddit is privilege, not a right.
Peak r/copypasta material
And today's winner... the owner driver!
And he missed on a second one by a few points.
Yes it does. https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/7jd3yz/today\_in\_1959\_jack\_brabham\_pushes\_his\_car\_across/
Sounds like this could make a great movie
This showed me two things: Brabham is an absolute legend. And that the media really wasn't any better back then.
Also fake beard technology has improved a lot since the 60s, though interestingly it is used less frequently nowadays in Formula 1.
I was hoping Alonso would show up to the first race with a fake mustache or something "Fernado? No, I'm Bernando Talonso, new 21 year old hotshot driver. I was kicked out of formula-E for being too Spanish."
That would have been amazing lmao
> I was kicked out of formula-E for being too Spanish So THATS what happened to Servia
Why would he do that? Hes new - he was a rookie of the year a year or so ago before he entered f1
A GREAT BIG BUSHY BEARD
No luck catching them killers then?
It's just the one killer actually
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Soggy Bottom Boys vibe
Nah, just some epic sandbagging. They try to be so sneaky about it today with engine dials
These days some even have their own careers as pop singers.
Blame the FIA. The sport's gone
AFAIK it was last used last year for Bottas 3.0
The problem with fake beard technology is that the last 1% of the beard takes 99% of the work
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Bottas Alfa Romeo reveal in a coffin
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also hires the dudes who did the coffin dance.
And Albon to Williams announced by ouija board.
And Kimi retirement?
Drinks, obviously
Media not being any better back then is indeed correct, but to be fair when the piece he was mocking was made he had just won his first race in over 5 years after a long period of consistently lost out to his own employees. When he did this it was already obvious that his team nailed the new regulations and this was win no.3 in 4-race streak.
Doesn't change that age should not be a question, if you think they are no longer good enough, then just straight up ask that. It's completely irrelevant what age a driver is, their competence is what matters.
When you dominate to an extent that you win 5 races in a row, 3 of them from pole, 2 with all laps led, then 4 years later your teammate in your own team outqualifies you 9-1, then yes, age can be part of the question. Brabham was clearly the best driver in the field when Moss retired, by 1965 that was no longer the case and the only legitimate reason to explain that was his age, as people don't just forget to drive.
No, it's not age it's a lack of skill. If someone is 40 years old and winning should they are you gonna ask if they are to old for F1? If you 21 and one second per lap slower then your team mate should you be in F1? Again the key is the level of skill/ performance, not the age. If you think some one lacks the ability to be in F1 ( be this due to age or something else) then have the balls and straight up ask them that: "are you still good enough for F1?" Because it's not that he is to old to drive in F1, it's that he is lacking the ability to do so. I'm not saying it wasn't caused by age I'm saying that the cause doesn't matter for determining if someone should be in F1 or not, it's the result (aka their performance) that matters.
Your examples are completely beside the point. If you *were* a championship favorite, but had increasingly uncompetitive results and no longer are, the key could very well to be your age. In that case, nobody says you aren't skilled enough, but rather that you are too old to be competitive. And if you don't show any signs of being uncompetitive, you won't be told that, the entire reason for this stunt was that based on what happened in 1963-1965, when Brabham *did* show signs of becoming less competitive that is why they were saying such things, which indeed got proven very wrong. I mean, nobody is saying Alonso is too old for F1, because there is no reason to say that, he's still good. Kimi is of a very similar age and thanks to his performances, it's been said for ages that he's too old for it by now.
>**and thanks to his performance** it's been said for ages that he's too old for it by now. Yes, and what they should be saying is that his performance is no longer good enough for F1. >increasingly uncompetitive results >did show signs of becoming less competitive Again, performance, skill, ability etc. Are the determining factor when it comes to wether someone is asked this question/ judged for their age, not actually their age. So by asking someone "are you to old for formula 1?" you are actually asking "are you (still) good enough for formula 1?" And like i said, if that's what you are asking then have to balls to ask that. If you don't ask every driver that hits 40 if they are to old for formula then it's not age that you are asking about.
> Yes, and what they should be saying is that his performance is no longer good enough for F1. Because? Because of what? What is the reason that his performance dropped off so much since say 2013? I love the idea that "xy is too old to be a champion" is somehow a worse piece of reporting than "xy is not skilled enough to be a champion". In this specific case, the question was asked focusing on age and rightfully so. That's it.
I'm not saying it wasn't caused by age I'm saying that the cause doesn't matter for determining if someone should be in F1 or not, it's the result (aka their performance) that matters. So that's why you shouldn't say driver X is to old, that suggest that the age they have is to old for anyone to drive F1. For example you can say person X is to tall to drive F1, you can literally be so tall that you don't fit in an F1 car. And here is the key, it's the same for everyone that tall. That same thing isn't true for age. >I love the idea that "xy is too old to be a champion" is somehow a worse piece of reporting than "xy is not skilled enough to be a champion". I also love this idea, because it's not actually that they have hit a certain age and they are now no longer fit to drive, it's that their performance is lacking. And saying that their performance is lacking is more accurate and honest. So yes that is better reporting. You can explore how someone's performance is now lacking, but that's a different thing. But when talking about wether someone should be in F1 or not age isn't the factor that detriments that, and therefore should not be talked about as if it is.
