Racing History
The aerodynamic concept worked, in that the car produced plenty of downforce. However, this was matched by an unexpectedly high level of drag which limited the performance of the car. The tilted over engine and specially designed gearbox also produced many reliability problems. The team scored just two points all season, both by driver Riccardo Patrese.
The team's other driver, Elio de Angelis, was the first driver to die in a works Brabham when he was killed in an accident while testing at the Circuit Paul Ricard in France. The car survived the accident relatively intact and de Angelis had only minor injuries. There were very few track marshals at the circuit and he was trapped in the car and killed by oxygen deprivation due to a fire before they arrived. He was replaced by Derek Warwick, reportedly the only top level driver who did not call team owner Bernie Ecclestone to ask about the drive.
Read more about this topic: Brabham BT55
Famous quotes containing the words racing and/or history:
“Upscale people are fixated with food simply because they are now able to eat so much of it without getting fat, and the reason they don’t get fat is that they maintain a profligate level of calorie expenditure. The very same people whose evenings begin with melted goat’s cheese ... get up at dawn to run, break for a mid-morning aerobics class, and watch the evening news while racing on a stationary bicycle.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it.”
—Lytton Strachey (1880–1932)