The F1 FOCA-teams, racing with normal aspirated Ford-Cosworth cars feared the upcoming expensive, complex but faster turbo-engines from Renault, Ferrari and probably Alfa Romeo in the future. Politically, they support the FIA. The head of FISA, the sport-division of the FIA was chaired by Jean-Marie Balestre. The head of FOCA was Bernie Ecclestone. In the battle with the FIA, Ecclestone talked about forbidding turbo-engines. But, in the meantime, he had since 1980 a deal with motor supplier BMW who were developing a four cylinder Turbo. When the war between FISA and FOCA was at a peak end 1980, he delayed the development by BMW a little. In the summer of 1981, during free practice for the British GP at Silverstone, Nelson Piquet drove a Brabham BMW for the first time. He did 320km/h on the Hangar Straight. BMW topman Paul Rosche played down any rumours, because he knew that BMW was not ready yet.
A new test session in 1981 with telemetry ( very new in that time) and 10000 km of racing, they obtained valuable information. The engine produced 557bhp at 9500 revs. Rosche wanted to put the engine in a Brabham for the final races of 1981 with Hector Rebaque ( Not Piquet on his way to be world champion). But there is also a tale of a winter test at Paul Ricard 1981/1982 that involved Brabham reputedly blowing 11 engines.
So the announcement of a debut was postponed several times, also due to the fact that main sponsor dairy giant Parmalat also had his say in the drivers selection. And they wanted to see an Italian in the Brabham team. So, for 1982, Ricardo Patrese was the new team mate of Piquet.
Nelson Piquet was the one who was designed to drive the new BMW engine after an agreement was reached between Ecclestone and Dieter Stappert. In South-Africa there was the strike of the drivers over the licence issues of the FISA. Ecclestone was so furious that Piquet had joined the drivers, that he forbid Nelson to start qualification. BMW could only watch. The next day Piquet was able to drive and he got the second spot on the grid. After a slow start, he dropped to P14. In the fourth lap he missed his breaking point and ended in the fence. He said afterwards he needed time and laps to adapt to the higher speed. Patrese retired 15 laps later with an engine problem.
Two days after the Kyalami race, Ecclestone phoned Stappert saying that for the next race in Brazil, there would be again Cosworth engines in the back of the Brabham. The German newspapers wrote: “BMW engines too fast for Brabham chassis”. But Bernie was not aiming at a breach of the BMW contract, but he felt some pressure from the FOCA -teams. The Turbo-engines were two seconds per lap faster in South-Africa and Prost in a Renault had won the race despite a tyre change. So in no time, the conventional engines would soon become of no value. Ecclestone did not want to break up again his frail relationship with Balestre. Bernie told Stappert that turbo engines were too dangerous because of the possible 800-900 bhp. Dieter Stappert then talked to Niki Lauda and the next day he was in a meeting with Ron Dennis and Lauda in a hotel in Zurich. If McLaren had some interest in a BMW engine? Dennis hesitates to say yes, because he was talking to Porsche. But he missed the necessary fundings. After a secret talk with BMW direction member Schönbeck, a deal was done. From Imola onwards, there would be a McLaren-BMW!
When Dennis did get money for the Porsche engine, he ended the BMW deal immediately. He had convinced Mansour Ojjeh, boss from the high-tech company TAG, it was better to be a constructor. Porsche would built the turbo engine, but they would be labelled as TAG Turbo engine.
Nelson Piquet won the Brazilian GP in March, but in April he was disqualified together with Keke Rosberg. They had run the race, like most FOCA teams, with extra water tanks in the sidepods. They said it was to cool the brakes, but in fact they were cheating. In the GP rulebook could be read that at the scrutineering after the race, all fluids except petrol, can be added to bring the car up to the minimum weight of 580 kg. A tank of water was 50 – 60 litres, so kg. The FISA went on to forbid the extra ballast tanks what resulted in a boycott of the Imola race by all FOCA teams.
In a hotel near the circuit there was a meeting with Ferrari, Renault, BMW, Porsche and Honda. The statement said that if turbo-engines would be forbidden, they all would withdraw from any racing activity.
The next day, Bernie and Balestre settled the matter. The disqualifications remained, the ballast tanks remained forbidden and turbo engines were permitted! BMW directly send a telex to Ecclestone: a BMW engine in Zolder or we terminate the contract !
But Ecclestone was not convinced. A test was arranged at Zolder prior to the Imola race. Brabham looked not very interested, sending neither Murray nor assistant David to Belgium. He tought that the engine would again prove to be unreliable. Bernie said on the phone: “For Christ’s sake blow the thing up, I do not want to run it.” But the engine was bulletproof. Even better, Piquet crashed the lap record.
However, Bernie was still not sure, so he decided to let Nelson drive the Brabham- BMW and Patrese with the Cosworth cars as there were slow circuits coming up. In the rulebook youcould read that a team had the obligation to enter two identical cars. But, no problem, Ecclestone is the boss.
