How did it feel when you’d finally gotten the Brabham name back where it belonged?
“It was a massive relief more than anything during that long 7-year process, as it took a long time until it was registered in my name. So that was the only time where I felt that I could truly celebrate. We won our first hearing when there was an appeal, and everyone was getting excited. But I felt that we couldn’t celebrate, until I knew that we really had it back.”
How surprised were you when it came how much response and funding came through for Project Brabham, when it was first announced officially on Mid Week Motorsport? And how did the genesis of the project come about?
“What we are doing here is a new idea, when it comes to going racing, as we did a lot of research beforehand and asked people for their opinions. Their feedback was really positive, so we were confident that do well, but the response that we’ve had is quite phenomenal, to be honest. My emails were going ballistic over the first 2 days, which saw £40,000 raised by those that were investing into the scheme.
"This is a combination of two things. Firstly, the Brabham name coming back means a lot to people. But we are also doing it in a way that we can engage with people and create learning environments for drivers and engineers. Motorsport is just a fantastic area to be able to do that, and I felt that we could do it in a different way to everyone else with a new model. Crowd-funding is the first stage of that to engage and to be a part of what we are doing. It’s a journey where we are recreating one of the most iconic names in sport, with Brabham coming back to the grid.”
How were you able to determine going via the sportscar route, starting with LMP2 ahead of becoming a potential LMP1 constructor in 2018, especially with the way F1 is currently?
“It’s a combination of what series are out there and the model that we are doing, and the WEC allows us to do that. They’re very keen for us to be in the championship. LMP2 is a series I know well and I’ve been in it a long time. We can buy a car and get the team up and running. From there we can start developing a LMP1 car for the future, and hopefully one day we can possibly see us back in Formula 1.”
Will we see any retro inspired liveries like your Dad used to run, or in the black and white we saw in the 1990s?
“Well, that’s a good question actually. In terms of what we’ll look like, we don’t really know yet. We want to obviously keep some history there, as we have the gold and green of Dad’s era, as well as the blue and white of Bernie and Nelson Piquet’s era. We don’t want to go back to that era, but what it is will be a part of the engagement, which we want to have with our community and followers. We want to show them what we are doing and how we are doing it, as well as giving them the chance to vote on what their favourite is.”