David Brabham

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David Brabham
Formula One Career
Nationality	Australian
Active years	1990, 1994
Team(s)	Brabham, Simtek
Grands Prix	30
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podium finishes	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First Grand Prix	1990 San Marino Grand Prix


Last Grand Prix	1994 Australian Grand Prix

David Brabham (born 5 September 1965 in Wimbledon, London) is an Australian former Formula One driver who raced for the Brabham and Simtek teams. He is 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 enthusiastic 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. 1995 in a BTCC BMW was not a success, but subsequent successes included winning the 1996 JGTC GT500 championship in McLaren F1 GT-R (so far the only non-Japanese car to win this), and the Bathurst 1000 in its Supertouring era in 1997,

He won the Professional Sports Car Championship in the United States with the Panoz racing team in 1998, and the 1999 Petit Le Mans race also with Panoz. Since 1999 he has been a regular in the American Le Mans Series. He has contested the Bathurst 24-hour race several times since its inception in 2002. He won the Sebring 12-hour race in 2005.

At the 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans, David scored a 4th in the GT1 category (9th overall) driving an Aston Martin DBR9 for Russian Age Racing.

David's two older brothers Geoff and Gary also pursued motor racing careers.

[edit] Complete Formula One Results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Team	WDC	Points
1990	Brabham	USA	BRA	SMR DNQ	MON Ret	CAN DNQ	MEX Ret	FRA 15	GBR DNQ	GER Ret	HUN DNQ	BEL Ret	ITA DNQ	POR Ret	ESP DNQ	JPN Ret	AUS Ret	Brabham	-	0
1994	Simtek	BRA 12	PFC Ret	SMR Ret	MON Ret	ESP 10	CAN 14	FRA Ret	GBR 15	GER Ret	HUN 11	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	POR Ret	EUR Ret	JPN 12	AUS Ret	Simtek	-	0