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From Formula1.com
Following the sad death of Argentinean Jose Froilan Gonzalez last weekend, three-time Formula 1 World Champion, Sir Jack Brabham, now aged 87, becomes the oldest living F1 race winner.
The Australian, known as 'Black Jack', is the only man to win a world title in a car of his own construction.
Jack Brabham's three world championships were the product of both his engineering expertise and driving skill.
His first two titles, in rear-engined Coopers he helped develop, confirmed the obsolescence of front-engined F1 cars.
His third title, in a Brabham, made him the only driver to become champion in a car of his own make. For his lifetime achievements, which also included nurturing the talents of other notable drivers and pioneering the business side of the sport, he became the first F1 driver to receive a knighthood.
Always a man of few words - his nickname 'Black Jack' referred to both his dark hair and his propensity for maintaining a shadowy silence - he avoided small talk and was undemonstrative in the extreme. But behind the wheel he was anything but shy and retiring. He put his head down and drove exceedingly forcefully, opposite-locking his car dirt-track style, and was not averse to deliberately showering gravel in the face of a too closely following pursuer.
Jack Brabham, whose final F1 victory came in the 1970 South African Grand Prix when he was 44, chose that season to retire as a driver.
The Brabham team was sold to Bernie Ecclestone and Jack returned home to Australia, where he busied himself running a farm, a car dealership and an aviation company, and helped his sons with their racing careers.
His contribution to British motorsport was officially recognised in 1985 and he became Sir Jack Brabham.
Following the sad death of Argentinean Jose Froilan Gonzalez last weekend, three-time Formula 1 World Champion, Sir Jack Brabham, now aged 87, becomes the oldest living F1 race winner.
The Australian, known as 'Black Jack', is the only man to win a world title in a car of his own construction.
Jack Brabham's three world championships were the product of both his engineering expertise and driving skill.
 |
| Jack Brabham, Brabham BT-26 Repco, Monza 1968 (Photo: WRI2) |
His first two titles, in rear-engined Coopers he helped develop, confirmed the obsolescence of front-engined F1 cars.
His third title, in a Brabham, made him the only driver to become champion in a car of his own make. For his lifetime achievements, which also included nurturing the talents of other notable drivers and pioneering the business side of the sport, he became the first F1 driver to receive a knighthood.
Always a man of few words - his nickname 'Black Jack' referred to both his dark hair and his propensity for maintaining a shadowy silence - he avoided small talk and was undemonstrative in the extreme. But behind the wheel he was anything but shy and retiring. He put his head down and drove exceedingly forcefully, opposite-locking his car dirt-track style, and was not averse to deliberately showering gravel in the face of a too closely following pursuer.
 |
| Sir Jack Brabham (Photo: WRI2) |
Jack Brabham, whose final F1 victory came in the 1970 South African Grand Prix when he was 44, chose that season to retire as a driver.
The Brabham team was sold to Bernie Ecclestone and Jack returned home to Australia, where he busied himself running a farm, a car dealership and an aviation company, and helped his sons with their racing careers.
His contribution to British motorsport was officially recognised in 1985 and he became Sir Jack Brabham.