page_title: Brabham BT50
section_title: Introduction of mid-race refueling
hierarchical_section_title: Brabham BT50 / Race history / Introduction of mid-race refueling
caption_attribution_description: English: Nelson Piquet - Brabham BT50 at the 1982 British Grand Prix, Brands Hatch
context_page_description: The Brabham BT50 was a Formula One racing car designed by Gordon Murray and powered by a turbo BMW engine. It was raced by the Brabham team, owned by Bernie Ecclestone, during the 1982 Formula One season. Driven by Nelson Piquet and Riccardo Patrese, it made its debut at the South African Grand Prix before being withdrawn for further development of its engine while the team reverted to the previous year's car, the Brabham BT49. On the reintroduction of the BT50, Piquet finished fifth in the Belgian Grand Prix. A few races later he drove it to a win in the Canadian Grand Prix. Later in the year it achieved three more finishes in the points for the team. During the second half of the season, Brabham implemented the strategy of mid-race refueling. This allowed Piquet and Patrese to start the races relatively light and use their reduced weight to gain track position over their competitors before stopping to refuel. The poor reliability of the BT50 meant that they had only a few opportunities to demonstrate the strategy in practice.
  Despite its unreliability, the BT50 was fast, taking one pole and three fastest laps during the season.
context_section_description: From the 1982 British Grand Prix, Murray implemented a radical strategy of a planned pit stop for refuelling mid-way through the race to run at the front of the field. The idea was to allow the cars to start the race with a lighter fuel load as well softer, faster, tyres which would get replaced at the refueling pitstop. Another advantage was that the drivers could run higher boost levels, knowing that they would receive a top up of fuel. Reliability proved to be a problem and this restricted Piquet and Patrese from fully utilising the potential of this strategy. In Britain, Patrese out-qualified Piquet by nearly half a second and placed second on the grid; Piquet was third. Patrese stalled at the start of the race, allowing Piquet into the lead as Keke Rosberg, on pole, had been unable to start his car in time to begin the parade lap. However, Piquet retired before he could test the team's new pitstop strategy. 
  In France, Brabham struggled with the fuel mixture for the engines and on a fast Paul Ricard circuit that should have advantaged the teams running turbo engines, could only manage fourth and sixth on the grid, Patrese ahead of Piquet. However, the strategy of starting with a light fuel load saw both BT50s running first and second within five laps of the start. However, having set the fastest lap of the race, Patrese retired from the lead on lap 8 with a blown engine. Piquet inherited the lead but he too retired with engine problems on lap 24. 
  At BMW's home race in Germany, the BT50s qualified third and fifth, Piquet this time ahead of Patrese. At the start of the race, Arnoux, in his Renault, initially led but by the second lap, he had been passed by Piquet. By virtue of the team's now usual strategy of starting on soft tyres and a light fuel load saw Piquet build up a substantial lead and begin to lap the slower cars. On lap 19, with his scheduled pitstop just two laps away, he crashed into Eliseo Salazar's ATS when attempting to pass. Both cars came to a halt and stalled, forcing their drivers to abandon them trackside. In an incident captured on live television, while remonstrating with Salazar, Piquet lashed out at him with hands and feet. Patrese had already fallen by the wayside due to an engine failure.
  Brabham finally had the opportunity to demonstrate their prowess at completing a midrace refueling at the Austrian Grand Prix. Qualifying had gone well, with the team locking out the front row of the grid. Piquet started from pole position but blistered a tyre within a few laps. This allowed Patrese, running second behind his team leader, to move into the lead. Piquet's tyre problems saw him come into for his first pitstop on lap 16. Despite signalling his intent to enter the pits, the Brabham mechanics were not prepared as his scheduled pitstop was not for several more laps. Piquet was stationary for nearly a minute while the team found and fitted replacement tyres and resumed in fourth place. Patrese, still in the lead, came into the pits for his scheduled stop on lap 24. This time, the mechanics completed a swift turnaround and Patrese, having only been held up for 15 seconds, resumed the race still in the lead. It was only to last for three more laps before he spun off due to an engine failure. Nonetheless, his performance had validated the strategy of starting with a light fuel load. Piquet suffered a camshaft drive failure a few laps later which ended his race while running in third place.
  Both Brabhams finished in the points at the Swiss Grand Prix which, despite its official title, was held at the Dijon-Prenois circuit in France.  Here Patrese, having qualified in third, opted to run nonstop and finished in fifth. Piquet, starting from sixth on the grid, failed to benefit from running light as his car was fitted with tyres that were too hard. He was only just able to stay ahead of his teammate at the end of the race in fourth place. This proved to be the last race finishes achieved by a BT50; in the Italian Grand Prix both cars retired within a few laps of the race start with clutch problems and a
caption: Piquet in the BT50 at Brands Hatch, the scene of the 1982 British Grand Prix
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