Project Brabham

Become the heartbeat. Discover more

Project Brabham is a “bold new approach” for racing that makes motorsport more accessible, more transparent and more engaging to fans. Above all this, it allows a team to be more self-sufficient.

“It’s the only way…motor racing is expensive now” Sir Stirling Moss talking about Project Brabham

Brabham is one of the most successful and recognisable names in the history of motorsport and now David Brabham is continuing his father’s legacy by bringing the team name back through an innovative new model. This model starts by inviting you to crowdfund the first step of our journey. In return, we will be providing you with access to the inner workings of a race team from its early days of development, revealing information that is normally a closely guarded secret, and providing you with the ability to vote on certain team decisions from the outset. 

“The others are not offering that sort of potential, of being involved, of getting the feedback and the inner stories” John Surtees OBE

There hasn’t been a Brabham team for over twenty years, but now the famous name is ready to embark on its next journey. Brabham Racing will initially compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship, which includes the prestigious Le Mans 24 Hours. The ultimate dream is to bring this same model to Formula 1 and potentially other exciting series such as the FIA Formula E Championship.

Project Brabham will appeal to three groups of people who are interested in racing, fans, drivers and engineers. We are going to provide unrivalled access to our team for all three, through Brabham-Digital, a knowledge-sharing and e-learning portal that will be the first of its kind in the sport. Not only will Brabham-Digital bring you closer to the action, but it will also allow you to progress your own skills in the sport, whether you are an amateur or a professional.

“[David’s] using new technology and the world…of the Internet in a way that no other racing organisations are using” Sir Jackie Stewart

There have been some battles to get to this point. David had to undertake a high court battle to win back the right to use the Brabham name, and the family endured the passing of their patriarch, Sir Jack Brabham. We have also received stunning endorsement for the project, both from the legends of the sport and from the wider motorsport community, who helped us raise over £100,000 in just three days.

It is a truly monumental effort to start a race team, so the drama will continue to be high and the experience unlike any other. 

David Brabham – Team Principal

"I have long dreamt of seeing the Brabham Racing team back out on the track, winning at the highest level and continuing the legacy my father laid down when he first started the team in the Sixties. 

Crowdfunding gives people the chance to be part of the team from the start. Once we have built a large community we will start to see the power of a collective force that will attract the funds and partners to make this journey a success. Come and join us and create another piece of history.”

The History of Brabham

Our remarkable story started in 1948, when Sir Jack Brabham won his first Midget title, before leaving his humble engineering workshop in Sydney, Australia, to go on and dominate the world of Formula 1. In ‘66 Jack became the first – and only – driver in history to win a Formula 1 World Championship in a car of his own name and manufacture, eventually winning three Formula 1 crowns in total and earning renown as one of the top drivers and engineers of his generation.

Denny Hulme continued Brabham’s domination with back-to-back Driver and Constructor titles in ‘67, keeping Brabham at the top of the racing world. The Brabham name continued long after Jack’s retirement, with the team claiming two further Driver titles in ‘81 and ‘83 with Nelson Piquet.  

Brabham-Digital

Brabham-Digital is the online portal through which we will share knowledge and behind-the-scenes action with you. It’s a content hub, knowledge sharing platform, forum for the community, race-day “second screen” to provide an additional perspective on the race, e-learning platform and voting mechanism all rolled into one. The money from the first phase of crowdfunding will be used to build a more simplified version of the final portal, bringing together the elements that are required for you to follow and contribute towards our early progress. From then on it turns into a much more engaging and powerful engine, divided into three different parts depending on your interest.

Brabham-Fan

Members of Brabham-Fan will interact and contribute towards collaborative decisions in a way no big-name racing team has attempted before. We will share everything from our search for an investor, driver selection and building our premises, right up to the first car build, test and race. On race weekends Brabham-Fan will become the gateway for live telemetry, behind-the-scenes footage, radio communications and even critical race strategy.*

*All of this is dependant on Wi-Fi capabilities of the race venues.

