page_title: Brabham BT50
section_title: Canadian Grand Prix
hierarchical_section_title: Brabham BT50 / Race history / Canadian Grand Prix
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Collectie / Archief&#160;: Fotocollectie Anefo Reportage / Serie&#160;: [ onbekend ] Beschrijving&#160;: Grand Prix van Nederland te Zandvoort; no. 2 Riccardo Patrese, no. 28 Didier Pironi in aktie Datum&#160;: 3 juli 1982 Locatie&#160;: Noord-Holland, Zandvoort Trefwoorden&#160;: autoraces Persoonsnaam&#160;: Riccardo Patrese, Didier Pironi, grand Prix van Nederland Fotograaf&#160;: Dijk, Hans van / Anefo Auteursrechthebbende&#160;: Nationaal Archief Materiaalsoort&#160;: Negatief (zwart/wit) Nummer archiefinventaris&#160;: bekijk toegang 2.24.01.05 Bestanddeelnummer&#160;: 932-2347
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 Driven by Nelson Piquet and Riccardo Patrese, it made its debut at the South African Grand Prix before being withdrawn for further development of its engine while the team reverted to the previous year's car, the Brabham BT49.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: Serious consideration was given to running only a single BT50 for Piquet at the following Canadian Grand Prix with his spare car being a BT49 although ultimately this did not eventuate.  After an initial scare when Piquet suffered a misfire within two laps of starting the first practice session, Brabham's fortunes suddenly improved. Having qualified fourth, just over a second slower than Didier Pironi's Ferrari 126C2 on pole,  Piquet moved into second place from the start and then into the lead on lap 9 and, on a day when the cool conditions suited the turbocharged engines, never relinquished it to record BMW's first Formula One victory. It was a Brabham one-two, for Patrese, still in the BT49, finished second. 
  Piquet followed this performance up with second place at the next race, in Holland (having qualified third). Patrese, now also in the BT50, finished 15th, from tenth on the grid. The improvement in performance in Canada and Holland coincided with BMW revising the fuel mix control, a change that Piquet noted brought the behaviour of the BMW engine in line with the Cosworth DFV.
caption: Patrese dueling with Didier Pironi's Ferrari at the Dutch Grand Prix
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