David Brabham

5/9/1965

Record updated

Australian Formula One driver who raced for the Brabham and Simtek teams. The youngest son of Sir Jack Brabham the famous Australian Formula One champion. He spent his childhood in Australia, although despite his father's motor racing fame he took little interest in motor racing until after he left school. As a child he played the more accessible sport of soccer up until the age of twelve and then took up Australian Rules Football when the family moved to Sydney. Growing up, Sir Jack didn't force David into racing, and it was only after discovering go-karts at 17, that he became enthused enough to purchase a second-hand go-kart with his next-door neighbor and begin racing. David's professional racing career began in Australian in 1983 racing karts for two years, after which he moved into touring car racing for one year. In 1986 he switched to Formula Ford 1600 and subsequently moved on to Formula Atlantic in 1987. A move from Australia to Europe under sponsorship from Camel in 1989 saw him joining the Bowman team and winning the British Formula Three Championship. David's break into Formula One with the Brabham team met with little success. In 14 races he only managed to qualify the uncompetitive Judd-engined car six times. This led to him being replaced at the end of the season. David joined the Tom Walkinshaw Racing Jaguar team in 1991 and also in that year won the Spa 24 Hours for Nissan. David won the 24 Hours of Daytona for Jaguar in 1992. David returned to Formula One in 1994 with the under-funded Simtek team who suffered the blow of the death of Roland Ratzenberger whilst in qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix. David quit Formula One at the end of that year to begin touring car racing. Subsequent successes included winning the Bathurst 1000 in 1997, winning a professional Sports Car championship in the United States with the Panoz racing team in 1998, and winning the 1999 Petit Le Mans also with Panoz.