Brabham-Driver

Brabham-Driver is for those who desire to know what it takes, technically and professionally, to become the ultimate racing driver. This online training course will include modules such as:

·  Understanding the car and advice around set-up 

·  Developing a winning mentality

·  Media training

·  Advice from nutritional experts and sports psychologists

·  Suggested training regimes from specialist coaches

·  As well as post-race debriefs when we are testing and racing

David has a lot of experience in working with some of the best young drivers through the Brabham Performance Clinic, such as former F1 test drivers Sam Bird and James Calado, and current Marussia F1 team driver Max Chilton, to name but a few. This is your chance to get the same kind of insight that helped them reach the top.

Brabham-Engineer

Brabham-Engineer will involve the community in the development of the team’s racing technology while providing online training on what it takes to reach the pinnacle of motorsport engineering. Project challenges will cover all aspects of aerodynamics, CFD, suspension geometry and gearboxes, where members can get involved in the development of specific parts or even a future Brabham prototype, with certification of their achievements.

We are also in advanced talks with a market-leading CAD software developer to integrate their technology into our web application. You will be able to see your designs come to life as you contribute towards the development of Brabham Racing.

Brabham-Engineer is more than just an e-learning platform. The race team brings everything alive, putting context to our content and a providing a practical experience that’s unlike anything else in the market.

How your money will be spent

To have a car in place for the first round of the FIA WEC (including the prestigious Le Mans 24 Hours) we have budgeted close to £8m for an LMP2 car. Project Brabham is a new solution to go racing that:

·  Makes long-term investment more likely and more sustainable

·  Makes sponsorship more attractive to brands

·  Involves fans more than ever before

We have now raised the £250,000 required to get Phase 1 of Project Brabham up and running, but put simply the more we raise and the more people who show their support, the sooner we can develop the e-learning content and go racing.

Your £250,000 will give you:

·  The front-end of a new Brabham-Digital portal

·  Providing you with the ability to watch and contribute to the team’s initial stages of development

·  The ability to vote and interact on certain team decisions from the offset

·  Regular video, written and audio updates until the team has been fully funded and formed

·  A comprehensive prospectus that will allow us to go after the big investment required for a three year racing programme in the WEC

Stretch Goals

Now we have passed the initial target we can start to progress the next phases without requiring additional investment straight away. When we reach a total of:

·  £500,000 we will be able to start building and populate the three, more complex cloud-based experiences straight away, and start to assemble the back-office of the team

·  £2.5m we can source our factory and buy our first car

·  £8m you can become a piece of racing history – we would be the first ever community-sponsored motor racing team in an FIA discipline

What you get in return

Show Support

If you would like to simply show support for Project Brabham and keep up-to-date with our progress, you can invest just one pound. You won’t be participating in the experiences we have lined up, but your contribution helps confirm to our investors that we’re onto a good idea.

Brabham-Digital

Contribute towards the development of Brabham Racing in its early stages and join one of the Brabham-Digital experiences. As a fan, driver or engineer you will be given a one-year subscription to the experience that interests you, with at least a 50% discount against the intended sale price when we launch the full Brabham-Digital platform.

Hospitality Pit Passes

We’ve put together three exclusive packages that will allow you to join us at one of the eight stages of the FIA World Endurance Championship. You will experience the full team treatment, including accommodation, food, team clothing and even the chance to be in the team photo. Please note that you will need to make your own travel arrangements to the track.

We will be taking up to fourteen of you to Le Mans, ten on hospitality pit passes, and four to follow the engineering team and help them complete special tasks. For the remaining seven races on the calendar we are offering twenty-five hospitality pit passes. You will be able to select the race of your choice from the calendar.

These places are extremely limited so will sell out quickly. 

Why share our secrets?

When people hear about Project Brabham they ask why we are happy to give away our secrets to our competitors. There are two reasons why this new model will increase our chances of winning. Firstly, transparency gets rid of the barriers that often create disharmony in a team and promotes even greater creativity. And secondly, if your competitors can only win by chasing your tail, then they won’t be able to hold pace for very long.

Our new model challenges the current thinking of how a racing team should behave and modernises the fan/team relationship. With the birth of the web and social media, the world communicates differently, resulting in a change in the way people interact and receive their information. The sport is starting to catch up, but we feel it’s ready to go a step further.

