{"id":30166,"date":"2014-07-07T19:14:04","date_gmt":"2014-07-07T18:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/issue_content\/the-world-according-to-jack\/"},"modified":"2021-07-07T15:08:43","modified_gmt":"2021-07-07T14:08:43","slug":"the-world-according-to-jack","status":"publish","type":"issue_content","link":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/archive\/article\/may-1999\/35\/the-world-according-to-jack\/","title":{"rendered":"The world according to Jack Brabham"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

Forty years after he won his first World Championship, Sir Jack Brabham<\/a> is showing no signs of slowing down. He is always in demand for historic events and PR appearances, and he never turns down the chance to get back behind the wheel. As he showed at the Goodwood Revival Meeting last September, just pootling round in a museum piece is not the Brabham style; he still likes to hang the tail out. The spirit still burns and man, now 73, still drives. Hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoy getting back into those old cars,\u201d he smiles. \u201cIt feels just like old times, gives me a little bit of a spurt and stops me from getting old!\u201d When will he finally give it up?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to have a think about it when I\u2019m 75, and if I still want to do it I\u2019ll review it again when I\u2019m 80. When I get in a motor car I don\u2019t feel any different.\u201d<\/p>\n

“I never used to worry about what the press wrote about me, but that probably was a mistake\u201d<\/blockquote>\n

Sir Jack Brabham is our oldest living Formula 1 World Champion. A handful of other F1 drivers bridged the enormous gulf from the 1950s to the 1970s (Jo Bonnier<\/a>, Graham Hill<\/a>, Bruce McLaren<\/a> and Dan Gurney<\/a>), but none started quite as early as Brabham, who made his GP debut at Aintree<\/a> in 1955. Only Jack raced against the Mercedes<\/a> W196 and the Lotus<\/a> 72. During a remarkable career he won three titles, the last with his own team and car. And he was still winning when he reluctantly walked away from the sport in 1970, at the age of 44.<\/p>\n

And yet somehow his achievements have been taken for granted by the history books. Ask anyone to list the Top 10 of all time, and Brabham\u2019s name is never considered. Extend the query to the Top 20, and he might just crop up in the low teens, alongside drivers who didn\u2019t win a single title, never mind three. Stirling Moss<\/a> and Jim Clark<\/a> dominated the headlines when Jack was racing, and they still do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just that I didn\u2019t piss in the press\u2019s pockets as much as other people,\u201d he grins. \u201cBeing an Australian doesn\u2019t help over in this country. I never used to worry too much about what the press wrote about me, but, in retrospect, that probably was a mistake on my part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack was never very dashing or glamorous. He was a man of few words, always characterised as a thinker, a dour technician who often won races through stealth. That sort of low-key style rarely captures the public imagination. But when the mood took him Brabham was also a hard racer who could fight with the best.<\/p>\n

\n \"Jack\n
\n

Cooper stint brought first two drivers’ titles \u2013 seen here at Silverstone on the way 1960 British GP<\/p>\n

\n Bernard Cahier\/Getty Images\n <\/p>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

The World Championship was not on the unknown Australian\u2019s mind when he first came to Britain. Already pushing 30, he didn\u2019t seem to have much of a future, but within a few years he helped to turn Grand Prix racing upside down \u2013 or rather back to front.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I was interested in was just doing some motor racing. I never even thought about a World Championship or whatever. It took me a year to find out what motor racing was all about over here, and luckily I got in tow with John Cooper, and he gave me a job at the works putting cars together and things like that. Eventually I drove for him, and that was really how it all started.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe let me build a car in the workshop, revolving around the little Bobtail sports car. I put a 2-litre Bristol in it, and that really became Cooper\u2019s<\/a> first F1 car. We had a little trouble with it up at Aintree, and the clutch fell out of it before the end of the race, but then I took it home and won the Australian GP in 1955.\u201d<\/p>\n

