Brabham's return: The inside story

The famous Brabham name is set to return to international motorsport from 2015, first as a team and then as a constructor.

David Brabham, son of three-time Formula 1 world champion and original Brabham founder Sir Jack, has a novel way of raising support for his LMP2/LMP1 plans.

Although a chassis partner and engine deal for next year have yet to be decided, Brabham is determined to forge a long-term future for the brand with his crowdfunding approach. He spoke to AUTOSPORT about how he believes 'Project Brabham' will work.

THE PLAN

In order to return to racing, Brabham has pinned its plan around an open source and crowdfunding strategy with three digital web applications - Brabham-Fan, Brabham-Driver and Brabham-Engineer - to which interested parties can become members.

Brabham wants to bring fans properly into the project

The ambition is for this community to be able to engage with a racing team like never before.

Members of Brabham-Fan will interact and contribute towards collaborative decisions as the team will share everything from its investor search, driver-selection process and building its premises, to the first car build, test and race.

On race weekends, this will be the internet gateway for live telemetry, behind-the-scenes footage, radio communications and race strategy.

Brabham-Driver is for those who want to know what it takes to become a professional racing driver. Through online training, Brabham will provide the knowledge and understanding to develop car set-up, learn how to develop a winning mentality, plus advice from nutritional experts and sports psychologists, and training regimes from specialist coaches.

Brabham-Engineer will involve the community in the development of the team's racing technology while providing a series of e-learning modules around what it takes to be a motorsport engineer.

Project challenges will cover all aspects of aerodynamics, CFD, suspension geometry and gearboxes, where members can get involved in the development of specific parts, with certification of their achievements.

The various packages that are available will be detailed on the Project Brabham crowdfunding page.

Q&A WITH DAVID BRABHAM

Sir Jack Brabham first entered F1 as a constructor in 1962 © LAT

Why are you bringing back the team in such a radical fashion?

The reason I've driven for so many teams over the years is because so many of them are struggling financially, battling to get to the next year.

I've got the Brabham name, and a dream of getting the team back up and running, to rebuild the house that Jack built.

I thought, 'There must be a different way of doing it'. I've been working on it for quite some time, and now is the time to go live.

So sustainability is the key?

It is, and this is what I've spent a lot of my time getting my head round.

I'm really happy with the model we've come up with. It's different; it will stretch people's thinking.

This is more than just a race team. This is creating a knowledge-sharing platform that will give people a greater experience of racing, plus a learning environment through the team.

From the very early stages of the crowdfunding route, it gives people the opportunity to engage and be part of the journey straight away. They can feel the excitement, and as we grow they grow with us.

The last world championship success for a Brabham team came with Nelson Piquet in 1983 © LAT

Why take the crowdfunding route?

It kickstarts Project Brabham, and it gives people the opportunity to get in early and get well-discounted deals on the future packages.

You can pay £10K and that includes me giving you a private lesson at Silverstone, but that will be limited to 20. We have different packages for different prices.

Will it be an all-or-nothing crowdfunding deal, or will it happen regardless of hitting any targets you've set?

The plan is obviously to get as much money as possible, because the more we get the quicker the programme can turn into a reality. If there's the appetite for it, we go out and go through the process.

If we don't make the first race of the WEC next year, that's not a problem. This is a long-term deal. It's a five, 10, 15-year programme. Whether we start in April, May or June next year doesn't really matter.

What matters is there's a great opportunity here from an investor point of view, and we've already been talking to lot of people. And all of them want to continue the conversation; not one has actually said, 'We're not interested'.

It's been very positively received behind the scenes, but in the grand scheme of things we won't know until we go live with it. The evidence we've seen so far all points to success.

What's the timeframe?

Brabham wants to be on the 2014 WEC grid © LAT

Next year will be tight, but the goal is to start next year in the WEC in LMP2, but a lot of that depends on the appetite for this in the marketplace.

If there is, and the research we've done has been really positive, then it's the right time for this to happen.

It makes it a lot easier for Brabham to go into the marketplace, with this model, and get investment.

We don't know how quickly that will happen, but that's part of the journey. It's part of the excitement. We are going into the unknown and letting life do its job.

What's the plan in year one, are you looking at off-the-peg solutions for your LMP2 car?

Obviously from a team point of view we'd have to go with what's out there. I haven't decided who that's with, because we've been flat-out with working out this model to take to market, and the people who get involved early through our fan forums and Brabham Digital will be able to see what we're thinking and doing - again, it's the paths that lie ahead of us.

How many people will it take?

I guess there'll be two teams in one, depending on whether we run or two cars, so that depends on partners and what money we receive in terms of what we'll do.

It's now 22 years since Brabham last graced the F1 grid © LAT

You'll have a race team, and then there'll be a team on top of that transferring the information on to Brabham Digital to all the people.

Long-term you'd like to build your own LMP1 car?

The first stage is to get the team up and running; that takes three years to get to where you really want it. Halfway through those three years we'll be looking at the longer term, which is obviously building a Brabham LMP1.

And we will be engaging and using our community to help build that, so there's a collaborative design team working with our engineers.

How realistic is it to think of Brabham returning to Formula 1?

Well it's a dream. You never know. It's a lot further down the road.

We want to get this programme up and running, get the systems in place, see what works, what doesn't work.

If it's a really successful model, then we'll see. I have a real conviction about what we're doing. I believe in it.

Will you hang up your helmet as a driver?

We'll have to wait and see.