In essence we’re proposing a new model for Open Source Racing, one where transparency and free-flow of information works to the benefit of the team, and the benefit of the participating individuals.

Making Project Brabham a reality

As with all projects success is only possible when you overcome potential challenges.

The most important thing is that people show their support by participating in the campaign however they can. An investor would like to see huge uptake before they put serious money into funding a race team like ours. The reason we’ve offered a one pound donation level is so supporters can show they believe this is a good idea whatever their financial situation. As such, your one pound will go a long way in creating history.

The next consideration is whether we will be able to form the team having reached our £250,000 target. The Brabham name is very highly respected so the risk is much lower than it might be. We are already in discussions with a number of investors, sponsors and possible manufacturing partners who are extremely interested in our idea. For the most part they have stated they are very interested in investing if we can prove there is an appetite in this model.

Finally, we have to consider the rules of motorsport that govern the level of information shared by a team. This is one of the main reasons why we have chosen to initially bring this to the FIA WEC and Le Mans 24 Hours. They have a fan base that is growing, which is partly due to them embracing new communications technologies. 300,000 people downloaded the official WEC mobile app, which shows there is interest from the market. We have also confirmed our plans with the WEC officials and they are fully supportive of our vision.

A Winning Team

We have an experienced, proven team in place to make Project Brabham a reality.

David Brabham – Team Principal

Unquestionably one of the most outstanding drivers of his generation, David is renowned for his unrivalled experience, motivational energy and unique ability to gauge and direct the team dynamic.

His unique skill set started to form during his days driving for Simtek F1 and the loss of friend and teammate Roland Ratzenberger when, amidst the sadness, David helped pull the team together. Gaining a deeper understanding of the driver’s role extending far outside the cockpit, he learnt how to get the best from himself and the people around him.

From that point onwards David has developed a proven track-record of winning. He helped Panoz, a privateer team, take on the might of Audi in a front-engine roadster – and win. He led from the front with Highcroft Racing, taking them from debutants to back-to-back ALMS Champions in just four years, beating the vastly more experienced and resourced teams of Penske and Porsche. And his instigation to create a core team chemistry at Team Peugeot Sport in 2009 helped the French manufacturer secure its first Le Mans title in 16 years.

Through his Brabham Performance Clinic, David uses his global ethos and winning mentality to inspire the next generation of racing champions. The Clinic developed the MSA’s young driver development and education programme, of which David was National Race Coach for six years.

Alistair Cox - Non-Exec of Brabham Global

Alistair Cox is the Chief Executive of Hays plc, the global specialist recruitment agency, and a Non Executive Director of 3i. Alistair brings a wealth of knowledge in both the business and engineering world, drawing on his degree and early career in Aeronautical Engineering, and senior management experience with a number of global organisations.

Paul May - MD of Brabham Global

Paul is a qualified accountant who has worked in a number of finance, operations and general management roles within the US Corporation, Avery Dennison. In 1999, he became Vice President and General Manager of their EMEA, Asia and Latin America Office Products businesses, based in Munich. He subsequently returned to the UK to set up his own business focusing on image transfer solutions and was MD of Snopake Ltd from 2007-2012. He is currently a business mentor for the Princes Trust and is chairman of the Elizabeth Creak Charitable Trust. He is also a Director of Brabham Branding Ltd.

You can explore the rest of the team by clicking the links further down the page.

How you can be a part of it

Joining the re-birth of Brabham on this exciting journey isn’t just about getting more information as a fan. It’s about having a genuine opportunity to participate in the re-launch of one of the world’s most iconic motorsport brands, and to be a part of history.

So enthusiasts – amateur or professional - can participate in motorsport at the highest level and have the chance to make a genuine contribution.

If you're thinking of taking part in Project Brabham, then don’t hang around because your support will make a huge difference right now. At the very least share it with someone you know who will want to get involved. Getting our message in front of as many people as possible is also important.

Get involved. To become part of our team just choose your donation level and contribute. 

Please allow up to two weeks to receive your Brabham-Digital member access. 

Come join us and become the heartbeat of the team.