A tremendous rapport developed between Brabham and Cooper, the underdogs who took on the might of Italy, and cheekily outflanked Vanwall<\/a> and BRM<\/a> to become Britain\u2019s premier racing team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t long before we realised there was a lot of potential at Cooper\u2019s, but even then we didn\u2019t think that we would win a World Championship so quickly. The rear-engined car was obviously the way to go, and luckily Coventry-Climax built a 2.5-litre engine for us, which really put us in the driving seat. We went straight out and won the championship in \u201959 and \u201960. Without that engine we wouldn\u2019t have been able to achieve it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The double title was a tremendous achievement for the little manufacturer. Jack was far more than just the driver. He was at the heart of the team, spearheading development \u2013 especially the 1960 \u2018lowline\u2019 model, in which he scored five straight victories.<\/p>\n

“I never got to drive a Ferrari, but I had a lot of pleasure beating them”<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe most enjoyable win was Reims<\/a>. We were told there\u2019s no way we were going to beat the Ferraris<\/a> there. We managed to do it, and it was a great thrill. In all my years of racing I never got to drive a Ferrari, but I had a lot of pleasure beating them. It was a very interesting time for me, being so involved in it, being part of it. Going all around the continent with John was a lot of fun on its own, apart from the racing. It was a big advantage for me to have some mechanical knowledge, but there were times when I backed off in the car when I probably didn\u2019t need to, and lost races by doing that. At the same time at least I didn\u2019t drive it into the ground like some of the other drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spell was broken by the switch to 1.5-litre rules in 1961. After an unsuccessful final year with Cooper the only highlight came by shaking up the establishment at the Indianapolis 500. \u201cIt was very different. They called our Cooper the funny car, because it was so different to what they had. Then they said it shouldn\u2019t be painted green, because that was bad luck there. Then they caught me eating peanuts, and they said you shouldn\u2019t eat peanuts in the pits, that\u2019s unlucky. The other thing they said was you mustn\u2019t bring a woman into the pits. I couldn\u2019t find one so I couldn\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

From the archive<\/h2>\n \t\t\n\t\n
\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tArchive<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFormula 1’s summer of love: the 1967 season\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t

  The 1967 season was a halcyon time for the young Nigel Roebuck, who recalls tracksides echoing to Sgt Pepper as Clark, Gurney and Hulme roared by. Hippies hoped for…<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDecember 2020\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIssue<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
By\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNigel Roebuck<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n<\/article>\n <\/div>\n
\n

A difficult 1961 helped Jack make the bold decision to build his own car<\/a>. Again, he was breaking new ground; drivers had run their own teams before, but no established star had gone the whole hog as a manufacturer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a friend in Australia, Ron Tauranac, and I talked him into coming over. We started our own company in \u201962. It was a gamble, but I had a lot of confidence in Ron\u2019s ability. The two of us were a good combination. We were short of money and couldn\u2019t do it properly, and it took a few years to really get going. We were also starting to build production cars to be able to afford to go GP racing. That really took a bit of doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did his driving actually suffer because of the outside pressures? \u201cI don\u2019t know whether it affected it, but we certainly didn\u2019t do all that well for a while. We had the incentive to keep going with our own car, and we thought we\u2019d get there eventually, which we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack didn\u2019t win a single World Championship race during the 1.5-litre era, although team-mate Dan Gurney gave the team its first successes. \u201cIt was good news when they brought in the 3-litre formula. It really made the cars worth driving, so that you could call it F1 again. There\u2019s no way you could call those 1500cc machines Formula 1.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n \"Dan\n
\n

Gurney brought home Brabham’s first GP win a constructor at Reims ’64<\/p>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

Having already been caught out by the slump at Cooper, Jack couldn\u2019t let his team be left in the lurch by a rule change. He did such a good job that his cars dominated the first two years of the new formula.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a bit of foresight on my part. Our problem was we just didn\u2019t have access to a 3-litre engine we could put in a car and go racing with.\u201d History recalls the solution was a triumph called Repco. Jack won four races in 1966 to become the first and, to date, only man to take the title in his own car. But it was not without its troubles.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to work 12,000 miles away from your engine builder wasn\u2019t easy. We lost so many parts in air freight \u2013 we even lost a complete engine for three weeks. The thing had been outside a hangar in the rain before somebody found it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The following year honours went to Denny Hulme<\/a>, before the Repco was superseded by the DFV. In 1968, Jack earned a solitary fifth place. He joined the DFV hordes the next year, and while he didn\u2019t win, two pole positions reminded everybody that Black Jack had by no means lost interest.<\/p>\n

