Brabham Automotive has big plans for the future, and those are Le Mans.
The Australian car manufacturer has announced that in a press release.
The car will be based on the Brabham BT62, which was presented in 2018, and lately also has become available in a road legal version.
The plans are to participate in the FIA World Endurance Championship from the 2021/22 season onwards, culminating in a start in 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2022. While a lot of the rumours have been around them entering the new Hypercar category, it will actually be the GTE for them.
Graphics: Brabham Automotive
The Brabham name has a long history, not only in motorsport, but also at Le Mans. Jack Brabham won the only official Formula 1 race run at the Circuit de la Sarthe in 1967, while his best result in the 24 Hours race was a third place, ten years earlier. That result has been topped by two of his three sons, Geoff and David, with them winning the race overall in 1993 and 2009 respectively – both for Peugeot. David has also won the GT1 category in both 2007 and 2008 for Aston Martin Racing.
They still need to find some money – quite a lot of money – before the FIA WEC programme is ready to roll on track. That is part of the reason why the programme will start in 2021 and not sooner, for them to be as prepared as possible, so they don’t fail when they are going to battle with BMW, Aston Martin, Porsche, Corvette, Ferrari and Ford – if they are still around in the GTE Pro category, when we come to 2021.
The plan is to participate as a works team in season 1, and then start selling the cars to other teams. As the current rules state: it’s only allowed to run in GTE Pro with brand new cars, while the car specifications has to be one year old to be able to run in GTE Am.