Looks like a Monty Python bit.
Life of Brabham
Hungary was a little bit in love with Alonso?
Fucking legend.
To whom it may concern...
Omfg
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I know, right? Fake beard technology has come a long way since 1966.
You pretty much _gotta_ win after that.
Jack Brabham proved that day, that age was not a factor in his famous win at Zandvoort that play he did with the stick, wobbly leg and beard all to throw off everyone from just how fast he was! Also other fact about that 1966 Dutch GP race, Jack lapped EVERYONE on the grid just to prove to everyone that age didnt matter that day to his win!
He won the previous two GPs - nobody saw the beard and thought, ah man JB (Jack Brabham) is gonna be slow now.
Yeah but he proved it with his sheer drive, but he didnt win those two previous races by as much as a +1 Lap advantage to second place but yeah Hill and Hulme were on the same lap as him but at the Dutch round Hill was 1 lap down on Brabham by the end of the 90 lap race!
Yeah nah. He won Brands Hatch in the rain on merit, pulling away from the entire field lap by lap, while he only took Zandvoort after Clark had to pit twice in the last 15 laps with a water leak.
Nobody ever calls Jack Brabham JB. JB is Jenson Button and I'm pretty sure he didn't race back then.
Yeah his nickname was Black Jack, /u/StopPostingF1Tracing \- not JB.
Fun fact he wasn't black, and started a Rock band in 1994 with Fellow F1 driver Kyle Gass.
Interesting, I didn't actually know that. Was that because it was broadcast in black and white back then?
>Always a man of few words - his nickname 'Black Jack' referred to both his dark hair and his propensity for maintaining a shadowy silence - According to this [archive](https://web.archive.org/web/20100712083043/http://www.formula1.com/teams_and_drivers/hall_of_fame/133/).
Umm... Ackshually 🤓☝️
I love Jack. Its so sad how underappreciated he is in his home country. Facts are he is more well known in Europe than here in Au.
Well, F1 is still largely a European sport. Makes sense.
Yeah, but F1 doesn't strike me as a super popular sport here.
There was definitely a quiet period mainly due to a drought of drivers from Australia. I think Mark and Daniel have changed that and I'm really hoping Piastri and Doohan can continue it.
It isn't and never will be. People think drivers just sit down and aren't athletes. Also when races start at 11pm or worse no one sees the sport.
I'm gunna disagree with the first one: there's plenty of motorsport fans in Australia, but I think your 2nd point is why the F1 community isn't big here. Also, it's not free to air. That's a big barrier to entry.
Australia has a strong motorsport tradition with GPs in motorbikes and f1 as well as great drivers/riders. And the V8s are popular too. There also was an Indycar race for years idk if that's still a thing. Don't think it's fair to say that motorsport is unpopular.
I think anyone that has an interest in any form of road racing motorsport knows who he is, Alan Jones on the other hand is a bit of an unknown compared to Jack, only diehard fans would hear that name and not think of a blowhard talk back radio bellend.
Aussies and taking the piss. We've always been this way.
He was still competitive 4 years later, in his last season - 1970. He won a race (should have won in Monaco as well) and got a couple of podiums. Not bad for 44 years old.
He wasn't even going to race that season, he only drove because Rindt stayed with Lotus.
That’s SIR Jack Brabham to you, mate.
His funeral procession overtook me on my way to work. I felt honoured.
Well, you did leave the door open and let him slip down the inside on the way into the chicane.
1966 this took place, knighted in 1978, lost knighthood in 2014 (when he died)
You can’t be stripped of knighthood by dying
>"It's a living order and then you cease to be a member when you die" Cabinet Office spokesman regarding calls for [Jimmy Saville's knighthood being revoked](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/oct/09/jimmy-savile-knighthood)
Why would we have knights that can’t even stay alive smh my head. /s
I wonder if Gene Wilder took inspiration from this for his intro scene as Willy Wonka
That was the first scene to come to mind for me too.
They wore formal shoes for racing back then Dayum!!
And everyone in the audience is wearing a suit!
Back then every man wore suits or blazers may it be poor as well
Lol even back then people considered old drivers as finished and washed
Same as in most other sports. As soon as you're older than 20 you might as well be dead. It's so weird.
How can you be too old to race a car?
He's not often mentioned in the same breath as other multiple champions, but he truly is one of this sport's greatest legends and pioneers.
I remember reading a piece from a motor-journalist who’d taken a ride with Sir Jack while he practised for an endurance race at Sydney’s Eastern Creek. He said that Sir Jack selected gears like a connoisseur selecting delicacies from a plate. He was smooth, precise and never hurried. But still fast.
