After the drivers’ strike, the season shifted to Brazil, where Piquet won, but was disqualified because his Brabham was underweight. This wouldn’t be new, as there were a lot of differences between the engines and the teams took advantage of any gaps to regain ground.
“We tried all kinds of stuff,” Blash admits. “It was cheating, honestly. We had special seats. So in qualifying the driver used one seat. Then on the last lap it was changed to another so heavy that it took two mechanics to carry it. With the fairing it was the same.. I needed about four to change. A guy from Martini, who was sponsoring us, once asked why even when there was a lot of wind our fairing did not fly. He thought that we had a problem”, laughs the former director of Braham.
By this time, Ecclestone was becoming stronger politically among the teams. And that gave Brabham some power. “He was as bad as any of us. He even gave us some ideas.”
But Blash knows Brabham wasn’t alone. “We know Williams and Tyrrell were doing similar things. And everyone was trying. Maybe we were more extreme.”
One of the most famous tricks was to use a tank on one side of the car. To pass the inspections, this tank was always full, and the teams said that the liquid would be used to cool the brakes. “Imagine putting 60kg on one side of the car, that would make the car ‘indictable’. Of course that water escaped and hid the underweight car. tank back to normal,” says Piola.
“Total troublemaker. Alcohol aficionado. Social media specialist. Friendly travel nerd.”
