When BMW added fuel to the fire

Brabham and BMW had a secret weapon in the locker as the battle for the Formula 1 World Championship unfolded through 1983. It waited, waited, waited before deploying a development that ultimately set Nelson Piquet on course for the first title won by a turbocharged F1 car. It was a new blend of fuel that gave the in-line turbo four in the back of the Brabham BT52 a major increase in horsepower, with improved reliability to boot.

Piquet had scored an out-of-the-box victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix in March with the barely tested, Gordon Murray-designed BT52, but the combination of Brabham chassis and BMW engine was absent from the winner’s circle through the summer. Yet by the season’s end, the car, now in B-spec, was without doubt the fastest thing in the F1 field. Piquet would have had a good shot at winning the Dutch GP at Zandvoort but for his controversial clash with championship rival Alain Prost’s Renault and