1987 was the final year of participation in the Formula 1 World Championship for the Brabham team in its most renowned form, with Bernie Ecclestone as team owner and Gordon Murray as technical director. That very season, however, the South African engineer signed with McLaren, aware of the imminent sale of the Brabham team. At the end of the season, the withdrawal of engine supplier BMW, the lack of a main sponsor, and above all, Ecclestone's waning interest in managing a team, given his growing involvement in the overall management of Formula 1, led the British magnate to decide to sell the team to Swiss businessman Walter Brun. This decision was publicly announced in Australia during the final race weekend of the 1987 season.
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| BRABHAM BT58, Stefano Modena Spa-Francorchamps, Belgian GP 1989 |
The sale of Motor Racing Developments was finalized only after Ecclestone made further but unsuccessful attempts to secure a suitable engine to continue into the 1988 season. The financial details of the deal are unknown, but Walter Brun, who was already engaged in 1988 with Pavanello in the newly formed EuroBrun team, immediately resold Brabham to Swiss financier Joachim Lüthi. Due to time constraints, it was not feasible to participate in the 1988 championship, so Lüthi was forced to postpone everything to 1989. After a year of absence, Motor Racing Developments re-entered the 1989 championship, retaining the same English base in Chessington as its operational headquarters, and drawing on the same technical staff that had worked for Brabham in 1987, including technical director John Baldwin and chief designer Sergio Rinland.
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| BRABHAM BT58, Martin Brundle Spa-Francorchamps, Belgian GP 1989 |
These two engineers created the new Brabham BT58, designed around a carbon and Kevlar monocoque chassis, powered by the new Judd EV V8 3496 cc engine, essentially the previous CV with a 76° angle instead of the original 90°, paired with the old six-speed manual Brabham/Hewland gearbox. The car was very conventional and lacked innovative solutions, featuring a wheelbase of 2794 mm and maintaining the sharp lines typical of the Brabhams designed by Murray in the 1980s.
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| BRABHAM BT58, Martin Brundle Montecarlo, Monaco GP 1989 |
Having not participated in the 1988 season, the two BT58s, driven by young Italian Stefano Modena and veteran Briton Martin Brundle, were required to undergo pre-qualifying in the first half of the season. Overall, the new single-seater proved to be a fairly solid car, always making it to the official qualifying sessions, except on two occasions, both involving Brundle. The first part of the championship was still difficult and marked by retirements, but an exceptional performance in Monaco, where Modena reached the podium and Brundle finished sixth, allowed the returning British team to be exempted from pre-qualifying in the second half of the season. During this latter part, particularly with Brundle, the car achieved more consistent results, often finishing in the top ten.
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| BRABHAM BT58, Stefano Modena Jacarepaguà, Brazilian GP 1989 |
At the end of the season, the Brabham team, by then under the management of Middlebridge Group Limited, a Japanese engineering company owned by billionaire Koji Nakauchi, following Joachim Lüthi’s arrest for tax fraud, scored 8 points in the Constructors’ Championship, finishing ninth. Stefano Modena’s third place in the 1989 Monaco Grand Prix stands as the historic British team’s final podium in its illustrious history.
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