By then he was under pressure to return to Australia to spend more time with his sons Geoffrey, Gary and David. He planned his retirement for the end of the 1969 season when, at 43, he would already be one of the sports elder statesmen. The plan went all up in smoke when Rindt<\/a> chose to stay put with Chapman rather than return to Brabham<\/a>. Jack had no choice but to drive for one more year, and nearly enjoyed a remarkable swansong.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n
\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n

He won at Kyalami<\/a>, took pole at Jarama<\/a>, and outran Rindt around Monaco<\/a> until an infamous last corner mishap saw him stuck in the fence as the Austrian swept by. He led again in the British GP before his season dissolved in a series of mechanical retirements; he had already scored the last points of his Formula 1 career. His final outing was at the Mexican GP on October 25, but engine problems forced him out. Was it hard to accept it was all over as he packed away his gear?<\/p>\n

\u201cI was stuck with it, I couldn\u2019t change it. It was a dreadful feeling really. I felt very sad, and I couldn\u2019t believe it had come to an end. I just had to grit my teeth, and say that\u2019s it. I had made my mind up and I\u2019d got to get on with it.\u201d At least he had left knowing he was still quick enough to win. A talent such as his was not one to watch wither on the vine. Just as Jack was smart enough to know how to start in F1 and start his own F1 team, so he was also smart enough to know when to quit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t feel I was giving up racing because I couldn\u2019t do the job. I felt just as competitive then as at any other time, and I really should have won the championship in 1970. I have no idea, but I think I could have gone on at least another three or four years. The press didn\u2019t help either \u2013 they kept calling me the old man of motor racing, at 44! In those days 44 was old, but today, particularly if you go to America there are plenty of people racing well in their 50s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although he\u2019d previously helped youngsters like Bruce McLaren<\/a>, Hulme and Rindt, Jack chose not to stay on and run others. Again, there really was no decision to be made; owning the team would have kept him out of Australia as much as driving for one, so it had to go too.<\/p>\n

\n \"Brabham\n
\n

Denny Hulme (left) delivered Brabham another drivers’ title in 1967 \u2013 the dynamic Antipodean due claimed a second constructors’ crown too<\/p>\n

\n Grand Prix Photo\n <\/p>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

\u201cTo me all my enjoyment I have had over the years was never just driving, but being involved in the cars and building of the cars. I got just as much pleasure from that. But the family wanted me to go back to Australia, so I was stuck with that. If I\u2019d stayed I would have been involved with the team, probably doing testing and all that sort of thing. It really wouldn\u2019t have been any different to driving.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d have been a lot better off if I\u2019d stayed. That was another mistake in my life, but sometimes family pressures don\u2019t allow you to make the decisions you\u2019d like to. Ron took it all over and it wasn\u2019t long before he got fed up with it and sold it to Bernie Ecclestone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack may look back now with regrets, but at least he got out of the sport in one piece. During his final Grand Prix season McLaren, Piers Courage<\/a> and Rindt were killed, and the ensuing three or four years extracted a terrible toll. \u201cIt\u2019s very sad actually. Every now and then I pick up an old programme and look at it. I saw one from Monaco \u201958 and more than half the drivers are not there anymore. It\u2019s incredible how many friends we\u2019ve lost over the years. I always remember winning the Belgian GP in 1960, when we had two drivers killed in separate accidents in one race.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

