BRM: Britain’s Lost F1 Champion

We continue our journey of forgotten F1 teams of the past, our next article is about the BRM, the British Racing Motors.

F1 history is usually told through giants of the sports, so names like Ferrari, McLaren, or Williams, dominate the conversation.

Yet long before Britain became the center of modern F1, one ambitious team tried to build the country’s own answer to Ferrari.

For nearly thirty years, BRM competed at the highest level of motorsport, build everything themselves, designed its own chassis, engine, and gearboxes at its factory in Bourne, Lincolnshire.

BRM: The birth of Britain’s first true works team

BRM was founded in 1945; when British industry was rebuilding and motorsport was slowly returning to life, and the idea behind the project was simple, Britain wanted its own national racing team.

At the time, teams such as Ferrari built their own complete racing cars, while the British teams relied more on outside engine suppliers.

So this team tried to change that, and this project was supported by a group of British industrial companies at the time, and all contributing resources to create a truly homegrown Grand Prix car.

When F1 officially began in 1950, BRM was still developing its first car, and the team finally appeared on the grid at the 1951 British GP.

The Infamous V16 Engine

We have shared the story of V16 in the past, BRM quickly gained a reputation for engineering ambition.

Their first car was powered by a supercharged 1.5-liter V16 engine, one of the most complex power units ever attempted in F1, and never again.

However, this engine produced around 600HP, and it delivered a screaming exhaust note that became legendary among fans.

But brilliance came with a price, the engine was complicated, difficult to maintain, and often unreliable, drivers loved the power when it worked, but they frequently ended with mechanical failures.

However, the V16 helped establish BRM as a team willing to push engineering boundaries further than almost anyone else in the sport.

The Breakthrough Years

After struggling during ’50s, they finally began to find stability, in 1959, the team achieved its first F1 victory, marking a turning point in its history.

The best moments for the team came a few years later, in 1962, driving the BRM 57, Bristish driver Graham Hill won the title for the team, Hill the man who founded the project of Embassy Hill later, also BRM won the Constructors’ Championship the same year.

For the British fans, the victory was symbolic, a fully British-built car had defeated the best teams in the world.

A Team of Legendary Drivers

One of the most remarkable aspects of BRM’s history is the number of great drivers who passed through the team.

Among them were drivers such as Juan Manuel Fangio, known as one of the greatest drivers in motorsport history, British legend Stirling Moss also raced for the BRM team during its early years.

Later, the team attracted talents such as Jackie Stewart and future F1 champion Niki Lauda.

In total, six F1 world champions drove BRM cars.

The Closest Finish in Formula 1 History

BRM is also responsible for one of the most dramatic finishes in F1 history.

At the Italian Grand Prix in 1971, the race ended in an extraordinary slipstream battle involving several cars running almost side by side.

When the cars crossed the finish line, BRM drive Peter Gethin took victory by just 0.01 seconds, and to this day, it remains the closest recorded finish in F1 history.

Engineering Ambition: The H16 Engine

BRM’s reputation for technical experiments, continued in ’60s. Perhaps the strangest example was the H16 engine.

So instead of using a conventional V-engine layout, BRM essentially stacked two flat-eigh engines on top of each other create a massive 16-cylinder power unit.

But the engine was extremely heavy and complicated, struggling with reliability and never delivered the performance had hoped for.

What caught my eye is that the engine’s only F1 victory came not in a BRM car, but in a Lotus chassis run by Team Lotus during 1966 season.

The Final Years

By the early 1970s, F1 was becoming more expensive, many teams failed during the ’70s, teams needed massive resources to develop new technology, and smaller operations found it difficult to keep up.

BRM continued racing with its own V12 engines during this period and even achieved a memorable victory at the Monaco GP in 1972, but behind the scenes, financial pressure was growing.

Better-funded teams entered the sport, BRM gradually sliped down the grid, results became harder to achieve.

After competing in 197 Grand Prix, BRM made its final race appearance at the Italian GP in 1977, quietly, one of Britain’s most historic teams disappeared from the championship.

Remembering the British F1 team

Today, BRM is often overshadowed by the teams that followed, but the team played a crucial role in shaping British involvement in F1.

In total, BRM competed in 197 F1 races, scored 17 victories, achieved 61 podium finishes, and captured both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ titles.

These numbers tell part of the story, the rest is written in the sound of the V16 engine, the chaos of Monza in 1971, and the ambition of a small British team that once tried to challenge big teams in F1.

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Photo: Lothar Spurzem / CC BY-SA 2.0 DE via Wikimedia Commons