The F1 Beyond The Grid podcast new episode has David Brabham talk about his father, his own career and return of the name if possible, Roland Ratzenberger and more.

Brabham is the newest to speak on the F1 Beyond The Grid podcast as the Australian has discussed about his father, his own career and the return of the iconic name plus also his friend Ratzaenberger, who tragically died in 1994 in a crash and more.

Here’s what Brabham and Tom Clarkson discussed on the F1 Beyond The Grid podcast:

  • The first topic was about David’s father, Jack as the Aussie recounted stories about him, and told of what it was like to grow up with him. He also spoke about how his father felt about his brother Jeff racing, and explained how he himself felt about it back in the day.
  • Aside from the racing, Brabham discussed his childhood, which was about agriculture – he also explained how he went from being a farmer to-be to a racing driver. As he told this, he recalled the story of when he first learned that people raced go karts; he learned this at age 17, and instantly got in a kart.
  • On the personal side, Brabham elaborated on his good relationship with his father. He then spoke how his relationship was with regards to his racing, and here he said that his father was more of an observer than a mentor, until he revealed that his girlfriend was pregnant, and his father was livid.
  • He also explained that a debate with his dad about this prior to a race led him to carve through the entire field to win; he said that he tried to replicate this fury heading into every race post this.
  • From here, they spoke whether the Brabham name hurt him or helped – he said it didn’t always help, and it also didn’t always hurt.
  • Moving on to the 1989 year, Brabham explained that – despite the hype around him – no F1 teams were talking about him, and he moved to Formula 3000 for 1990 with Damon Hill. Though, he did admit that he turned down an opportunity to drive in F1 that year, opting to have more experience – that is, until his Formula 3000 team disbanded and he was ‘forced’ into F1 with Brabham.
  • Now discussing his F1 career, he spoke about his expectations for 1990, which were shattered in a very bad way, as members of the team didn’t appreciate him, and the BT59 was awful. He continued to talk about his debut 1990 season, but ultimately reached the end of that season, and his being booted from F1.
  • Brabham talked about his 1991 season back in Formula 3000, before talking about eventual his move to Jaguar sportscar racing. He explained his season there, and discussed how much more experience that gave him to better prepare him for the F1 opportunity which later came.
  • Brabham discussed his year at Simtek alongside Ratzenberger, and told about how that 1994 car performed. Inevitably, the conversation shifted to that year’s ill-fated San Marino GP, which saw his teammate and Ayrton Senna lose their lives.
  • Moving on past qualifying (when Ratzenberger died), he explained what it was like to see Senna had crashed, and how he later felt when he heard he had died. He talked about what his relationship was like with Roland, and how this impacted him in the long-term.
  • After this, Brabham spoke about how worried the team were when they went through another scary accident that year in Barcelona.
  • Brabham revealed that after 1994, he knew his F1 career was over, and so he went to race for BMW in BTCC, and a few other series. The duo expedited talks about David’s later ventures into racing in America, and focused mostly on his Le mans win and his ongoing attempt to revive the Brabham name.
  • He told the story of trying to get the rights to the Brabham name which had been taken by another German outfit.
  • As the podcast began to wrap up, he told listeners about what Brabham has become, as he talked about the Brabham BT62, and how upset he is that his father can’t see it.
  • Ending on a bang, he discussed the potential for Brabham to return to F1, so long as the right opportunity arose.

Due to FOM’s restrictions, we cannot use the podcast but we have the link where you can find it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkFcZxky3eE

Here’s the last F1 Beyond The Grid podcast of Mark Blundell

The story was edited by Darshan Chokhani