In Belgium, Piquet ended the race in sixth position and in Monaco there was an engine failure. In Detroit there was a problems with the valves in the first practice and ignition problems in the second; Piquet was only P29 and not-qualified. It seemded that engine detonation was the biggest issue. The non-qualification was a major shock to Brabham. Nelson still wanted to go on, but Bernie and Gordon had serious doubts.
But BMW worked hard. In Montreal for the Canadian GP, the engine was able to deliver 600 bhp at only 1.8 bar. In qualifying Piquet was fourth fastest behind the Ferrari of …. and both the Renaults and he was faster than Patrese. In the warming up on Sunday morning Piquet managed to do a 1.30.6 lap and this was two seconds above his own predictions. Good sign, especially when his lap was done with 250 litres of fuel.
Sunday 13th June. It was a cloudy grey day. The memories of the recent death of Gilles Villeneuve hangs as a shadow over the starting grid. The Montreal circuit already got his name and the front of program booklet was showing his red Ferrari. The last thing anyone wanted was another tragedy. And yes… it went again very wrong !
.jpg)
Didier Pironi’s Ferrari on pole-position, eleven rows, about 100 meters in front of the Osella of Ricardo Paletti. For the Italian, it was his second F1 race after his race at Imola. He usually did not make it through the qualifying sessions due to some clumsy actions from the Osella Team. He had qualified in Detroit, but lost a wheel in the warm-up. He just had a meeting with his friend Mike Earle from Onyx. He ran Paletti for all but one of his 18 F2 races and was now in charge of a F1 March for Emilio de Villota; they had agreed to work together in the next season. He now had qualified on the 23th spot in front of the ATS from Salazar, the Toleman from Henton and the Theodore from Lees. So it was his first ‘real’ start.
Didier Pironi- Ferrrari Raul Boesel- March
Green light ! Instead of moving forward, the Ferrari on pole remained stationary, engine out. Didier started to wave his arms and everyone shot by him. Except Raul Boesel, who was placed just in front of Paletti. The March hit the Ferrari and pushed the car in the way of the starting Osella. Ricardo doing already 200 km/h dived in a tunnel full of black smoke, tyre fumes and had nowhere to go. The Osella flew into the back of the Ferrari, so hard that the red car went up in the air. Paletti was dead already; the nose of the Osella was completely smashed, Ricardo had two broken legs and the steering wheel had crashed his thorax and ruptured his aorta. Pironi ran to the car together with doctor Sid Watkins. The doctor opened his visor, put a respiration tube in his throat but saw fuel coming out of the car. The Osella caught fire. The fireman had troubles putting out the flames and the Osella remained a burning torch for minutes. Watkins kicked a cameraman who tried to make pictures of a dead driver. It took half an hour to get Riccardo out of the car. In the hospital, doctors tried to operate. But on the table, Paletti was declared dead. A young driver, hardly anyone had heard of him!
All the other drivers did not know that Paletti was dead when 2 hours later they took the restart. This time Pironi got away, but was passed quickly by the two Renaults and Piquet. Then Arnoux had to slow down after 9 laps, the Brabham came into the lead. The two Renaults tried to follow the BT50, but then Arnoux took himself out in a spin on lap 29 and Prost got a broken engine one lap later. Mid-race and no opponents left for Nelson Piquet. Team mate Patrese was second, more than 30 seconds behind. He could turn down the Turbo pressure, but he preferred to stay at 1.8 bar just to see what a turbo could do.
But Patrese was hunted down by the Alfa of De Cesaris and he came closer to Piquet. Before it would get really excited, Ecclestone and Gordon Murray gave their headphones to Stappert saying they had to catch a plane. Did BMW had to decide what to do ? No way, Piquet had full control and was just playing with Patrese: every time Ricardo accelerated, he did to. It was only in the last laps that he lost concentration and bumped over the curbs. But what about fuel ? Montreal is a fuel consumption circuit and three laps before the finish there were three cars coming to a halt. First De Cesaris (Alfa) running third, then Cheever( Ligier) running fourth and Daly(Williams) fifth. Piquet made it to the line with 13 seconds in front of Patrese and a lucky John Watson third. After his win in Detroit, the McLaren driver was leading the championship with 10 points more than Pironi.
The BT 49D had done his last race.
Stappert and Rosche could not believe it. Only 6 weeks after a threat-telex a BMW Turbo won his first Grand Prix! The Germans did in four races what Renault did in two years ! BMW had conquered the F1 world.
On the podium there was joy and tragedy together. It was there that the drivers were informed about the death of their young colleague. Again a drama and extremes in the 1982 season.
There was to be no repeat of the Montreal victory for the Brabham BT50. The BMW engine remained unreliable to the end of the season, limiting Piquet and Patrese to a further podium.
Publication: 31/05/2024Back to overview
