RED BULL LEGENDS PARADE 2026: BRABHAM BT52B (1983)

The BT52B looks slightly different from the original, including in terms of livery. However, it enjoyed a higher success rate, partly because the BMW engine had by then firmly established itself as the most powerful of its era. The weight disadvantage compared to its competitors was more than compensated for, at least during this later phase of the campaign. Furthermore, the fuel system and the fuel itself were the best available in the premier class during those months. 

There are only two surviving examples of the BT52B in the world. One of them was taken out for a test at the end of the 1983 season by a certain Ayrton Senna. The first turbo era had begun with Renault in 1977; it ended with the final race of the 1986 season. 

Although Brabham had won the opening race of the campaign with the new BT52, there was disquiet in the team concerning the car’s fatal unreliability in the world championship battle: Nelson Piquet retired three times in the first eight races, while Riccardo Patrese suffered no fewer than seven DNFs. Consequently, designer Gordon Murray decided to field a revised car, the BT52B, for both drivers from the British Grand Prix onwards. Although by today’s standards, it might count as a mere update, the BT52B became a model designation in its own right – and a legend: with three victories in the last four races, Piquet did indeed secure the first world championship title for a driver in a turbocharged racing car.  

Paul Rosche. The BMW Head of Engine Production created the first turbocharged power unit in Formula 1 to win the world championship. Yet the partnership had been on the brink of collapse just a year earlier following a bitter row between Brabham and BMW – but then Piquet won in Montreal, just a week after starting from the back of the grid in Detroit. That saved the project. Rosche subsequently cemented his reputation as the Bavarian engine guru. 

Oscar Piastri’s manager enjoyed his greatest successes as a Formula 1 driver with Red Bull Racing. Now, in a sentimental tribute to his famous compatriot Jack Brabham and the team he founded, he is driving one of their cars in the Red Bull Legends Parade.