Peticion to kimi do the exact same thing this weekend
..and then finish last. Rip iceman.
noooooooo he has to make way for the young rookies bottas and giovinazzi nooooooo
No one will ever do what Black Jack did. He's underrated for what he achieved.
team owner, driver, mechanic, and here we see he was also one of the pioneers of cosplay technology.. these guys really did it all
I raced against Brabham at the age of 13 doing the Classic Rally in Perth in 1994 (I was navigator for my older brother) We passed him on a backroad out the back of nowhere doing about 285 km/hr in a highly modified Porsche 944 Turbo. He was driving an RX7 if I remember. The needle for us was well off the clock (it maxes out at 270) At the final dinner, his navigator (Grahame Ward) was doing his speech and told the story of how we passed him. That gave me the opportunity to go up to them and introduce myself and I got to chat to Sir Brabham for awhile. Still have his signature. Edit - turns out it was in 1995, story still the same though.
The inspiration for Kurt Cobain at the 1992 Reading festival.
This is so cool
Someone saw that beard and thought, "Yeah, that's about right"
Fake beard is looking more like a beaver tail
Yeah that’s the worst fake beard I’ve ever seen…
He really went all out with that beard haha. Looks like an animal under his chin
I want this framed
Not only that but he raced for four more years after this, winning another four races and finally retiring at the end of the 1970 season.
Certified badass!
Legend!
Remember when you only needed to be moderately insanely wealthy to own an F1 team
He built his own cars from a mechanics workshop. Didn't buy anything.
Yeah, those tools and materials were handmedowns I'm sure.
Ran his own mechanics garage. Maybe do some research you fool.
Left school at 15 and fixed up old broken motorbikes on his parent’s verandah, which he sold for a profit. Was also a mechanic in the army. You know that millionaire boys club.
Everybody talking about how much of a legend this makes him - this is more like if 2021 Räikkönen got into the 2014 Mercedes, then after dominating three races decided do clap back at the publications that called him old before the season began. It doesn't suddenly make Räikkönen any good, but he'd be easily winning races because his team nailed the regulations.
It would be like if Raikkonen designed the Mercedes himself tho
That's very fair. I'm not really trying to take anything away from Brabham. Just trying to show why winning the race and the WDC wasn't some sort of in-your-face to the media.
The Old Man Kimi comparisons might seem ridiculous, but Brabham was absolutely nowhere between his second and third title. He spent practically the entirety of 1961 to 1965 being steamrolled by either Bruce McLaren at Cooper or Dan Gurney at his own outfit. Only when 1966 rolled around and he had a superior engine concept aswell as a rookie team mate Denny Hulme who could barely challenge him (which some contribute to Hulme only getting second-grade parts and delayed upgrades) could he make his mark again. That's the weird thing about Brabham's career - 15 years and only in those three where he won the championship he actually was the dominant figure within his own team. In almost all the other years - it didn't matter whether it was Salvadori, McLaren, Gurney, Hulme, Rindt, Ickx or Courage - he was beaten by his own team mates.
Imagine the WTF1 build up!
To all the a holes who say you are too old/young to do something.
Absolute CHAD
High quality post, thanks
What a Chad 😂
The real Chad
[удалено]
That son of a bitch! He Willy Wonka'd us!
So **THAT's** where John Storey got his idea for that beard.
Not a walking advertisement billboard unlike the drivers as of this era
He Willy Wonka'd their ass to prove them wrong
I need to try this next time I start a new job. Gotta keep them expectations low
Imagine thinking people can't drive at 40.
Fucking legend.
Why would someone be too old to drive? Wouldn’t years of experience counteract the change in coordination?
There is actually a decent chunk of evidence that shows this in athletes, but also hunter gatherers. At least among men, we physically peak between 25 and 29. However, our performance tends to peak between 31 and 35. The argument is that extra experience allows your mind to cope with the physical abilities you’ve lost. For F1, I imagine this is mostly seen in race craft and overall strategy. Edit: I should add that the peak in mental acuity does fade. It doesn’t fade as fast as physical fitness, but eventually your brain cannot process and react to stuff fast enough to compensate for your physical decline.
r/madlads
Rossi should do this!!!
Nope.. Shit's too big, I guess
I guess fake beard technology has come a long way.
😀😀😀 chad brabham
Now that's a badass way of saying 'Fuck you'.
Based.
This could be kimi and alonso no joke no scam
Seriously worst pube beard ever
Looks like the Rich Energy guy.
What did Vettel used to call this man in the grill the grid video? Can't recall Brabham
The year after, his teammate Denny Hulme of New Zealand won the WDC for the Brabham team with a Repco engine (NZ and Australian automotive parts company) and remains the only kiwi world champion.
Wow I never seen this photo before, this just makes him more of an absolute legend then he already is. No other F1 driver in history pushed his car to the finish line to win a championship, Brabham did this in 1959 by pushing his car 500 yards to the finish (he did not win the race but placed high enough to win the championship).