Jack Brabham is the only driver to win the World Championship in a car bearing his own name.

Brabham won back-to-back titles for Cooper in 1959-60, but returned home to Australia and struck up a business partnership with Ron Tauranac, an aircraft engineer. They came to England and set up Motor Racing Developments (MRD). The cars were known as MRDs until someone pointed out that, if said rapidly in French, it sounded like something dogs did on the pavement. So, Brabham, although never a man who sought publicity, allowed his own name to be used instead.

The Brabham Racing Organization was formed in 1962, using cars built by MRD. It raced to its first grand prix wins in 1964, when Dan Gurney was first past the flag in both the French and Mexican Grands Prix.

Lotus dominated in 1965, but for the following year there was a new 3-litre formula in Formula One and Brabham had an engine built by the Australian Repco company. With it, Brabham became the first driver to score a win in a car bearing his own name, at the French Grand Prix, and went on to secure his third World Championship title.

The following season saw the introduction of the Cosworth DFV. The new engine won first time out in Jim Clark's Lotus, but consistency allowed Denny Hulme to win a second successive championship for Brabham.

Then the team missed out. Brabham managed to sign up-and-coming Austrian Jochen Rindt for 1968 and there is no doubt that, if the engines had been up to it, Rindt could have prolonged the success. However, the new four-cam Repco was neither quick nor reliable and Rindt left for Lotus at the end of the season.

After Jackie Stewart and Matra dominated in the 1969 season, Brabham, now 44, decided that 1970 would be his final year in Formula One. Tauranac produced his first monocoque Brabham, the BT33, and Jack won the opening race in South Africa. He should have won in Monaco, but allowed himself to be pressured into a mistake at the hairpin on the last lap by a charging Rindt.

Then Lotus upped the ante with its new Type 72. After outdriving Rindt at Brands Hatch, Brabham ran out of fuel on the last lap and that was the end of his challenge that year. Rindt then became the sport's only posthumous champion after an accident at Monza, and Brabham returned to Australia.

After struggling on in 1971, with Graham Hill and Tim Schenken, Tauranac sold the company to Bernie Ecclestone. One of Tauranac's design assistants, South African Gordon Murray, then became responsible for the Brabhams which, instead of taking over an "EM" (Ecclestone/Murray) tag, continued as BTs. Murray's distinctive BT44 was one of the prettiest Formula One cars ever built and it won three races in 1974, all with Argentinian Carlos Reutemann driving.

Ferrari domination with flat-12 engines caused Ecclestone to turn to Alfa Romeo for a similar unit but, despite signing Niki Lauda from Ferrari, the team could not win another championship. Lotus was pioneering aerodynamic wing cars and ground effect and, to counter the suction effect, Murray built a BT46B with a huge fan on the back that sucked the car on to the track. Lauda immediately blew the Lotuses away in the Swedish Grand Prix. It may have been brilliant, but it was rapidly banned.

Nelson Piquet joined the team at the end of 1978 and became a great favourite after Lauda retired the following year. Nelson won the World Championship in a Brabham in both 1981 and 1983, but the Brazilian left at the end of 1985 and Brabham rapidly declined. Elio de Angelis was killed testing the lay-down BT55 and, at the end of 1987, Ecclestone withdrew Brabham from the championship.

The team returned in 1989 after being sold to a Swiss financier who ended up in jail for fraud. Its ownership then became even murkier and, although the team raced until 1992, it was an embarrassment to its former self before it finally disappeared from the Formula One scene altogether.

Reproduced from The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Formula One published by Carlton Books