From the archive<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n

Jack insists it wasn\u2019t just good fortune which ensured his survival over such a long career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m like everyone else, all drivers think that it\u2019s not going to happen to them, but one of the things that got me through it all was that I had very good control over my emotions and my abilities. I knew when to knock off, and I wasn\u2019t too proud to lift my foot if I felt that was what was needed. There were a lot of people out there who didn\u2019t lift their foot at the right time and are not here to talk about it today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack had only three significant accidents in his entire career. In Portugal in 1959 he was sent flying by an errant backmarker. Later he was put off the road by tyre failures in testing at Silverstone<\/a> and, in his final year, at Zandvoort<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt rolled three or four times through a wire fence. When I came to rest I was upside down and I couldn\u2019t get out, as the wire was wrapped around the car. I was sitting there hanging in the seatbelts. Fuel was running out of the car, although luckily it was disappearing into the sand. Being a test day it took forever for somebody to come over\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack has a unique perspective on 15 years of technical progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom 1955-70 we saw a lot of changes, and I felt part of it, because with the rear-engined Cooper we felt we gave everyone the message \u201cif you don\u2019t put the engine in the back you\u2019re not going to catch us.\u201d Colin Chapman was one of them. He was pretty pig-headed about having the engine in the front, but he couldn\u2019t compete with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n \"Brabham\n
\n

Brabham says the three-litre era was his favourite<\/p>\n

\n Grand Prix Photo\n <\/p>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

So which period did he most enjoy?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 3-litre cars from \u201966 onwards. It was our own car, and we did well with it. We won the constructors\u2019 title twice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack has no doubts about the greatest driver he raced against.<\/p>\n

\u201cI raced Fangio<\/a> a couple of times, but Moss was the one I had a lot of dices with a learned a lot from. He was the man to beat, and it was a great challenge for me. Moss never, ever had an off day. He was a competitor from when the flag dropped to the end. Some of the others were good on some days but not every day, and things had to go right for them all the time. With Moss it didn\u2019t matter what he was driving. Probably the next best was Rindt.\u201d<\/p>\n

And what of Clark? Jack\u2019s view will surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was good too, but I don\u2019t think he was in the Moss or Rindt class from a speed point of view. They were two very fast drivers. It was the era when Clark had the best car. Lotus was on top, and Jimmy drove it well. But he would have his off days \u2013 he wasn\u2019t fantastic every time he sat in the car, like Moss.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose Jackie Stewart<\/a> was the best of the next era. Since the 1970s Senna\u2019s<\/a> obviously the best driver to come along. He was a very forceful driver. Stewart was a bit like me \u2013 we won, but we wouldn\u2019t stick our necks out to do it. Our own safety was more important. Schumacher<\/a> makes the odd mistake, but when you look at the rest, he\u2019s the quickest and best driver today.<\/p>\n

\n \"Jack\n
\n

Brabham liked to see the bigger picture \u2013 getting involved with car design and development as well as the driving<\/p>\n

\n Grand Prix Photo\n <\/p>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

\u201cPersonally I don\u2019t think F1 would be as good to be in today as it was when we were driving. The driver role is not all that concerned with the car anymore; you don\u2019t get involved in the technical side. As for driving, they go round on rails, they don\u2019t have to change gear \u2013 just press a few buttons and computers do the rest for them. I just don\u2019t think the challenge is as good.\u201d<\/p>\n

“I noticed a police car chasing me in the F1 car \u2013 we had to try it out, didn’t we?”<\/p>\n

Jack still attends GPs, although this year he missed his home race because of business commitments in England. His famous garages in Worcester Park (est 1961) and Ewell (1965) still take up a lot of his time. Through them he\u2019s retained links with a little corner of suburbia which holds a lot of memories, since both Cooper and his own team were once based nearby. He\u2019s almost certainly the only man to have driven an F1 car on the A3.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was about 10.00am on Sunday morning, and we\u2019d just got the Cooper finished. We decided that we\u2019d have to give it a run, just drive it round the block. But I ended up going up the Kingston bypass, down to the Hook roundabout and back again. When I got to Ewell I noticed a police car chasing me. I raced down to the garage, went in and shouted out to John to shut the door as I skidded to a halt. We went upstairs in time to watch the police looking in the window to see if they could see anybody. We had to try it out, didn\u2019t we?\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"author":745,"featured_media":789606,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[124748],"tags":[34615,36027],"issue_decade":[121596],"issue_year":[121642],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/30166"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/issue_content"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/745"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30166"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/30166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":791990,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/30166\/revisions\/791990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30166"},{"taxonomy":"issue_decade","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_decade?post=30166"},{"taxonomy":"issue_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_year?post=30166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}