The quality of the BT49 project, designed by South African engineer Gordon Murray, is confirmed by the fact that even in the 1982 season, the car, now in its "D" version, is still being used by the Brabham team with drivers Nelson Piquet and Riccardo Patrese. In truth, during the season’s first race in South Africa at the Kyalami circuit, the team, owned by British manager Bernie Ecclestone, uses the new BMW Turbo BT50, only to revert to the BT49D from the following race onwards. The BT49D is a direct evolution of the model first used by Piquet in 1979, though now it features numerous carbon components to reduce overall weight.
BRABHAM BT50, Riccardo Patrese
Brands Hatch, British GP 1982
Thanks also to the ban on ride height correctors, the 1982 single-seaters, especially those with naturally aspirated engines, are particularly light and significantly underweight, thus allowing the use of ballast to stabilize the car. Murray’s innovative idea is to use a brake cooling system consisting of a water tank of about 50 liters, which was supposed to spray water on the brake calipers to cool them. That’s the theory, in practice, the water is dumped before the race starts, allowing the cars to run around 50 kg under the minimum weight limit. The regulations also allow teams to refill fluids necessary for cooling the car (including brake cooling), thereby allowing the car to pass post-race scrutineering. Due to this loophole, created specifically to bypass the minimum weight rule, Piquet’s car was disqualified from the Brazilian GP after winning the race.
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| BRABHAM BT50, Nelson Piquet Kyalami, South African GP 1982 |
The BT49D continued to be used by both drivers in subsequent races, with Patrese achieving the car’s final victory in its brilliant career in Monaco. From the Belgian Grand Prix onwards, initially with only Piquet, who was tasked with developing the new car, and later also with Patrese, the British team returned to using the BMW Turbo BT50. Contacts between Brabham and BMW began at the end of the 1979 season when Murray, dissatisfied with the size and weight of the then-used flat-12 Alfa Romeo engine, asked Ecclestone to look for a manufacturer capable of supplying a turbo engine. Although the BMW 12/13 L4T was based on the same engine block as BMW’s Formula 2 unit, its development was long due to various reliability issues during testing.
BRABHAM BT50, Nelson Piquet
Montecarlo, Monaco GP 1982
Once a reasonable level of reliability was achieved, the new engine was installed in the same chassis as the previous BT49, with necessary adjustments for the mounting points and especially the fuel tank. Murray's brilliant mind came up with yet another idea to counter the added weight of a turbo engine (larger radiators, higher fuel consumption, turbines and intercoolers): refueling during the race. This allowed the cars to start light and gain valuable time and positions before stopping for fuel.
BRABHAM BT50, Nelson Piquet
Brands Hatch, British GP 1982
However, the BT50’s poor reliability gave Murray few chances to prove his concept, as the car retired 16 times out of 22 starts. Nevertheless, Piquet managed one win in Canada and a second-place finish in the Netherlands, along with a few other placements, scoring 22 points.
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